now. good morning. israel and hamas has reached a breakthrough deal to release hostages in exchange for a four day pause in fighting. the timing is expected to be announced sometime today. israeli sources say the first hostages could be released as early as tomorrow morning. >> and the deal calls for a four day truce. hamas set to release at least 50 women and children who were abducted during the october 7 terror attacks. in exchange hamas says israel has agreed to release 150 palestinian prisoners from jail. a u.s. official telling cnn that three americans could be among those hostages released. and 3-year-old abigail, the youngest american hostage being held by hamas, both of her parents were murdered in the october 7 terror attack. her family tells cnn that they are hoping that they will be released in time for her fourth birthday and that is that friday. the timing though for all of this very fluid. >> and we're still seeing large explosions rocking northern gaza. last night qatar saying a pause in the fighting would be announced within 24 hours. under the terms of the deal, that four day pause in fighting can be extended, an extra day could be added for every additional ten released. >> and let's start with oren lieberman live in tel aviv. welcome news but has not happened yet. how is it being received in israel? a >> reporter: this is generally broadly supported. and i say that from the perspective of the families of the hostages with whom we've spoken and at least correspond to the reports we're seeing and the numbers we're seen from the israeli public, this is something that they were waiting for. 50 opens the door and builds a framework to continue the process and try to release more hostages if the pause in fighting holds and if the process works out. crucially we're not there yet and pause in fighting has not yet begun. after the full government vote late last night or i should say early early this morning, there is a 24 hour window in which someone can file an appeal to try to stop it. once that clock runs out, then the government can announce that cease fire has begun. the release of israeli hostages women and children can be begin. the release of 150 palestinian women and children held in israelily jails can begin. crucially israel put out a list of 300 palestinian women and children held in israeli jails. so it seems to be saying look, there is an offer here after the first 50 israeli hostages. if you release ten more, we can continue this on a day by day basis. so at least that window is there. certainly the international community trying to push it into something broader than a single hostage exchange. >> and what is the idf on the ground doing in anticipation of this? >> reporter: so as of right now, the fighting still continues. an idf spokesperson came on air last night and said when we get the order from the political leadership to stop fighting, that ceasefire is in place or about to contact into effect, we'll stop fighting. but until that, the fighting continues. neither side has announced that we're not fighting, so there is still a war going on. and prime minister benjamin netanyahu who promised last night even as he pushed this agreement through the war cabinet, the security cabinet and then the cabinet itself, that the war will continue. although there is a pause in fighting and the idf will take defensive positions inside of gaza, once that pause is over, fighting resumed. and one more point on the 300 if i may, of those palestinian prisoners, israel released a list that it was interesting to look at that list, many of them held for what are considered relatively minor charges. for example throwing stones, the transfer of weapons, support of a terror organization. from my brief look through the list, it looks like some are members of hamas according to israel, some are members of other organizations like islamic jihad and some aren't members of any organization. it seems the vast majority with men between 16 and 18 years old. and i'll take a more in-depth look at the list, but seems very few women on that. unclear who gets to choose one of those palestinian prisoners are released. frankly, which of the israeli hostages are released. >> both important questions.lie. and of course the families of the hostages are waiting for word of whether their loved ones are among those being released. >> my family like all the other families is going to go through a terrible week. we don't know if my cousin will be amongst those released in this round. >> i really do hope to see someone walking out of there and to being just -- i think that it will fill us with hope for the others and for a chance. we want a chance to see our loved one back. >> there is nobody that is giving up hope. it is just that we actually need to see abigail come out and then we will be able to be -- to believe it. >> senior u.s. official telling cnn at least ten americans remain unaccounted for. the biden administration is determined to get everybody home. mj lee is live for us this morning at the white house with some of that new reporting. mj, walk us through a little bit more what you have learned the last 24 hours about how the deal came together. >> you know, all day yesterday we were talking about abigail, the 3-year-old american citizen toddler and the hope that she could be among the first 50 hostages that are released. but now u.s. officials say that they know of at least two other american citizens, two women. so the hope now is that there could be three american citizens that are in the mix of the women and children that are first released in this first phase of the process. but as you say, there are ten miles per hours that are unaccounted for right now. and what is not clear is could there be for example adult men in the mix who wouldn't be counted in that first phase and how would the u.s. government try to get them out. and what they have said is that they believe that this deal is in in-cent advised in such a way on so that hamas would have incentive to continue releasing more hostages. obviously this is a slow process. as far as the women and children are concerned, the ones that will be released, there is a long road ahead in terms of medical attention and make sure that they can safely get out of gaza as well. >> and you have fascinating reporting this morning that everyone should read about all of the details about the weeks leading up to this and just how integral and involved top ranking biden administration officials were in getting to this place. what can you say with people this morning? >> yeah, we're learning so much more about the weeks and week of painstaking negotiations between the u.s. and hamas and israel and qataris to get to this point. and soon after oblctober 7, top secret level communication channel was created among a small group of white house officials and israeli and qatari officials to basically try to communicate with hamas and negotiate. when the two american citizens were released, u.s. officials felt like that we now have a model for trying to get out a larger group of hostages, they felt like there was an effective method for actually negotiating with hamas even if that process was incredibly delicate and slow. but the challenges were immense. hamas refused for a long time to offer any identifying information about the hostages. their gender, their nationalities, their age. and that ended up being such a sticking point that at least point the parties felt that they were getting pretty close to a deal and even discussed israel potentially delaying its ground invasion but they decided not do that because they weren't buying what hamas was selling at the time. they weren't giving proof of life or any identifying information. they didn't buy the argument that they needed on pause to identify the hostages. on israel goes ahead with the ground invasion anyway. and then there was a point in recent days when hamas just went dark. it stopped responding. and when they finally resurfaced, we're told that they demanded that the idf pull out the forces of the raid in al-shifa hospital, obviously idf didn't do that. but you can see as we start to get a clearer picture of how all of this unfolded why officials all along had stressed so much that things were so delicate, so tenuous and they almost didn't want to get their hopes up because they truly felt like that they could fall apart at any moment. >> it is a fascinating look. thank you for your reporting. joining us in the next hour, someone involved in the negotiations jon finer. >> and also we'll be joined by the family of the 3-year-old american hostage abigail. and the u.s. military retaliating after multiple close range ballistic missiles were fired at an air base in iraq. we have details on what is clearly growing escalation in the region. and while you were sleeping, a big announcement from openai, which may make you feel like you have whiplash. just days after the board ousted the ceo sam altman sparking an up rising from employees, yet another development this morning. those breaking details ahead. we're following breaking news out of israel and gaza where hostage exchanges could get under way as soon as tomorrow. new overnight, israel has released now a list of 300 palestinian prisoners who could ultimately be freed in exchange for the hostages being held by hamas. >> joining us now, foreign policy adviser in the george w. bush administration and also author of a fantastic new book "genius of israel." thanks for being here on a morning like this. you are waking up to this news and you are thinking thank god for those families. but you also have a lot of questions. is this a good deal? >> look, israeli officials i've spoken to and israeli families i've spoken to including one family in particular that has a hostage, not one who will be a part of this exchange, argue that this would not have happened had israel's advance into gaza not been as effective as it had been, this is not what hamas wanted to do, this is not the deal hamas wanted to do. so hamas wanted to hang on to the hostages which they viewed as currency for as long as possible because hamas is under so much pressure. and israel still can resume in a matter of ways. >> what do you mean effective? because there have been thousands of civilian casualties. >> you think about the thousands of hamas fighters that israel is trying to wipe out and the pressure on hamas commanders, architects of the attack, they are on the move. and israel has -- so in that sense israel has been effective. of course there is collateral damage as there always is in war. but i think that that mash is under pressure militarily and therefore has to do this deal. and there is a sense that the world is recognizing the depravity of what hamas did on october 7. and hamas may not have anticipated the reaction to holding women and children, almost a concession by hamas. this is a problem for us. we have to give back to women and children. that said, the risk is what happens after the four or five days. what happens when the 50 hostages are released, hamas says all right, we'll give you ten more, ten more, and is this -- is israel sort of being tricked into a slow walk into a ceasefire. >> and so among the resistance, which we know from the far right national security, he said this is a very big, big mistake and there were concerns about who could be released in terms of prisoners, what that could then lead to. benjamin netanyahu though is addressing that. i want to play a little bit of what he said and get your take on it. >> all the security forces supported fully, they understood that not only will the war effort not only be compromised, on the contrary, this will allow the idf to prepare for the continuation of the fighting. and i would like to make it clear here again, the war continues. the war will continue until we achieve all of our goals. >> i read that as him saying some of the concern had been with this pause every time there is a pause, and if the pause continues to drag out, it just gives hamas time to regroup and get everything back in order. he seems to be saying we get to do the same thing, we're coming back stronger. >> there is some truth to that. going into the south is a whole other operation. some ifz rz reallilies say that could have a few days to get organized. and hamas has that as well. israeli continues to believe that military pressure to give up hostages and israel could ben fit from a few days. the one community we're not talking about is the israeli public. and this is gutwrenching. if you compare israel's population to the u.s. population, so for every israeli, there is about 35 americans given the differential in size. so if we're talking about 50 hostages women and children being released, that would be like 1750 american women and children being held hostage and being released. still another equivalent in american terms 40,000 hostages. so just this touches all of israeli society which is why even if israel has to give up a little bit on military effectiveness, there is a sense in israeli society that it is worth it. >> what about the other hostages and how did bibi get from as police as last weekend saying no pause and now four days and maybe more? >> one, i think it is focused on the women and children, that is important. again imagine 1750 american women and children being held. it touches every part of israeli society and the pressure had been building internally. and, b, a sense that they can still resume military operations in a few days. and they can, you know, they can still continue to be very effective in a few days. so he felt that he wasn't giving up that much. now, again, i tend to agree with that if it is really limited to four or five days. if suddenly they say ten more hostages, ten more hostages and you get slow walked in to effectively a soft ceasefire, that is dangerous situation. and one other thing that is important to netanyahu which he got is red cross access. the red cross has not -- >> into gaza. >> into gaza to see the other hostages. make sure that they have medical care, see how they are doing and being able to report back. >> and that information is ski. not only for so many families but i would say for the israelis, for so much of the world to actually understand what they have. >> this is so unprecedented for hostages in a war-like situation, for the red cross to not have access. by the way shame on the red cross for not pushing for it. normally they push aggressively to get access. they were not pushing for access. the israeli government was asking for the red cross get access and they made red cross access central to part of this deal. >> and so that is something that we want to know more about. jon finer will be joining us in about an hour so we'll try to get more on that. thank you. so just what will it take to move the hostages out of the warzone? those challenges, we'll dig into that. and if you are heading out on the road or airport for the thanksgiving holiday, what you need to know about the major storm impacting travel for millions of americans. stay with us. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ it is the busiest travel day of the year. happy to be here grounded. and the weather is not looking so great everywhere. heavy rain and winds continue in the northeast. and snow in new england also. jason carroll is at laguardia. and you are staying grounded very wisely. and allison chinchar is tracking the storms. jason, what is it looking like this morning? >> i have to tell you, not too bad. and i've done this story a lot of times. and i haven't seen an airport looking this good since i've been doing this. look behind me here, a few lines behind me here, the travel board pretty much says it all when you look at the departures board here on time, on time, on time. you consider you have this weather system moving through the area, when you consider that the tsa is predicting that this will be the busiest thanksgiving holiday travel season on record. expecting to screen some 30 million travelers through the thanksgiving travel weekend. we did a check, my producer and i, of the airports. and laguardia, just about five delays here. jfk 25 delays. really not bad. newark, they were looking at just 12 delays. i mean, when you consider all that i told you, again, things are looking pretty good out here and the travelers that we spoke to say that they took all of the warnings that they heard about before they came out here to the airport, here is what they had to say about it. >> yeah, wanted to make sure that i was early, earliest flight that i could get out. because usually this -- i don't think that i ever remember traveling on this day because of all the horror stories i've heard. so, yeah, hopefully knock wood everything will go good and it will be a happy thanksgiving. >> reporter: and the weather system that we were talking about, that is supposed to be moving out of the area later this morning. when we do see travel delays at the airports, guys, they usually sort of accumulate as the morning drags on. so again, i don't want to jinx it -- >> yes, please don't. >> reporter: but right now things are looking pretty good. >> we'll cross our fingers. roads, i came in and it was a little rough. millions are hitting the roads. and allison, give us a sense of the storms and how that could impact travel. >> good morning, yeah, biggest issues are really focused mainly along the east coast. up and down the eastern sea board. on the south side, you have rain, you have very gusty winds and a few thunderstorms mixed in here basically from florida all the way up through virginia. on the north side, it is a bit of everything. you have snow, you have rain/snow mix, even a bit of freezing rain and then also the gusty winds. yes, we're starting to see it end across philadelphia and new york, but still dealing withhar and interior. snow totals here, about 6 inches. when you get hire in gher in elevation, it could be closer to a foot. and we'll start to see things drying out slowly as it progressing eastward. and by wednesday evening, pretty much most of the east coast finally starts to see dryer conditions. but the wind will stick around, so keep that in mind especially if you are driving, that could end up causing some issues there. then we fast forward to actual thanksgiving day. the eastern portion of the country looks nice. it is now the western u.s. that starts to begin to pick up some issues. we have this next system sliding in that will likely bring rain and snow to cities like denver eventually towards salt lake city as well. the heaviest snow obviously going to be across portions of the inter-mountain west and temperatures on the cool side. and then for friday, a lot of folks they want to get out and maybe do black friday shopping. bigger issues are the inter-mountain west and also central u.s. where we'll start to see new rain showers across oklahoma, kansas and missouri. and coming up, what cnn has uncovered about the now house speaker mike johnson and his call to challenge some landmark supreme court rulings. and right now the pope meeting with family members of hostages being held in gaza. now speaking out saying about the conflict, the pope's words, this is not war, this is terrorism. breaking this morning, hostage deal between israel and hamas has been reached after painstaking negotiations. >> and hamas has agreed to release at le