today on "inside politics." a major breakthrough on hostage gerkss. israel's war cabinet is meeting right now on a deal with hamas to free about 50 of the 237 people being held captive. it's been 45 days since hostages mostly innocent civilians were taken by hamas on the jewish sabbath. taken during an attack on israel when terrorists raped women and murdered families. more than a thousand people that day. for each spared that fate and instead taken hostage, the unknown and the wait is extrushuating for their families. now we are told an announcement of the deal that will allow some of the hostages to come home could be eminent. president biden addressed that moments ago. >> we're now very close. you could bring some of the hostages home very soon. but i don't want to get into the details of things because nothing is done until it's done. and we have more to say. but things are looking good. >> cnn is covering the story if all angles. orrin len liebermann is tel avi. mj lee is at the white house. i want to start with you. that was pretty remarkable moment from the president of the united states to lean that far into where he thinks that this negotiation is right now. >> yeah, that's right. you heard the president saying that we are very close to a deal and that echoes what sources have been telling cnn all morning. that the u.s., israel and hamas are on the cusp of announcing this deal and it could come as early as today. i was in the room when the president made those remarks. i did try to ask him at the end how many americans he believes maybe among the 50 hostages. he said i'll have plenty of time to talk, but declining to go into any of the details. and i'll let him speak to the contours of the potential deal, but at least for the biden administration, this has been an you are priority trying to get the hostages out because they believe there are at least a handful of american citizens in the mix in gaza being held by hamas. and now what u.s. officials are saying is that they are hopeful that 3-year-old american citizen abigail adan will be among the 50 hostages initially released. she's the youngest known american hostage. her parents were killed by hamas, so this is a tenuous situation. but this 3-year-old american toddler will hopefully be in the mix of the 50 hostages. we have seen u.s. officials working around the clock to try to secure this deal over the last few weeks. the president has been on the phone with prime minister benjamin netanyahu, president of the egypt, and other top u.s. officials have been traveling in the region as well. but it's important to underscore if this deal were to come to fruition, this is not only significant because of the release of hostages, but because this would mark the first sustained pause in fighting and the first major deescalatory step that israel will be taking really since is the war first began. >> mj, thank you so much for that report ing. let's get more specific about what sources are telling us this deal may include. the release of 50 women and children, and in exchange, there will be a four or five-day pause in fighting. now three palestinian prisoners would be swapped for each civilian israeli hostage or other hostage being released by hamas. israel would stop flying surveillance drones over gaza for at least six hours each day. i want to go to oren liebermann about what is happening. the government is meeting. what are you hearing about how that meeting is going and whether or not they will approve of this deal? >> reporter: this is all part of a legal and political process required to approve such a deal and that is to approve the release of palestinian prisoners, women and children. so the first part is the war cabinet is a small group of people including benjamin netanyahu. that will lead straight into a meeting of the security cabinet, that's a slightly larger group. then the full cabinet itself. that's the government. it needs to be approved that each one of those stages for this deal to go through. that's critical because two partners in benjamin netanyahu's governing coalition have already put out statements saying they will oppose this deal. and that could scuttle it. if they want it to go to the extreme, they could topple benjamin netanyahu's government. but speaking to one of the families, they received an assurance from one of the other critical members of the government that if this deal is put forward, it will get approved. that gives them a critical bit of confidence that having gotten to this point where we see the process in israel begin to approve a hostage deal in exchange and an agreement with hamas that would see them free israeli and other hostages potentially, that it will get over the line. that's what they are looking to now. and that's important because the families have heard reports and rumors that something is about to happen. but if you speak with them, they believe there's something far more tangible here, something pal possible and real, if they haven't gotten word from the government. these three meetings expected tonight are not the end of the process. there's then a 24-hour window in which there can be appeals a the supreme court against this. that will take its time as that runs its course. but from the indications we're seeing here, the government, feeling confident. we'll keep you posted as it moves into the subsequent meetings. >> so that's the process, which is important. the politics there are critically important. now let's talk about the people. do we know anything about the conditions of the hostages, specifically the women and children on that list of 50 who are hopefully going to be released. >> reporter: the answer is we simply don't. we know little about the hostages held in gaza. and that has been ab incredible source of frustration. in fact, a little information we do know ha has only come out from the izy military when it found theed bos and brought them out. there were several hostages released early on, but that was weeks ago, if not more than a month ago. in terms of who is coming out, the 50 women and children, we know a at this point almost nothing except that little bit. on the flip side, we don't know anything about the 150 palestinian women and children set to be released as part of this exchange. so in terms of the details, really the nitty-gritty of this, we're still waiting for that. the families of the hostages still waiting to find out if their loved ones are on that list. >> thank you so much for that reporting. and this potential breakthrough in the hostage negotiations comes a day after the families of hostages met in israel with the war cabinet there. emotional calls to bring the hostages home, that's what happened in those meetings. we heard similar emotion from one of the family members of a young girl that mj was talking about. she's 3 years old. she's being held in gaza. this is her great aunt speaking to cnn this morning. >> these people have been in the dark for 45 days. abigail is a beautiful child, who wants to run around and play soccer with her brother and sister. and she hasn't. able to run around in a 45 days. i don't know where she is. we don't know. she should be home with her family and with her sister and brother. she isn't right now. i'm not a politician. i'm not a diplomat. i will believe it when i see them walk out to be driven out, and they are free. >> let's talk more about the impact of the potential deal. i want to bring in our panel. the editor in chief of the jerusalem post, susan glasser and alex marquardt. we just heard a the lot of emotion from abigail's aunt. i'm sure you're hearing something similar from so many people who are in israel waiting to hear from the government about the fate of their loved ones. what is your latest reporting? let's just start with what we heard from oren on whether the government is going to approve this deal to allow at least those 50 to come home. >> as your correspondent said, there's some opposition within the government, particularly concern about what the deal might look like, what cost israel might have to pay in order to release these hostages. we know that in the past, terrorist who is have been released from prisons have returned to the circle of t terror. some were responsible for the atrocities on october 7th. so there's some concern within israel and particularly within the government that might happen again. there's also concern that hamas might use the four or five days to regroup and rearm and prepare for the continuation of its assault against israel. nevertheless, i think it's farly clear this will pass the cabinet. we will see whether there will be appeals. i expect those will likely fail, and this deal will go through. >> alex, take us inside more of your reporting. you, along with your colleagues, have been so up front on this, proptlyappropriately cautious, bullseye on what's happening around the contours of this deal could not be more complicated when it comes to all of the factors that have to go into this. including what avi was just talking about, which is convincing the israeli people that a pause for days on fighting, which the idf has been telling them and telling the world is not possible because it would allow hamas to reconstitute, is okay because they need to get these hostages home. >> israel has been clear from the the beginning that if there were to be a pause, hamas would have to deliver. there would have to be a large group of hostages released. and now we are told that the agreement is that it would be 50 hostages over the course of 4 to 5 days, so around a dozen per day. i think one of the questions that we really have now is what does the situation look like beyond that? we're told there's a possibility that more hostages could be released in the subsequent days, if all goes well. that the pause could be extended. you could see several dozen more, perhaps, who could be released. we have gotten a good sense of what this agreement looks like. i think the ownous is on iz ra real to approve it. hamas, for their part has agreed to those terms. this was mediated by qatar and by the united states. but beyond the terms that we understand, what is the conflict going to look like after. after six or seven days, is israel going to go back to fighting with hamas? is that pause going to end? we have major questions about the conditions that these prisoners are in. we understand that these 50, at least, are alife. that's an assurance from hamas. take that with a grain of salt. but we don't know what the remaining 190, what condition they are in. i think that goes to the point that even if there's this pause, even if this large group of women and children it is released, you're going to have at least 80% of the prisoner who is are still being held by hamas. and then the fighting could pick up once again. >> and susan glasser, this is "inside politics," so let's look at the political reality on the ground, as we speak, in israel. there are fprotests going on of people demanding that the hostages are released, that these negotiations be completed, and that the war cabinet approves what is going on right now. that is very, very real, very raw. >> that's right. there's pressures from both sides. there's pressures from the families who want the hostages released, from benjamin netanyahu's coalition partners, on the opposite side. this is a very unusual situation where the people of israel have rallied around the cause of this war ever since october 7th. but they have not rattle lid around their leader benjamin netanyahu. that's a very unusual situation. he is a very weakened figure politically, so one question is what could happen? is it possible that his government could unravel in the course of the war? i think that remains a question mark. benjamin netanyahu is extremely unpopular across a broad swath of the population, which blames him for the attack and what led up to it. that's a reality that we'll see a little bit more clearly over the next 24 to 48 hours. whether this takes an additional political toll on an already weakened wartime lead er of israel. >> such good points. thank you so much to all of you. we're going to stay on top of this breaking news. we're going to take a closer look at what the potential hostage deal means here in the u.s. for president biden and the white house. welcome back to "inside politics." i want to bring our political panel in to break down this discussion. as we're waiting for what we are told could be an eminent hostage deal, joining me now is pbs' laura ra lopez and frank foyer. you wrote a biography of president biden. you understand him extremely well, based on all jyour terrifc reporting. this is such an interesting moment for him because he is so confident in his dedication to supporting israel and not heeding to the calls by many in his party for a cease-fire, but it's taken a toll politically on him. >> yeah, i think back to the pull out from afghanistan, which was a similar moment where we're in foreign policy terrain, where president biden is confident about his ability to navigate a difficult position. in that instance, he had the weight of conventional wisdom bearing down on him telling him he was botching things and he refused to cave or -- in any sorlt of way, panderer to that opinion. something similar is happening here. and i think to potentially his credit, it belies some of the criticism that he's a disengaged old guy with the staff pulling all the strings. because there have been reported instances of him being intentioned where they want the him to back down somewhat, and hoo he's refused to do so. >> disengaged, but on this issue, a the lot of issues, people would be wrong to say that these changed. maybe disinterested in the growing opposition, maybe that's okay. and disinterested maybe is the wrong word. but pushing back on and keeping his focus is maybe the better way to describe it. and when i talk about growing opposition, i'm talking about a poll like this. the question from the latest nbc poll was his handling of the israel/hamas war. this is all registered voters. 34% disapprove. he's well aware of that. >> he is. his administration is well aware, the campaign is well aware, even though he hasn't fully gone out there to campaign in earnest yet, he won't until early next year, but despite that. officials say we are not governing by polls, and this is something to the point that president biden is lead ing fro the top on this. this is a position he holds dearly in terms of strong support for israel, them having the right to defend themselves and he's not going to change that position. one thing that i've known not covering president biden as long as frank, but still quite awhile, he doesn't tend to go back on those decisions. on this one, he's going to, too, but young voters in particular, if you break down those polls further, are not happy with the president's position on this specific war. they want to see him talk more about the toll on civilians in gaza. they want a cease-fire, and that's not something he sports. skbr we're going to hear more about that from the gruound. john king did a piece on that. that will be later in the show. on the growing pressure, some opposition, but growing pressure. it's kind of bumping up zut thely, but if you take it in totality it's a lot. one example, the senators, you see them there. >> we talked about the emotional connection that biden feels with israel. and interestingly, i think part of the generational divide is when biden was a younger person, they were much more deeply interconnected and israel was an underdog nation. he grew up in the is sha.net of the holocaust and that's the way he thinks about everything. but the second thing is that biden also has a strategy for how he will handle benjamin netanyahu and the israelis and he's not going to -- he believes in that strategy because he believes it will ultimately be the most effective way to help both israel accomplish its aims, but also to limit the conflict. i don't think that criticism or poll numbers are going to cause him to be dislodged from that strategy. >> i think that one other thing that as they get closer to fully campaigning, they are going to i try to do is to show the alternative, show what former president trump is saying, which is that he would constitute or extend the muslim ban. that he would actually bar refugees from gaza come ing int the united states. we're going to see him draw that contrast. >> you adopt like me, wait for the other guy to get in here. interesting. thank you so much to both of you. and i mentioned that frank has a great book on the president. it's really great. i encourage you to read it. we continue our breaking news coverage on the question of when, if, but also when that deal to release about 50 hostages could come out. it could be as soon as this afternoon eastern time. we're going to speak to a former iz rattly national security adviser a about ththese developments after a short break. more on the breaking news. israel's war cabinet is deciding whether to approve a deal to release some of the 239 hostages kidnapped by hamas during the terror attack in october. prime minister benjamin netanyahu sounded optimistic just moment bfrs going into the meeting. >> translator: the goal, the return of the kidnapped. we are making progress. i don't think it's worth saying more, even at this moment, but i hope there will be good news soon. >> becky anderson is in doha, talking to sources who are are very much involved in making this deal happen. what what are you hearing at this hour? >> reporter: mediators have been involved from the very outset over weeks of complex negotiations. they are mediating these talks between hamas on the one side and israel on the other, who are not in direct negotiations. what i have been told by a diplomatic source very familiar with these talks is qatarer hopes to announce a deal in the very near future. we are talking about hours at this point, if not less than that. we doe no the israelis are gathering their war cabinet and then the details will be put in front of the government. at that stage, if it's agreed upon, there will be an announcement on the release in the first phases of 50 hostages, mostly women and children. in fact, all women and children in this first phase. and i'm being told it will be mostly children israelis and some duel nationals potentially. this is in exchange for palestinian women and teenagers held in israeli prisons. for every one hostage released in gaza, there will be released from israeli prison. so those are the parameters of this deal. names, at this it point, are not available. but multiple sources telling us this is a four-day truce. and i use that term very specifically. this is not a cease-fire. this is a truce in the gaza strip. the pillar is the hostage release. it also includes the industry of some 300 trucks of aid. the israelis in this agreement are to stop their ground operations for this period of four to five days. at periods during the day, will stop flying surveillance drones. so this is a truce agreement brokered byqatar with the suppo of the united states between israel and hamas. expect to see the first phase released in groups. should it hold, should this truce hold, there's a very good likelihood there would be another phase of this almost immediately, which will allow for the release of another 50 hostages. this is not all the hostages. we know that. we're talking about probably around 100 in this agreement. the families who got young men, soldiers still being held or held by hamas in gaza, this is going to be very disappointing. but it's a big breakthrough. the first breakthrough since the conflict began. it's certainly a start as far as those involved in these talks are concerned. >> i'm sure our viewers can