this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to the lead, everyone. we start with breaking news at any moment a deal could be reached to release some hostages taken from israel by hamas on october 7th. right now, the full israeli cabinet is meeting to give what is believed to be a final approval of the deal. just moments ago israeli prime minister benning anyone netanyahu asked the cabinet to support the deal and reminded the world we are at war and will continue at war. >> out of 240 people kidnapped by hamas 50 would be release. hostages will be visited by the red cross. three palestinian prisoners in israel will be freed for every civilian hostage released. it also calls for a four to five day pause in fighting. the majority of hostages who would be released in this deal is children. one is a 3-year-old, the youngest american held hostage whose parents were killed by hamas. her great aunt spoke to cnn today and was understandably emotional at the prospect of seeing her niece come home. >> when i think about that on friday is abigail's 4th birthday and that she should be home with her family and her sister and brother and she is not right now. it's just like you get your emotions, you have to keep them in check. >> the lead has this covered across the globe. cnn is in washington. becky anderson is in doha but let's start in tel aviv. so a deal is said to be eminent. what do we know? >>reporter: as you pointed out, the main points here are the exchange of hostages for prisoners. 50 israeli hostages, women and children. mostly children in exchange at a 3 to 1 ratio for 150 palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails. once again, women and children. the release wouldn't be all at once. it would be about ten a day playing out over the four to five day pause in the fighting. it's unclear if the palestinian prisoners would also be released that way or if that would happen all at once. the prime minister is right now leading a cabinet meeting to try to get this over the line. there's a long legal and political process they have to go to. first the war cabinet which is a very small group around netanyahu that's done already and then the security cabinet is done but now it's the full cabinet where some of the far right coalition have come out and said they oppose this deal. still, netanyahu made the argument that even with the pause in fighting it is the right decision here to bring home that first group of hostages promising the fighting will continue. according to his office which released a statement a short time ago, part of this agreement was that the red cross would be able to visit and provide medicine to the hostages who remain in gaza. that was a big demand of families of hostages who have said international law requires a red cross visit in any negotiation make sure this happen so netanyahu's office saying they have delivered on this. there's one other part here. a 24-hour window in which you can file appeals with the supreme court to try to stop this deal but right now netanyahu pushing this forward quickly. >> can you tell us more about the temporary pause in fighting? there are legitimate concerns that hamas might use this as an opportunity. hamas made it clear there would be no release of hostages unless there was a pause in fighting. the key question here is what does each side get out of this. netanyahu says security officials have supported the deal here and say they're okay with the pause in the fighting. meanwhile, what hamas got out of this is for six hours israel won't fly surveillance drones over gaza allowing them to move around the hostage as and bring them out of gaza but lets them relocate their forces and prepare for the day when the pause in fighting is over. now it is worth noting that if this works out if this goes well it's potential for a longer pause in exchange for more hostages released but at the moment that's still quite far down the road. the ongoing debate in the full cabinet right now an israeli official said that could go until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. that's another three to four hours from now until we have a final answer. >> thank you. let's go now to becky anderson who is in qatar. qatar playing a large role in negotiations here approving this deal already. if israel signs off on it is it complete? >> that is our understanding. i got a statement from the mediation team just a little earlier today just about an hour or so ago. let me read out what it said because i think this will speak very much to your question. the proposal for a humanitarian pause on the release of hostages was delivereded to the israeli side in material hours of this morning. it is now midnight. this came after weeks of continuous negotiations. the state of qatar is awaiting the result of the israeli government's vote on the proposal. i was told by a diplomatic source very close to the talks that it is with the advertisely side and that once they get this green lit by advertiselies, they can announce this deal. so the understanding being at this point they need the green light from the advertisely side. hamas has signed off on this and then assuming there is no detail changed, one assumes, this is what the israelis will be discussing at present and they hope there will be agreement on it is a proposal. if that has changed of course all bets are off i guess. no deal is done until it's done but this proposal now sits with the israelis. once that announcement comes, that will trigger the process which as oren described it is this period of pause during which 50 hostages mostly children we're told and 40 children according to the idf being held in gaza by hamas. mostly children will be announced -- released and as we've heard from the prime minister's office, the red cross will be able to get round to those hostages currently being held by hamas as we understand it that's the 50 that we are talking about who will be released in batches as it were and then as hamas gathers more so the red cross will be able to get to see those hostages as well. but at this point it is only 50 to be released in this first four day window. those are details as we understand them today. >> yeah. israel has been pushing for weeks to get the red cross to go in and check on these hostages. becky anderson. thank you. let's go now to our chief national security correspondent. part of the famework for a potential deal involves for every hamas held hostage three palestinian prisoners will also be released. what specifics do we know about those prisoners? >> that's right. this is not just a hostage release. this is a prisoner swap. this is one of hamas' major demands that if they release hostages they need to get palestinian prisoners out of the prisons. if this deal goes according to plan and there's some 50 hostages released we would expect 150 palestinian prisoners, women and children just like those hostages inside ga that to be released from israeli prisons. if more hostages were able to be rounded up we can imagine that we would also see more of these palestinian prisoners released from israeli prisons. the ratio again, one for three for every one hamas he or she stage. you're talking at least 150 palestinian prisoners at the beginning. that could go up to as high as 300 say if another 50 hostages were to be released. now, overall in israeli prisons, there are 8300 palestinian prisoners in the west bank, east gentlemen route lemme proper. the vast majority are men. we're only talking about the release of women and children of which there are just over 460 that could be released by israel. that's 460 women and teens under the anal of 18 years old. one of the major questions is also about the presence of israeli soldiers among those hostages that hamas is holding to what extent down the line hamas will try to trade them and for how many palestinian prisoners no one can forget the 2011 exchange of the israeli soldier. one israeli soldier for more than a thousand palestinian prisoners including the head of hamas in gaza. >> that took years to get that deal done back then. meantime the white house outlined what will happen to the hostages once they are released. what more do we know? >> we have the broad strokes. obviouslying there's a lot to be filled in here but according to john kirby once the agreement is in place and these hostages are on their way out of gaza, they will get safe passage into israel. so they could cross into israel through egypt, that raffa crossing or through a crossing directly into israel. we don't expect hamas and israel to come face-to-face to do this exchange. there will probably be at least one middleman that could be the red cross which we saw being used in previous hostage releases. it could also be egypt. so these prisoners could also go into egypt before going into israel. once they're in israel, we understand that they would immediately get medical attention. remember, these hostages have been held for six and a half weeks in what the white house called abhorrent conditions so they will get immediate medical conditions. some could have long term medical needs and then because many of them we understand are dual nationals the question then becomes how to get them home if they want to go to other countries and the white house is saying that the state department would help american citizens get back to the united states. >> all right. alex, thank you. now to spider marks, retired general, and varak ravid. will we learn the name of the israelis released ahead of time? >> well, i don't know if we're going to learn them but definitely the israeli government is going to know them ahead of time at least ahead of every day of pause. it's going to work like that. in the evening before they are released, the advertisely government will receive a list of something like 12 hostages that are going to be released on the next day. and this will happen again and again and again until all the 50 hostages will be released. i'm not sure the israeli public or the world at large will know their identities ahead of their release. >> do you know if their families will be told by the government? >> i don't know. i suspect that once the israeli government knows exactly who will be released, they will notify their families because there's a whole process that will have to happen. again, as alex said, they will be taken to several hospitals that were designated and i guess families informed that they should meet them there so i think that's sort of what we're going to see. they're going to notify the families and then maybe those things will leak out. >> yeah. especially given that so many of them will be children getting the families involved as soon as possible. it is paramount. also varak, what about the palestinian prisoners released? we know they cannot include anyone charged with murdering an israeli and they include women and children. any other details or insights you're hearing? >> no. i think that's more or less it. and but we are going to know who are those prisoners that will be released because according to israeli law the israeli government needs to publicize those names to the public so that people will be able to appeal to court if they feel that they were harmed by this prisoner or that prisoner being released. so i think that once the cabinet israeli cabinet meeting ends and the advertisely cabinet approves the release, those lists will be made public and 24 hours later, the deal can go ahead and be implemented. >> in that 24 hour period they can appeal to the supreme court per israeli law. spider, we saw earlier today that multiple large explosions over northern gaza took place. is this part of israel's strategy to step up its military campaign before any potential pause in fighting as part of the hostage negotiations? >> i would not characterize it as stepping up the campaign. i would say this is primarily an acceleration so maybe that's the distinction without a difference. they're trying to accelerate to get as many objectives accomplished before they move into this inevitable pause. this is not unexpected. >> do these reactions and scenes like this where the strikes -- to hospitals that are paralyzed complicate any potential negotiations to free these hostages and potentially hopefully future hostages? >> honestly, i think we are in a very sensitive 24-hours now because the pause will only start in 24 hours. even maybe more, 30 hours. this is quite a long period of time where a lot of bad things can happen on the ground and scuttle the whole deal. you know, i can't see a scenario where israel bombs something in gaza an hamas says you know what, you did that, the deal is off. i mean, i can see such a scenario so i think israel will be -- or try to be pretty careful with the targets it's going to strike in the next 30 hours or 24 hours after this deal is implemented. >> spider, part of this hostage deal appears to include a pause in fighting as we've been reporting. do you even think that is feasible? i mean, take, for example, what would happen if israeli forces on the ground. do they remain there and just freeze their activities? how would this work? >> yeah. it's very difficult. this is going to be -- if at this time happens this is going to be a ceasefire that's not going to have a third party, a peacekeeping type of third party that's involved to ensure that both sides follow the rules if it were. the challenge that you have in this particular case is there's no trust between the idf and hamas. you don't anticipate that's going to happen. and you also have 18 and 19-year-old soldiers on the ground that have to make split second decisions and they have the right of self-defense. so they're going to continue to conduct patrols. they're going to continue to protect themselves. but suddenly you're in a circumstance you don't know what's going on. the hours of darkness, something comes rushing by you. and all of a sudden you have an engagement. that has the real potential of escalating and has been indicated could scuttle the deal. and then during the pause, you know, during the pause, the hostage and prisoner transfer could be stopped as well if something were to occur that accelerated it and increased the risk and exposure of both the idf and harm to hamas. >> varak, something you said a couple of days ago as we were leading up to this exact scenario right now and hopefully we're closer than we have been in the past but that was that you can't really rely on the head of hamas' military operations and that he could change his mind at any moment in time. he's not a very stable person as we've come to find out. is there concern that perhaps in this next four to five day period of pausing that could happen indeed? >>. >> i think there's certainly a concern and you need to go back to 2014 when israel had one of the previous wars in gaza, when israel agreed to a ceasefire and did not include release of prisoners but there was a humanitarian ceasefire as they called it back then and during that ceasefire hamas just decided to violate it and attack israeli forces in raffa and kidnap a soldier. i think this lesson in 2014 is not only in ted head of idf commanders but also in the head of netanyahu who was the prime minister then also. every day now is sensitive and the fact that we have here a deal and maybe a pause in the fighting doesn't mean that everything is going to be calm and there are not going to be problems. >> spider, what do you make of this deal to pause for six hours at least any overhead drone surveillance on the part of the advertiselies over gaza? >> i find it hard to believe that israel which has an incredible collection collection capability would agree to that but i got it but you can also conduct operations flying over israeli air space and angle your cameras and hopefully get some imagery intelligence which is what you're getting from a drone with a direct overhead look. but you may be able to continue to gather that intelligence and cover that gap. but the key thing about a pause is that the intelligence gained over the course of operations is now going to atrophy and dilute. the targetable intelligence will no longer be targetable so they'll have to regenerate operations to get back to the same level of intelligence and confidence that they knew where they were going next. >> prime minister netanyahu said this is just a pause and the war will continue. general spider marks, varak, thank you so much. families of kidnapped hostages are anxiously awaiting word how this plays out. plus, the travel rush disrupted by storms hitting major east coast travel hubs. >> we're back with the world lead in what sources call a deal to get some he or she phages held by hamas released. anxious families are of course also closely watching negotiations. >> i think we have had hope along the way and deals have not come through but this feels like it's come the closest and getting to be the most concrete and so you want to kind of not pay attention and hope something good happens but we're paying attention and we are hoping for the best. we know that two far right parties rejected this potential deal calling for one that releases everyone. would you have preferred that or even just the possibility of this limited deal? based on what i understand and it's far above my pay grade that this is what was feasible or possible at this point. so this was not a simple thing to get to and i feel the one thing we should all be able to agree on is that children are not part of war. and if we can get them home as soon as possible that's a good thing for all of us. >> what is your reaction to the news that as part of this deal, the red cross, i believe, will be able to at least visit the first 50 he or she stages agreed to in this deal. does that give you comfort in knowing that maybe if your family is not part of this deal that if this goes well, perhaps next the deal will include the red cross -- that have room in their heart to feel happiness for other families that don't include their own. talk about the community that this horrible club that no one wants to be in but that you have been able to comfort each other with. >> yeah. >> i know rachel and john well and they are heavy on my heart tonight knowing that hirsch wouldn't be in this group and i think how hard it would be for her to watch and i also know what she said is authentic to who she is. i think for all of us, every single person who gets released is a win for the entire group but at the same time, if these 50 come out and they include my family, i will rejoice and if they don't, i will still rejoice because it's 50 people out of captivity and out of an awful, awful situation. and to speak also it's a not their father. we will not stop fighting until every single one of them is home and that includes so many of them that are -- it's close to 200 names that wouldn't be on this list and so there's hope but there's still fight. >> well, we want you to know that we will continue to cover your fight until everyone is home. thank you. >> thank you so much >> we are so hoping this time we'll actually see these hostages come back. thank you. >> thank you. >> what about hostages who are not women and children as we just heard? i'll be speaking with the father of one american man who's being held and will likely not be on the list to be released. how's he feeling? that's up next. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. i'm paula reed in washington and this is cnn. we're back with our world lead and the israeli cabinet now meeting to