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>> reporter: effectively depends on how long the debate inside the full cabinet meeting goes. that's expected some time in the next few hours and, perhaps even sooner than that. we are at the final stage of this process from the israeli legal and political perspective. we're through the very small war cabinet meeting. we're through the larger security cabinet meeting. now we're at the full cabinet meeting, which includes all the ministers and other members that have to make a decision here. it doesn't have to be unanimous, if i'm not mistaken. it simply needs to be a majority there. from everything we're seeing, everything we're hearing, it will have a majority vote. there are some far right parties within the coalition that have come out against it but they don't have the numbers to sink this agreement. we saw a video released from the israeli prime minister's office in which netanyahu made a strong case to have this approved. he called a pause in the fighting would be a difficult decision but said it was the right decision. all the security bodies within israel, the israeli fbi, the military and other security bodies have all approved this step and they support it, even though it involves a pause in the fighting. as you pointed out we also learned from inside the cabinet meeting that netanyahu told the other members of the cabinet that the red cross will be able to visit the 190 or so hostages who will not be released. that has been a key demand from the very beginning since international law requires the ability for red cross visits. we expect a vote soon. we expect the results soon. it looks like this is moving forward. >> please stand by. we have cnn's alex marquardt with us as well. you've been reporting on the contours of this deal. what are some of the specifics? >> we should note, guys, this deal will not be finalized until israel agrees to it. oren just laid that out perfectly. so, we are waiting for israel to officially confirm that they are going ahead with this. we have a statement from the qatari government saying the proposal, the outline was given to the israelis in the early hours of this morning. they are awaiting the results of the israeli government's vote on the proposal. when this is agreed to, we will expect an announcement from the israelis and qataris, the main mediators when it comes to these weeks of hostage negotiations. what do we expect next? there will be, if this plan goes ahead, four to five days of a pause in the fighting. that will give time to hamas to round up this group of, we believe, 50 hostages that they've been holding for more than a month now. and release them. so, this will probably be taking place on a rolling basis, say, ten to a dozen per day. there is also a chance that if things go according to plan, if things go well and there are no violations in this agreement, that the pause could be extended by several days, that more hostages could be released. we have been given assurances, we have heard there are assurances given by hamas that this group of 50 are all alive. that is a big question. of the 236 being held by hamas, we don't know who's alive and who's dead. the other major component of this is this is an exchange, a prisoner exchange. so, if 50 come out, around 150, we understand, palestinian prisoners being held by israel and israeli prisons will be released at the same time. a three to one ratio. we've seen previous israeli prisoner swaps with hamas that were far bigger than that. one person for more than 1,000. if more hostages get released beyond these 50, you can imagine that more palestinians in israeli prisons will also be released. there's a question about aid going into gaza. hamas has asked for hundreds of trucks of aid per day. it sounds like the various authorities are trying to figure out the implementation, the mechanism. >> the 1,000 prisoners, enormous amount of concern inside israel who you release. there's an enormous amount of pressure, public pressure, not just from families of hostages but from others in israel to get them their freedom, get them to safety. you travel around israel, you see their faces everywhere you go. you've been speaking with family members of this potential deal. i wonder, what's their response been? >> reporter: well, you see, i'm right in the middle of tel aviv right now, outside the museum of art where there is a -- virtually what's become a permanent kind of protest, if you like, or memorial to the 236 people that are still hostage inside gaza. you see this big table laid out behind me. there are children's places, adult places. every place representing one of the people that is held still inside gaza. it's a place of pilgrimage as well. where the families of those hostages, their friends, just supporters from israel come to pay their respects and to put pressure as much as possible on the government to do what it can to secure the release of those people. you can imagine, there are very mixed feelings here tonight because, although people are to some extent excited, that it could be a release of 50 or more hostages, that this deal goes through, as looks likely. there's also sort of business weakness to it because everybody here knows that even though 50 plus may be released, there's still going to be a lot more, many more israelis, many more others that will still be held hostage inside gaza as well. so, people are very disturbed by that ongoing trauma that has deeply affected people in this country, particularly here in central tel aviv where people are paying their respects and sort of making a pilgrimage to pay their respects to this location. there's a lot of criticism as well, jim, about the way the israeli government under benjamin netanyahu conducted this operation, prioritized the rescue or the release of these hostages. many people here i've spoken to saying, look, the emphasis is on destroying hamas, not on freeing israelis. it should have been the other way around. we should have got our people out first and then done whatever you like with hamas, is what people are saying to me here tonight. nevertheless, some people, again, obviously many people here, everybody, very happy that some people soon could see freedom. >> that's the brutal arithmetic to this that some people will get relief and many more will not. matthew chance in tel aviv, thank you. we want to dig deeper with a former hostage negotiator and middle east director for the international communities organization 37 joining us now is gershan baskin. you helped radio negotiate that deal. is there any doubt in your mind that this is going to get through the full cabinet and potentially how soon can we see hostages released? >> it will definitely get through the cabinet. there will be a majority vote. it won't be unanimous. we're all supporting it and the head of the intelligence authorities in israel are supporting it. it will go through the cabinet. it will take another days of logistics to get it done. there's a legal procedure in israel that has to happen where names of prisoners on a website and people can submit objections to it. the supreme court never intervenes in these cases so we just need to see the logistics on the ground with the red cross and egyptians helping facilitate the release of the hostages, and eventually the release of the prisoners, who i imagine will be released to the west bank and not to gaza. >> it strikes me that you told cnn this morning that this is essentially the same deal that you proposed during the first week of the war. why do you think it's moving forward now? how much has to do with that internal political pressure that matthew chance was just describing by the hostage families? >> i think that's part of it. israel is really in the hands of the hamas. hamas is the deciding body. they decided how many they would release and under what terms. the israelis could either say yes or no. the israelis were hesitating over most of this past week because they didn't like some aspects of the deal. in particular, aspects of the cease-fire or the pause in the fighting, requirements to stop drone surveillance over gaza, some other aspects of the deal. they pushed back. and the americans pushed hard on the qataris and the egyptians were also working behind the scenes. these kind of deals just take time until the sides are ready to make it. galid shalit was six months after he was abducted and it took five years before the sides were ready to sign the deal and get it done. >> you mentioned the interpretation and intelligence gathering by the idf. how seriously do you think that can have an impact on israel's goal of eradicating hamas? >> i don't think it will have much of an impact. the aim is for hamas to be able to move the hostages out without having their places of hiding be known to the israelis. this does not mean the israelis won't still be watching and collecting intelligence information. there is a necessary redeployment of israeli forces during the pause or the cease-fire. in any event, the israelis have to pull back from some of the places they've already taken. i'm sure it's not that big a deal. there's a massive amount of israeli soldiers and army materials in the gaza strip. and after this is done, as many hostages are out as possible in this deal, the israelis will proceed further south to attack the main areas where the hamas leadership and military commands are hiding. >> there is concern, you mention the release of ga lid shalit in 2007. some of those terrorists who were released wound out carrying terrorist attacks. how close do you think israel is going to monitor those prisoners 150 or so palestinian prisoners, mostly women and people under the age of 18, how closely are they going to be watched by the israelis? >> i think a number will be watched very carefully. amongst them, they're all from the west bank. there are no really important hamas people. there are none that have killed israelis, although several have tried. and i think those people will be watching very carefully. let's realize there's nothing to prevent israel from rearresting them once this deal is done or once all the hostages are out that israel can negotiate their release. there's also, should they engage in terrorism, there's no problem for israel to actually take care of them permanently. >> sure. i'm also wondering whether you think this potential cease-fire from four to five days, according to our reporting, how likely do you think it is to hold and how much does iran's influence on hamas decide that ultimately? >> i think iran is not having direct influence on hamas in this deal. no doubt iran supported hamas and trained them and provided money and weapons, but hamas is not a push button operation that iran tells them what to do. they're really independent in their actions and what they will do. whether they will keep to the cease-fire, this is a big question. israel has to be on guard. the army will be sitting inside of gaza in very vulnerable positions and they need to be careful. there's no trust between the two sides. israel doesn't trust hamas, hamas doesn't trust israel. there are no third-party peacekeepers on the ground to keep these parties separate and protect them. everyone's going to be watching. there's an interest in getting this done. hamas wants prisoners freed and they want to get to a bigger deal once they negotiate the israeli soldiers and they will demand much more from israel in terms of prisoner release at that time. >> we have to leave the conversation there. we very much appreciate your perspective. >> thank you. >> we have much more on this potentially imminent hostage deal after a quick break. stay w with cnn. as we're watching what's happening in the middle east, cnn learned the u.s. has fired on and killed hostile forces in iraqi. the strike followed an attack on u.s. and coalition forces at an air base in rack. >> iraq. >> it's not the first of those. natasha, first of all, those attacks have been racking up. i believe 64 to date on u.s. forces in iraq and syria. in this one our understanding is these forces used a close-range ballistic missile. exactly how big of a munition are we talking about here? >> reporter: yeah, pretty large escalation here. we don't know how large the munition is but the u.s. says it did not cause much damage and there were not significant injuries from it. previously, to put this in context, these iran-backed militia had been using small rockets and drones to launch on u.s. and coalition bases across iraq and syria. so using a close range missile is certainly an escalation here. the u.s. has been responding to these attacks. we're told by deputy press secretary earlier today that the attack the u.s. launched on a vehicle in iraq was in direct response to that ballistic mifl attack yesterday. they launched this on a vehicle believed to carry out these attacks that killed a number of militants inside the car. however, it is unclear just how many of those militants were killed. it really follows a series of strikes that the u.s. has conducted in the region in syria as well to try to deter these groups from attacking u.s. forces again. clearly, it hasn't worked. as you mentioned, jim, these iran-backed militias have carried out 64 attacks to date against u.s. and coalition bases and it has resulted in scores of injuries among u.s. personnel, including two dozen traumatic brain injuries. the question now that the u.s. continues to face is whether its approach is working in terms of striking these iran-backed groups in an effort to deter them from launching future attacks and degrade their infrastructure and military capabilities. it does not appear like they are backing down at this point. and the u.s. has repeatedly warned iran it expects iran to rein in their proxy groups. clearly, iran is not getting these messages or these proxy groups are continuing their attacks, thinking they'll be unable to be deterred because they still have, of course, these capabilities, jim. >> serious risk of escalation by those in the region. thank you for the reporting. we still have much more on our breaking news ahead. the israeli government meeting to consider a hostage deal with hamas as fighting conditions in northern gaza. we'll bring you the latest straight ahead. ( ♪♪ ) welcome to big tobacco's fantasyland. the industry's idea of a healthier tomorrow. where vapes are deemed safer. nevermind that they'll increase your risk of lung cancer. and they're anti-aging. because you're more likely to die younger from a stroke. in big tobacco's fantasyland, the deadliest industry can rebrand itself as your friend. a hamas official is describing this time as, quote, critical moments. this is the terror group on the verge with israel of a deal to exchange dozens of survivors kidnapped on october 7th back to israel. the full israeli cabinet has been meeting for more than an hour, discussing this possible exchange. hamas is not doing this for free. they want something in return. >> during this delicate discussion, explosions were felt in gaza. we have jeremy diamond with us. we just heard details of what benjamin netanyahu said to the full israeli cabinet, including saying that the war will continue. >> reporter: that's right, boris. as the israeli prime minister made the case to his cabinet at the beginning of this meeting to support this deal that could potentially see 50 hostages freed from gaza in exchange for a four to five-day pause in the fighting and also the release of three palestinian prisoners for every one civilian hostage, the israeli prime minister also making very clear to his cabinet, which includes a lot of right-wing elements, that this war, which is still ongoing, will continue after the pause in the fighting ends. the israeli prime minister making clear that the war will continue so long -- until, rather, until every single israeli hostage is returned to israel and until israel meets its goals to destroy hamas inside the gaza strip. the israeli prime minister is also arguing this is a difficult decision for the cabinet, but he says it is the right decision. he said that all of the security establishments in israel supports this. he also talked about his conversations in recent days with u.s. president joe biden, saying that he spoke to president biden and asked him to help improve the terms of the deal and bebe netanyahu arguing that was successful. this deal comes at a lower price than the one that was being contemplated nearly just days ago. what is also clear is that if the war will continue after this truce is over, it is also continuing right now. throughout the day today we have been hearing explosions. we have seen smoke screens being deployed indicating active fighting still ongoing in the northern part of the gaza strip. >> you've been speaking with families, boris, any time you speak to families of hostages, it's just gutting, difficult, frightful several weeks they've been through. now, some have hope they might see their loved one again. what are the families saying to you about the outlines of this potential deal. >> this has been an emotional roller coaster for so many of these families. for weeks they have been reading news reports about this potential deal. they have seen the different parameters that have been discussed. they have waited and watched to see whether their loved ones would be part of this exchange. even still tonight as i spoke a few hours ago with the families of people who have -- with people who have family in gaza, notably children in gaza, and therefore could likely benefit from this deal, pe still don't know whether their family members, these children will be part of that deal. i spoke in particular with the family of shira, her cousin -- she was taken hostage with her two young children who are 10 months old and 4 years old. her cousin, told me tonight, we want to hold them in our arms and then i'll be able to say they're home. until that happens, she doesn't want to get her hopes up too high that her family will be part of the latest deal. >> we can only hope that all of them get that good news at some point. we hope that some of them get it in the next several hours. thanks so much. still to come on "news central," the egyptian government says 12 of those premature babies evacuated from gaza were in very