the secretary of state is back in israel trying to stop the war from restarting. secretary of state antony blinken front is and center for negotiations. can he help secure the release of the eight americans still being held hostage by the terrorist group hamas before bombs start dropping again. plus one of the innocent palestinian college students in vermont describes the moment that the gunman came after him and his friends. >> he didn't hesitate without a word to just run down the stairs of the porch. >> his family says this crime was motivated by bigotry. so why no hate crime charges? plus a gag order just r reinstated on donald trump. who keeps personally attack ing the judge and his clerk in that civil fraud trial. prompting anti-semitic death threats. the judge's new warning as trump has ordered once again to zip his lips. we start with our world lead wrrks we could be just hours away from the end of the pause in fighting between israel hamas and the resumption of the war and the death and destruction. both sides said today they are ready if that deal expires at midnight and the war resumes. but behind the scenes, negotiators from egypt and qatar say they are scrambling and trying to extend the pause for at least two more days. trying to secure the release of more hostages and to allow more humanitarian aid into the gaza strip. we just heard from secretary of state antony blinken in israel after he met with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. blinken said his immediate focus is to try to find a way to extend the cease-fire, but we're already seeing some signs of violence, at least three israelis were killed and seven others injured, including two americans, after two members of hamas fired upon a group of innocent people, who had gathered at a bus station. the terrorists were killed by two israeli soldiers and an armed civilian. right now, the military is waiting for the next group of hostages to be released in exchange for the pending release of palestinian prisoners from detention centers. two women were freed earlier because of where they were being held hostage in gaza. a 40-year-old and a 21-year-old are now both in israeli hospitals after being released by hamas. they are getting medical checkups. the israeli government released this video of mya being reunited with her mom and brother after her release nearly eight weeks after being kidnapped from the music festival. oren liebermann starts off our coverage today. you were just at blinken's press conference. what did the secretary of state have to say about the extension of this pause? >> reporter: secretary of state antony blinken just wrapped up that press conference here in the hotel behind me a short time ago. earlier in this day, he met not only with prime minister benjamin netanyahu, but also members of israel's war cabinet. he said he urged them to consider a longer continuation of this pause in the fighting that would allow for the release of more hostages and more humanitarian aid to go in. he said both of those are imperative, but he made clear the u.s. knows full well and benjamin netanyahu has made clear when hamas stops releasing hostages, the war is very much back on. israel has said that. hamas has said that. they came close when hamas waited until the last minute to release the list. now we have seen two hostages release d earlier and we're waiting on more at this point. say saying hamas cannot retain control and not contain the capacity of the october 7th terror attack. he did say and this is worth noting and keeping an eye on that israel understands the em pertive of aid to gaza. but what does that mean on the ground? the humanitarian aid we have seen going over the last week has been a part of the truce agreement. does it resume immediately or keep going when the war itself resumes. we might have an answer soon. >> we're still waiting to see the rest of the hostages who are expected to be released by hamas today. what is the holdup, do you think? >> over the course of the past seven days, we have seen one or two times where some hostages are release d earlier in the evening. today's release began early before 4:00 p.m. local time, but it was the two israeli hostages you mentioned as we wait on some others. officials believe it's because the hostages are held in different locations. so that takes time. one of the reasons hamas didn't want israeli drones flying over gaza is so that in secret it could move the hostages around and get them together for release. i'll make one more point here. hamas released or transferred the hostages to the red cross in palestine square in gaza city itself. northern gaza, which is where gaza city sits s one area where israel has large control over the for toir there. it seems hamas maybe showing itself in the open, out in public, that israel does not have complete control over northern gaza. >> o'rib lieberman, thank you so much. with the pause between israel and hamas expected to end soon, the united states is pressing the israel defense forces to do more to curtail civilian casualties as israel resumes its attempts to eliminate hamas. the terrorist group that slaughtered more than 1200 people on october 7th and kidnapped more than 240 of them. first behind the scenes and now increasingly in public the biden administration is calling on israel to do more to reduce the loss of innocent palestinian life and i low more humanitarian a aid into gaza where more than 14,000 palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed according to the hamas controlled health ministry. >> we're going to continue to urge our israeli counterparts, as they go back or plan to go back to military operations, that they do it in the most discreet, careful, cautious way possible. >> far too many palestinians have been killed. far too many have suffered these past weeks. we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance to them. >> as recently as yesterday afternoon, israeli officials, including a major general from the israeli defense forces here in washington, d.c. briefed menace members of congress. sources familiar tell me the major general told congress that israel does not find the palestinian fatality numbers to be credible. while the idf does not have their own dath toll number at this time, they estimate they have killed about 5,000 members of hamas. either way, the death toll in gaza of civilians has been staggering. a "new york times" analysis from november 25th concluded that while wartime death tolls will never be exact, even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from gaza shows that the pace of death during israel's campaign has few precedents in this century. people are being killed in gaza more quick than in even the deadliest moments of u.s.-led attacks in iraq, syria and afghanistan. and even if one assumes 5,000 of those killed are hamas, the civilian death toll by any credible account is more than 5,000. why? there are a few reasons. some experts blame hamas. >> one of the reasons those casualty numbers are so high is because israel is engaged with an enny that has deliberately embedded itself amongst the civilian population in one of the most densely populated areas of the world. so the iz the really commanders face a legal, and in many cases, a moral dilemma. the need to use their combat capability to a attack the enemy and achieve their tactical and operational objectives with knowledge that there's only so much they can do to mitigate civilian risk. >> it's also true that leaders of hamas do not seem particularly worried about the damage they are doing to the innocent people of gaza. it is also true that some national security sources in the united states say that hamas has prevented palestinians from trying to heed israel's warnings to flee south. and yet with 15,000 killed, even if 5,000 of them are hamas, that's still a 2 to 1 ratio. that's a lot of civilians who have been killed. is benjamin netanyahu going to continue to ignore president biden on this issue of civilian casualties? >>. >> there's no magic way to reduce clab rat damage when hamas intentional goal is to increase gaza casualties in order for you to ask me that precise question, hamas wants to stop the war by killing its own people by placing them in harm's way. if there were some magical solution we could tweezer people out and just hit the rocket launcher that's shooting rockets a at israelis, we would do it. we do try to reduce unnecessary civilian casualties, but the reality is that there's no magic. >> when you talk to lawmakers and policymakers in washington, d.c., even those very supportive of israel, republicans and democrats say that the idf is not doing enough to prevent civilian casualties in gaza. >> i would say they are still not please d that things are no up to the standards that we would expect or hope. we're continuing to pressure israel about that. i think that is a discourse that's incredibly important. these are people's lives that need to be protected. >> it's not just the number of idf strikes that they are conducting. it's also the type of weapons that the idf is using. though the israelis are using a lot of precision munitions, the biden administration sources say the idf is also using plenty of big nonprecise bombs that flatten everything in their path. the idf briefed congress this week that those big dumb bombs are being used because they are the only way to get through to the tunnels where hamas has been embedding itself under the population. and the idf says they are warning palestinians to leave those areas. and that hamas is desueding or even preventing palestinians from fleeing. but beyond that, the biden administration officials also the tell cnn that the idf is taking risks and civil lives that the u.s. and nato simply would not be taking. and they could be doing more to prevent innocent lives from being lost. under humanitarian international law, strikes must be proportional, meaning the military benefit must be weighed against the potential loss of life. but there's no exact formula written into the law. >> it's imperative that israel act within the laws of war. even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither. >> simply put, if the idf willing to risk more civilian deaths to kill more members of hamas than the u.s. might be, the question then arises, does that mean what they are doing is a violation of law and the truth is not necessarily. the vagaries of these laws do not require any specific proportion. and yet that doesn't mean that they couldn't be doing better. this week according to source, the idf tried to reassure members of congress ha as the ground campaign moves to southern gaza, they will try to do better. they will try to do more leafletting to warn innocent people to evacuate areas and they will try to create safe zones if such a thing can exist in gaza. >> before israel resumes operations t must put in place civilian protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent stint yans by designating areas where they can be safe and out of the line of fire. >> the idf also briefed members of congress that the ground campaign has allowed them to use more precision targeting, that the special operations combat has allowed them to reduce deaths. they say that there were zero civilian casualties in the hospital when they conducted operations in the hospital. though we also know that operations around the hospital did lead to deaths. now a vast number of palestinians have fled to the south. that place is an additional burden on israel to avoid further displacement. and these numbers, 14,000, 1,000, 500, each cn death is a tragedy. it's a life cut short. it's not a statistic. it's awful to talk about this in numbers. but here we are. i want to bring in alex marquardt and mj lee. these are issues that the white house has been grappling with from the very beginning of this. first behind the scenes and now increasingly in front of the cameras trying to get the israeli os to take more measures to reduce civilian loss of life. this is something that brinken brought up with benjamin netanyahu earlier today. >> the biden administration would like to see this release of hostages continue as long as possible, but they know that this phase, as the israelis are calling it, will soon be over and they will start back up again. the biden administration has been very loudly saying in public and behind the scenes they want to see a different military campaign from the israelis. the expectation is that israel is going to move into southern gaza, where so many of the hundreds of thousands, almost 2 million of the displaced are this extraordinary level of destruction in northern gaza. all these thousands of civilian deaths so laying out this imperative for humanitarian civilian protection plans, aside from these dez i guess nated areas, they talked about israel going out of its way to avoid damaging civilian infrastructure like hospitals, water facilities. he said northern gazaens should allowed to return to the north when conditions allow. it does remain to be seen where there is heeded. >> we could be just hours away from the end of this pause. it really just depends upon hamas producing more hostages in some ways. >> we are at the stage of this pause where really every single day we coukould get to a point where the war resumes a at the stroke of midnight, but the wild thing is that the way this deal is structured, hamas produces a list, they do or don't agree and the pauses is extended. it hinges on the day-to-day whims of hamas. and as reported on, there's been numerous instances already where hamas has violated the agreement. >> the idf just announced that six more host hajs are in the hands of the red cross. we're seeing some live images of them at the rafah crossing between gaza and egypt. those are them right now. they look like young women maybe in their teens or 20s. i'm sorry to interrupt. just some breaking news right now as these hostages are released. just another reminder that all of this in the short-term, there's obviously a context that goes back dozens, if not hundreds of years. all this in the short-term began on october 7th because of terrorist organization going into israel. and killing more than 1200 people. go ahead. >> we did reporting on how the list came up and was a serious issue. yesterday this was there back and forth over whether they could produce the ten hostages, which is a part of the deal. at one point they were producing seven women and children, but trying to add three bodies to count for the total of ten. so the fact -- three bodies. so the fact that the truth hinges on hamas keeping its word is a wild that that is the stage of the war that we are at. we are about to find out if we are running out of women and children. we have to move on to the next stage. >> trusting the word of people who burned babies and killed grandparents. >> there was an expectation, according to officials, that in this two-day pause extension, there would be around 20 more women and children. we do think we're getting to a point here where hamas will essentially run out of women and children. the question becomes do they start to release elderly men. do they start talking about some of those israeli soldiers. will hamas want more for them. we're really getting to what could be a tipping point once these women and children are all released. is that when israel decides enough is enough. we're going to relaunch this operation. >> i mean, my impression is that the war could resume in the next day or two. that's my sources are telling me. good to see you. great reporting. moments ago we heard from congressman george santos ahead of the big vote tomorrow that could expel him from congress. >> it is a predetermined necessity for some members in this body to engage in this smear cam to destroy me. >> coming up next, a man who wrote a book about the new york republican. and a cnn exclusive, a lawyer that cooked up a plan is now cooperating with prosecutors. what is the significance of that? we'll discuss, coming up. our politics lead is on capitol hill, where it's time for congressman george santos to face the music. no, not the music from the broadway show he claims produced. that's the spiderman musical f you forgot. today the house debated and tomorrow it will vote on whether to expel the new york republican. this after a bipartisan ethics committee report concluded he broke federal laws, stole cash from his campaign and delivered a, quote, constant series of lies to voters and donors. santos allegedly spent thousands of campaign dollars on indications, botox, more botox, and only fans, if you don't know what that is, you can look it up. but santos today remained characteristically defiant, continuing to play the victim and refusing to resign. >> i will not standby quietly. they want me out of this body. the people of the third district of new york sent me here. if they want me out, they'll have to go silence those people and take the hard vote. >> still going with the sweater under the jacket. he called the expulsion vote bullying after checking the dictionary for bullying, i can tell you that the george santos definition does not seem to hold. he also told reporters today if he does get kicked out of congress, he may participate in "dancing with the stars." i'm sure they would accept is. we can only hope that turns out to be another one of his lies though. only five members of congress in history have ever been expelled from the house chamber. it does require a two-thirds majority vote, which is a high bar. while many republicans i peer ready to kick him out, the new house speaker is giving some cover to those who may vote otherwise. >> we're going to allow people to vote their conscious. i have real reservations a about doing this. i'm concerned about a precedent that maybe set for that. >> conscious? interesting. the speaker says some of his reservations stem from the fact that santos has not been convicted in a court of law. that's true. he hasn't. yet. santos is set to go on trial next year. santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges, including allegations of fraud related to covid-19 unemployment benefits, misusing campaign funds, and lying about his personal finances on house disclosure reports. we could fill an entire hour debunking all the other lies this congressman has told. his grandmother was not a victim of the holocaust. he did not have employees killed in the pulse nightclub shooting. and look, while it's fun to joke about this bizarre man, many of his lies have had real consequences. such as do you remember this? he reportedly founded a bogus nanimal charity and he funneled donors hard-earned, generously donated cash to himself under one of his many pseudonyms. and richard joins me now. he's a disabled veteran who says george santos scammed him by stealing money meant for life-saving surgery for his dog. and his dog passed away months later. also with us is the author of "the fabulous." mark, let me start with you. you started covering george santos in 2019 as a columnist at newsday. he's gotten away with a lot over the course of his political career. do you expect him to survive tomorrow's expulsion vote in the house? that's a high bar, two-thirds. >> the only thing i can say with certainty is he's going to keep blusering his way through and not resigning and not apologizing. it's what he's done the whole time. i write about how he was mooching off his grandmother right before he got hit with the check fraud case, and then he escapes back to new york. this is his way of living, as he just with rolls with the punches and keeps going. >> richard, federal officials earlier this year investigating your allegations. when's the last time you heard from investigators an