should these children be used as bargaining chips? no. they shouldn't. >> meanwhile it is believed that hamas does not have dozens of other hostages, that those hostages have likely been placed with other terrorist groups such as the palestinian islamic jihad, which further complicates efforts to secure those hostages released. back in the united states, the senior biden officials are begging israel to try to be more precise and take fewer risks in future strikes in gaza against hamas once the pause in fighting ends. col coming up, we'll take to you gaza and speak with a humanitarian worker on the ground. also a runner-up in the 2024 field for a big shiny endorsement for one of america's richest families. first, let's go to tel aviv. oren, what do you know about this greatest list of hostages who were released today who appear to be mostly older women? >> reporter: first let look at this video now. this was moments ago at sheba hospital. not that far from where we're standing right now. this is shortly after a helicopter landed, bringing the hostages from the crossing where they had entered israel, and taking them to sheba medical center. eight of the hostages taken there. we have not gotten an update on their condition. we expect that later tonight. perhaps very early tomorrow morning. two other israeli hostages were taken to a medical center in tel aviv, and then two were taken to the medical center where all the foreign nationals have gone. you can see the hostages, i'm sorry, the freed hostages, being loaded on the bus. they are elderly women. of the ten hostages released, only one was a minor. one was a 17-year-old israeli woman. those now being treated and they'll be in the process of the medical evaluations and the mental health checks, a far more difficult part of the process. crucially, the process worked today and the truce held and that was a major question. it played out a little later than we thought it would. it did in fact play out and that both well for tomorrow where we expect the release of another ten israeli women and children in exchange for another 30 palestinian prisoners. women and children released from israeli jails. we saw that happen tonight as well. the question, what happens beyond that? cia director bill byrnes in qatar where the majority of these have taken place. they are trying to extend it beyond that to include not only elderly women and children but elderly men. that remains a challenging question. >> both hamas and israel are accusing each other of violating this pause in fighting today. there was a skirmish in northern gaza. what exactly happened and what might this mean for any hopes of the pause continuing at least a few more days? >> this was the clearest violation of the cease-fire terms to this point. of course, different stories from both sides here. israel says three explosive devices were detonated near their troops sitting in agreed-upon positions. they came under fire and returned fire. meanwhile, hamas accused israel of the skirmishes. regardless of how it happened, we're not there so we can't verify how it played out on the ground, the truce itself held. we have seen it on fragile thin ice before. the terms of the truce held together. the hostages continue to come out. and at least in the short term, it both well for tomorrow. after that, very much an open question at this point. >> all right. thank you. senior white house correspondent and chief national security respondent joining us now. i'm sure they are disappointed. to what does the white house attribute the fact that other than the two americans at the very beginning of this crisis, in this batch of hamas releases over the last few days, only one american has been released so far. the 4-year-old little girl whose parents were murdered. >> they had definitely hoped by the end of the four-day pause, three americans would have gotten out. so far we've only seen abigail edan on sunday. when you speak to them, this is a very, very difficult situation. i don't think i've heard a single u.s. official talking to me about the hostages ever say anything with 100% confidence. there are caveats attached to everything, right? their whereabouts, their conditions, not in addition to the fact that hamas can't be trusted. one interesting thing that a senior official told me yesterday is that so far, they don't believe that hamas is sort of purposefully holding back these american hostages but that does get to hamas's motives which i think nobody feels confident talking about. >> i'll have to ask the former prime minister, i'll be talking to him in a few minutes. we'll see what he says. bill byrnes is back in qatar where a lot of these negotiations are taking place. what should we make of his frequent trips there? >> a remarkable meeting to talk about the hostage negotiations. this really sends the message that he is the biden point man on all things hostages. he is really not just the u.s. spy master but a very capable diplomat. a long-time diplomat. long respected in the region. he's out there to push what the administration wants right now. the efforts to get the american hostages out. to extend the pause. and then to broaden this conversation out into the much more difficult conversations, getting the men back. the negotiations about those idf soldiers who are being held. and really, to echo what the white house is saying in that if israel will start up their military operations again, what the u.s. wants to see is a much more cautious approach. a much more surgical approach. >> and speaking of that, the surgical approach. this is, i've been hearing this from the administration and frankly, from democrats and republicans in congress that they want israel to be more surgical when the fighting resumes, which everybody expects they have at some point. unless hamas surrenders or decides to go on a cruise to yemen. israel is going back. they're not giving up until hamas is gone. and they want the civilian casualties to lessen at the very least. is israel going to start listening? >> u.s. official say that israel has been leading their advice, at least in part. they have been stressing particularly in anticipation of the offensive starting up again. when it comes to southern gaza, they want to see operations more targeted, more surgical. they want the israelis to be more deliberate and careful. they are saying we have seen them take that advice, at least in part. they said basically the operations actually would have been even bigger in scale were it not for the u.s. i think we're seeing this interesting rhetorical shift coming from the white house. in the early days we were hearing a lot of emphasis on the u.s. can't tell the israelis what to do. we are not involved in making the military decisions. and now we are getting a lot of, we are advising them. they are taking our advice. they seem to be helping to shape the tactical decisions. this is according to u.s. officials. i think the administration knows there are real questions about whether israel really can go back to doing what it was doing once the pause is oh. both politically and militarily. >> obviously the biggest problem is, that hamas is within the population. it's not like there's a hamas military base in gaza. the whole area is a hamas military base. thank you both for being here. former israeli prime minister and defense minister naftali bennett joins me now. we have only seen one american hostage in this round of hostage releases. obviously there were two american hostages released in the beginning. in this round of hostage releases, only one american has been released despite u.s. pressure. why do you think that is? >> i think it is just random from israel's perspective. we don't make a distinction between the israelis that are in captivity, kidnapped by hamas regardless of their particular foreign citizenship. we don't care. we want them all back. so we are working hard to do that. >> who is deciding who gets released? is that just random by hamas? >> no. the negotiations going. on it is done primarily by criteria that hamas is not abiding to but by and large, getting the children and their parents out together. hamas is deliberately keeping one or two of the parents back in gaza. but children, young people, and the parents of children first. and then later on the rest. >> even though you were not in office on october 7th, you still say you bear responsibility for the failures of the israeli government that led to what happened on that day. the current prime minister benjamin netanyahu has still not acknowledged responsibility. the longer this war goes on, it seems like netanyahu is growing weaker in the eyes of the israeli public, at least according to polls. do you think he will continue to get weaker and weaker? >> i don't want to comment on the domestic israeli politics, and certainly, i won't attack the prime minister on foreign press. we're all focused on winning the war. >> i want to ask but israeli strikes on gaza. ultimately, this pause in hospit, in hostilities will end. and israel will try to destroy hamas. the one thing i continue to hear from israeli supporters in the u.s. government, democrats or republicans, i keep hearing that the idf needs to be much more careful when it comes to palestinians in gaza. the idf needs to use more precision munitions. that they need to take fewer risks. even if the conservative estimates are right with 15,000 killed. even if 5,000 are hamas. that's still a 2-1 ratio of civilians to hamas. that's a lot of civilians who have been killed. is netanyahu going to continue to ignore president biden on this issue of civilian casualties? >> well, we're not magicians. there is no magic way to dramatically reduce collateral damage when hamas's deliberate goal, intentional goal is to increase gaza casualties in order for you to ask me that precise question. hamas wants to stop the war in a cynical way by effectively killing its own people, by placing them in harm's way. if there were a magical way where we could tweezer them out, just shooting, we would do it. we do try to reduce civilian casualties. the reality is that there is no magic. the current ratio is lower than what it was at the beginning. and lower than the international standards in iraq and afghanistan. you will see that israel has one of the lowest ratios. >> what do you think will happen in gaza after the war is over? what will gaza look like? who will take over? who will keep order? >> well, i'll tell you what i think we ought to do. the first thing is to fully disarm gaza and ensure that there is no more arms, no more explosives after we dismantle and eliminate hamas. the first thing is to kill the hamas leadership and the terrorists. then clean up gaza from weapons and explosives so something like this can never happen again. the third thing i would do is create a buffer zone into gaza about 1 1/2 kilometers deep which would be a no man's land between gaza and israel so this sort of thing can't happen. and israel would retain overall defense responsibility but we don't want to govern the gazans. what i think we would do is create an interim technocratic self-government that would stay for about five years, govern gaza. denazify gaza which means clean out all the incitement, that all jews are pigs and devils, and create a sustainable government with perhaps the countries in that area. >> what do you mean by denazify? no free speech? people can't say nasty thing about jews? get rid of them how? >> in. -- >> no. >> you mean like in the education system. >> yeah. >> the education system. and media. we cannot -- here's what we learned. one of the lessons learned. when people are incited with gaend from the moment they're born, though they are 20 years old, that all jews are pigs and devils and need to be slaughtered, they go out and slaughter jews. if it is something that we used to sort of procrastinate on, or not take care of, we can't ignore it anymore. >> don't you think the last six weeks have done a lot to incite and inspire a whole new generations of terrorists? all the civilian deaths? don't you worry that in itself will raise and inspire a whole new generation of palestinians who hate israelis? >> it depends what we do next. i want to remain you, in the nazi war, in the final months there were many, many civilian casualties. yet germany was denazified after the war and we have a new germany. we don't have a goal of killing civilians. we have a goal of reducing the number of deaths of civilians. if anyone has a magic plan, how to eradicate hamas without any collateral damage, bring it on and we'll adopt it. barring that, we have to get the job done and then denazify gaza. >> thank you so much, sir. appreciate your time. >> thank you. up next, a the at a us check from inside gaza. and the 24/7 operation to get critical resources there before this pause in fighting ends. and this today from russia. american paul whelan, the rine locked up there, says he was attacked by a fellow prisoner. what he's telling cnn about the incident. staying in our world lead, the red crescent reports that 200 trucks carrying much-needed food and water and baby formula and blankets have arrived in gaza since the pause in fighting. the red crescent also claims that they were blocked from entering northern gaza. the world health organization is warning that disease could kill more people in gaza. the need grows more dire by the day. let's bring in the unicef spokesman. he's to the phone because the internet connection in gaza is too poor to access. while the truce has been extended another two days, it is not enough time to get in all the humanitarian aid needed for the millions in gaza. describe what you've seen over the last if you days and the toll it's taken on people. especially children. >> yes, just massive destruction. it just tell me consistently of this war's relentless assault on civilians and on children. it tells me the story of a war on children. this is a place that you know was full of energy and life. and like a collective darkness has fallen upon gaza. the aid coming in, it is the right type of aid. the enormity of need. hospitals look like war zones and people used to live with televisions and nice warm beds. it's desperate. it is the right aid but it is not enough and will only be enough if this turn into a prolonged cease-fire. >> you said you saw children with ghastly wounds untreated because of the lack of medical aid. how dire is the situation when it comes to medical needs? >> it's horrendous. if a child is getting a lot of diarrhea or serious illnesses because of unclean water, parents know what the children need. those children not only get cared. i go into a hospital and you see doc doctors, doctors who have worked around the clock having to make decisions on children with horrendous wounds of war, shrapnel, eye injuries, broken bones. which ones do they treat? i helped carry a boy off a bus who had already lost a leg and had not had treatment for three days because he had come down from shifa hospital. we got him off the bus and then he lay on the floor in the hospital. they're war zones. but doctors were treating other people. people may be bleeding out or something. so i've not seen anything like it. everywhere you turn is a scenario like this. and again, why? every conversation should come back to empathy and it does worry you and worry me that some could overlook these tragic deaths. some are comfortable that the idea these horrors may start again. >> the images of the babies in the nicu transported out of gaza to egypt, they're just heart-rending with. see three, four people sharing a bed. what can you tell us about how the babies are doing? >> yeah, good news. good news for those who got out. not all did. but those who did, they're in egypt. they're in hospitals and they should have the proper care. it's everything you want to see. it seems like that's what life is. the israeli kids who got out. torment over the hostages released. the children in incubators, jake, out of gaza. there are more than a million children who are not. the children who literally grab me as i walk through a cab in tears. beautifully articulate where the brilliant brains merge with beautiful hearts and say where is the dignity? why does nobody care? i just want to go home. a young girl who said the only time she'd seen homelessness was when she saw her fullbright scholarship in d.c. it's never been in gaza. >> thank you. please stay in touch with us. coming up, a major win today for 2024 republican presidential candidate nikki haley. and not a republican -- not a major win for donald trump. stay with us. our 2024 lead, come on, guys. you know i love the election. thank you. we're just 48 days before the iowa caucuses and republican candidate nikki haley has picked up a huge endorsement from a very influential, powerful, let's be honest, super rich, the koch brothers. a very significant financial boost as time is quickly running out for any of donald trump's rivals to catch up to the republican front runner. let's bring in our political guy. the spokesperson didn't even let her relish the incoming cash. they have a way with words. no. a shady money from george soros, democrats, and never trump rinos in partnership with endless war swamp creatures in washington. by the way, that does not describe the koch brothers, will stop the maga movement or president trump from being the republican nominee and defeating crooked joe biden. that's the trump people. the spokesperson for ron desantis who won the support of kim reynolds criticized the endorsement of her saying every dollar should be reported as a contribution to the trump campaign. it's par for the course. the trump campaign attacks everything. anything that moves away from donald trump. soy. >> reporter: so that makes sense. desantis is a little more puzzling. any time you see an opponent getting attention, you want to bring attention to it. you want to show a level of poise. that you're so confident in your campaign that you're not worried about it. ins instead, trumpet the endorsements you got last week. the endorsements last week is a very significant endorsement. if you look at the last two folks that, if you look at santorum in 2012 and huckabee in 2008. that endorsement was key to the momentum they had. >> in winning iowa. >> yeah. winning iowa. it has organizational value to it. focus only and don't be worried about what nikki haley has. >> i still find it interesting that nikki haley by all accounts is the strongest republican candidate against joe biden, and yet she is nowhere close to donald trump. she might be the strongest republican in some polls and some states against donald trump. >> they all are. i guess the question is what does ron desantis, chris christie. what are they going to do? had a will blink first and get out of this race? because with all three of them in there, donald trump wins. like no one will be able to overcome him. but if chris christie gets out of the race, his support will probably go to nikki haley. that's one reason why. also because she's a woman. we've never had a female president. >> put that poll up again. don't be impatient. the poll shows trump with a commanding lead over his nearest rivals, ron desantis, south carolina governor nikki haley. they're tied for second. i mean, that's not bad. 16 and 16. i guess, if you consolidate it, it would be 32. still in striking distance. >> the thing with polls is the trend line. clearly the trend line is good for nikki haley. she has momentum. can she turn it into some level of consolidation? so far we haven't seen it. the thing i would worry about if i were on any campaign other than trump is that it has taken on a feeling of a very conventional fraction we had in 2016, which is that the dominant force i