imm imminent? everyone from the white house to israel officials say we're very, very close. we'll ask an israeli government spokesman where things stand right now. plus, the u.s. launching an air strike on militants in iraq. it follows the 66 earth attack by iran backed groups on u.s. forces in the region. this is a quick response. the read from former defense secretary mark esper. "your world" starts right now. welcome. i'm edward lawrence. from the nation's capitol in for neil cavuto. this is "your world." so jeff paul, we begin with jeff paul in southern israel. when could we see innocent civilians freed? >> that is the million dollar question. we're watching any possible developments that could come out of this israeli government meeting going on right now. we should point out this was previously unscheduled. that might give you an idea of how possibly close they could be to approving a deal that could return hostages back to israel. they are expected to vote on that tonight. this of course all hinges on hamas approving the deal as well. earlier in the day, the chief of hamas put out a statement saying that they are close to reaching a truce. as far as the specific details of the potential deal, that could shift. as it stands, we're thinking 50 israeli hostages would be released. local media here in israel reporting it would include 30 kids, eight moms and 12 women. in exchange, hamas would receive a group of palestinian prisoners and a multiday pause in fighting. the u.s., egypt and qatar have always been involved in the tense negotiations who are all signalling at this very myment a deal cowl happen. >> we're at the closest point we ever have been in reaching an agreement. >> the idf says hey have encircled the last strong hold in gaza. israeli forces hit the area with artillery and air strikes and added that soldiers found three more of those tunnels in the area. and if this agreement were to happen any time soon, it really comes at a critical time, especially for the civilians in gaza that call that area home. this pause in fighting would allow more aid to get in, which right now they're desperate need of, edward. >> edward: thanks, jeff. for the latest on where this deal stands, joining us right now the israeli spokesman. what can you tell us about the time frame and when this deal could be completed, if it is? >> thank you very much for having me on. i can tell you this is an ongoing story. it's been discussed by our war cabinet, been discussed by our broader cabinet and now in the building behind me. it's being discussed by the broader government and will be voted on by that government. this -- as it looks for the moment, this could go on for a number of hours. we anticipate a vote sometime in the next few hours. we're looking, the entire country, is looking on with anguish. we're hoping and praying to see those hostages freed, as you know. hamas is holding 240 israeli civilians hostage, men, women, children, infants and babies. and nine month old baby. we want to focus on who would take a 9-month-old baby hostage at gun point in some undergowned? we're all looking on baited breath to see them with their families. >> outside that building, there's families gathered trying to support a possible deal, families of the hostages. how quickly do you see after a deal is agreed to on your side, the hostages being released? >> well, the process from a constitutional standpoint in israel is that if -- i'm not saying it will, but if the agreement as reported would involve the release of hamas terrorists, prisoners, the families of those people affected by those terrorists would have the ability to appeal that decision for those specific prisoners with the supreme court. so that's a 24-hour window. after that 24-hour window, from our perspective, we could then see the release of those civilians back to their families in israel. it's a day of mixed emotions. >> edward: what is the level of concern in israel that a prisoner released by -- from israel would be someone who organizes that next attack by hamas on to israel? what is the concern with that? >> so it's certainly a worry. but my understanding is that we will not be releasing anyone with blood on their hands. meaning these are terrorists. these are people that have been convicted of terror. but these aren't the people that pulled the trigger. we will be monitoring that situation very closely. >> and how much care goes in to looking at the swapped hostages? are you looking person by person? we're hearing something like 150 prisoners for 50 hostages. so whatever the number is, do you have to go person by person to make sure that they fit that category? >> so i'm sure that's being discussed in the government meeting as we speak. so i can't really speak to that directly. what i can reiterate is what my prime minister said about an hour ago. this by no means is the end of our war against hamas. our war -- the mission of our war is to fully dismantle hamas, to fully dismantle their operation, their governance over gaza. they have led gaza through a regime that we'll bring down. jewish children should never have to cower in closets again or jewish mothers jump on their children to cover them as incoming missiles come in and never again will we allow those barbarians to come through our borders and behead our children. >> edward: so in the last 30 second that we have, how many militants are left in gaza? how many hamas militants are you looking for? and further, would you go after the leadership that is in qatar now? >> so the prime minister has said that any hamas operative is a dead man walking. we have gotten to this stage with the prisoner release being discussed because of the pressure that we put on hamas. we're hitting some of their key bases, the different neighborhoods. that's what got us to where we are today and we'll continue to with our mission to both free all of the 248 hostages and fully dismantle and destroy hamas. >> thanks for your time. we hope there's a break through and get the hostages home. thank you. >> thank you. >> edward: so the president has been deeply involved in getting the hostages out. he's on his way in about an hour to nantucket, massachusetts. that's where we find lucas tomlinson. what is the white house saying about this deal? >> well, as we await word on the freedom of the hostages. biden speak about the potential deal at the white house. >> we're now very close. very close. we could bring the hostages home soon. i'm not going to get in to the details. it's not done until it's done and we have more to say. things are looking good at the moment. >> so while the world awaits for the hostages being released, some of them, there's another air strike in the middle east. this time in iraq for the first time in a month as the attacks on u.s. forces continue. here's what the pentagon had to say. >> know that iran supports, backs, arms, equips, finally supports these groups. so we're hitting them where it hurts. we're hitting weapons storage facilities and completely destroying them. they're no longer of use. we do want to see this conflict contained. >> so it was a u.s. air force ac 130 gunship like this that carried out the air strike turning its 20 millimeter cannons on a vehicle. the pentagon says they were responsible for attacking u.s. forces in al-asad air bases in iraq. the vehicle carried out the attack on u.s. troops sometime over the past 24 hours. again, this is the first u.s. air strike in iraq over the past month. the other three were in syria. there's been 66 attacks against u.s. forces on the 2,500 deployed in iraq and 900 deployed in neighboring syria. so about one air strike for every 28 attacks against u.s. forces across the middle east over the past month. right now, edward, there's still no reaction to this shoot-down of the $32 million reaper drone off of the coast of yemen. we saw iranian backed forces hijack that commercial ship in the red sea. so far there's no response of that. you have the u.s.s. eisenhower strike group and other drones in the area. >> edward: and so close to the suez canal. thanks for your reporting there. now with these attacks by iranian proxies with troops escalating, the u.s. responding with another air strike. coming up, former defense secretary mark esper will talk about, this plus, millions of thanksgiving travelers gearing up for nasty weather coming down. the worst of it expected tonight. we'll have the latest. ♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪ [♪] how you feel can be affected by the bacteria in your gut. try new align probiotic bloating relief plus food digestion. it contains a probiotic to help relieve occasional bloating, plus vitamin b12 to aid digestion. try align probiotic. 18 years from tonight, grant gill will become a legend. when he totally kills it at his improv class's graduation performance. knees will be slapped. suds will be sprayed. people won't know what hurts more: their cheeks, or their sides. that's why he's already keeping himself in-shape and razor sharp today with health tips and wellness tools from aarp. to help make sure his health lives as long as he does. because the younger you are, the more you need aarp. for moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. >> edward: the number of attacks on u.s. forces now totalling 66. with me now, former defense secretary under president donald trump, mark esper. i'm curious first, does the speed at which the u.s. responds after a proxy attack happens matter? >> yes, it's does matter. it's important to show a quick resolve and determination. we've been add this for several weeks. as you noted, 66 attacks, we've responded to four of them. of those 66 attacks over 60 u.s. service members have been injured. anything from shrapnel to traumatic brain injury. our response is simply inadequate. the iranians and their proxies are not being deterred. >> edward: that is my next question. what level of force do you think we need in order to get them to stop? >> well, i think you have to increase the scope, scale and frequency of the attacks. i recall when i was defense secretary in late 2019. an american was killed and attack on our forces. we responded with multiple air strikes against multiple targets and killed 25 malitia men, injuring twice as many as that and saw the attacks subside for a while. that's the type of response you need if you want to deter iranian miss behavior. i know what the administration will say. they're preventing escalation. i argue the opposite. when you don't show adequate resolve, they will keep pushing and could lead to an escalation if you're not careful. >> earlier today on fox business, i spokes with david petraeus. listen to what he told me about getting the proxies to back off. listen to this. >> i don't think that we want to go directly against iran. i don't think iran wants to go directly against us. they're happy to work through proxies. we may have to increase the responses that we've had, the retaliation, for the provocations that they have issued. >> edward: he served under president obama. so why is this administration under willing to take stronger measures against those proxies or go directly after iran? >> you know, given credit for president biden with his moral clarity with his response to attack against it's raleigh. i credited the pentagon with the forces in the eastern mediterranean and the middle east. but the common thread with this white house, they're too afraid to take the appropriate steps. whether it's supplying the ukrainians the equipment that they need to defeat the russians or to respond frequently enough to stop the attacks being perpetrated by iran's proxies. we're just not there yet. we need to match them strike for strike. actually double down on what we do. >> edward: i want to switch gears and talk about israel and hamas. we have seen now there's a debate going on within the war cabinet as to whether they should go forward with this hostage deal that they've been talking about over time. do you feel like -- and the exchange a pause for some period of time. you're familiar with military operations. are you concerned any type of pause for an operation would give hamas a chance to regroup or do you think that that has to happen in order to get these hostages out? >> yes, i think it has to happen in order to get the hostages out. clearly, this is being done for humanitarian reasons, a lot of political pressure to bring back some hostages. by the wayed, these are people that should have never been taken in the first place, this is not a humanitarian gesture by hamas. this is long about their plans. they intended to go on october 7 in to israel to take innocent civilians captive and to bring them back to gaza in order to swap them. so now they will get a three to one swap deal, this is their plan all along. it's something that the israeli government needs to do. it will certainly benefit hamas militarily. they will use the four or five days to regroup, to refit, to rest, reposition. do the things that they need to do president i hope the israelis will stay on top of them. we know the next phase coming up will be a push in to the south. that will be trickier given there's a greater density of people and hamas has moved to southern hamas at this point in time. >> i have 15 seconds left. i want your take on this. elsewhere we saw that the yemen rebels took over a real ship. it was close to the suez canal. that is important in itself, how close it was to that canal. >> well, we have to keep the suez canal hop. all of these things, whether it's the seizure of the ship or the shooting down of an american drone, there has to be responses. if there's no response, they will keep doing it over and over again. whether it's the houthis in yemen or the malitias in syria. they'll keep pushing until they get what they want. >> edward: thanks for doing this. now president joe biden under pressure over his response to the israel-hamas war from the effort to bring american hostages home to the response on the attacks of our troops overseas. bob cusack with me now. how does this play politically with the president? >> it's a problem, this is not like legislation where the left can blame republicans in congress for blocking climate change or gun legislation. this is president biden's foreign policy.it mostly favors obviously israel. a lot on the left don't like that. this is not going to end. this war is going to go well in to 202024 and beyond, this is a problem for the president. >> americans are watching attack after attack on u.s. troops with a handful of responses. some people say, where is the eye for an eye on these attacks on the u.s. troops. seemingly lack of that response. does that hurt the president's image in the president when they don't see this retaliation? >> i think your interview was very good with esper. he says if they don't respond, we'll keep doing this. 's been surprised how bold and aggressive iran has gotten after october 7 and the horrible attacks. it's not going to stop. >> edward: the number of voters -- a number of these voter issues we're seeing are seven inflicted around the globe. here at home as well as in other places. you have oil prices that have given iran more money. what is your take on that? he could turn this around easily, right? >> yeah, remember, joe biden is known for being a foreign policy guy. robert gaetz says he's been wrong on so many issues the last four decades. but he was foreign relations committee chairman and the after again stan thing, we'll be reminded of, which was a tragedy. 13 troops died. this is not good for the president. he promised calmness and the world is on fire. >> edward: why not just change the policies? >> well, that -- i think he's also a bit hamstrung by his own party. he does not want to divide them further. we know whichever party is usually most unified is winning. we have a long way to go to the election. the republicans are divided on the speakership. now the democrats are divided on these wars. >> edward: you think he can turn this around? we saw the 2022 mid-terms. republicans were up big and it wasn't that wave that they thought it would be. now the president is severely under we're. but he has other challenges. he's 81 years old. >> yes. he had a good election in the mid-terms and the 2023 was pretty good for democrats in virginia. i think the president should embrace the underdog status, which obama did running for re-election. yes, he says watch me. i'm not old. embrace it. you always have to be paranoid when you're running elections. otherwise, you lose. >> edward: with the mess we're seeing with inflation, the mess around the globe, how close is this next presidential election? >> it's a toss-up and the third parties could play the deciding role without a doubt. >> edward: that's a prediction. thanks, bob. delays are piling up and rain pours down on travelers. more on the troubles you could face coming home for the holidays. meet the lawmakers that want students groups to shut down the anti-israel protests. , too. and it's natural. treat it that way with aveeno® daily moisture. formulated with nourishing, prebiotic oat. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 24 hours. aveeno® the chase ink business premier card is made for sam who makes, everyday products, designed smarter. genius! like 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, so sam can make smart ideas, a brilliant reality! chase for business. make more of what's yours. the first time you connected your godaddy website and your store was also the first time you realized... well, we can do anything. cheesecake cookies? the chookie! manage all your sales from one place with a partner that always puts you first. (we did it) start today at godaddy.com >> edward: impulse buying now, pay for it later. your retirement funds could take a hit if you're not careful. holiday saving tips are coming up. - bye, bye cough. - later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm. it's comeback season. lowe's knows black friday savings should be more than just one day. that's why we're giving you black friday deals every day. where you can find the best value all november long. shop now and save big, in-store or online. >> edward: fox on top of airports filling unand delays an cancellations piling up. more than 2,000 at last check in the u.s. alone. all of this as wicked weather may have some drivers giving up. fox weather forecast in a moment. first to jeff flock who is at philadelphia international airport where the holiday exodus is on. jeff? >> edward, if you're not going anywhere, good for you. this is not the best day to travel. the wet weather has come to philadelphia now as perhaps you see. yeah, it's a big storm. more on that in a second. first, here's what it looks like inside the terminal. we have pictures of the tsa lines. they come and ebb and flow. but there's times that the tsa doesn't look good. you have to wait awhile. that will be expected on a thanksgiving travel holiday. the real problem is that weather that i mentioned to you. the weather that has brought severe damage in parts of