consider the terms of a temporary truce. what could be an imminent deal to release dozens of hostages. a senior u.s. official and source familiar with the talks in the region tell nbc that would include hamas freeing around 50 women and children in change for 150 palestinian prisoners being held by israel. in addition, fighting would be paused for several days to allow for fuel and other aid to get in. president biden sounding optimist, saying it's looking good to bring the hostages home and we expect this deal to dominate at a pentagon press briefing that is scheduled to start any minute now. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin with raf sanchez who reports from tel aviv. what more to we know about what this deal entails? whether israel is going to go along with it? do we know which meeting netanyahu is in right now? >> reporter: so, chris, he is still in this meeting with the full cabinet. it has been going on for an hour. we think it could go on for a while. all these politicians around the able will have their say then at the end, there will a vote on whether to approve this deal. every indication we have is prime minister netya has the votes to approve thisgreement although we have heard from several far right cabinet ministers thahelan to oppose this. iner of the broad outlines of thede, the israeli cabinet members are looking at, here's what we know. it is for 50 hostages. women and children, to be released roughly ten eveay over the course of four days in exchange, there will be days of cease fe and israel will release some 150 palestinian women and children who are being held in israeli prisons. israel also will agree according to sources filr with the deal, to suspend drone flights overhead gaza for a limited period of time each day. that is so hamas can feel confident that it can get these hostages from the disparate locations they're being held at without israel tracking the movements of their leadership. we also expect that hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid will be allowed from egypt into gaza as part of this deal. now, chris, there are many, many complicating factors here. one of them is that under israeli law, victims of the palestinian prisoners who are slated to be released have a 24 hour period in which they can appeal to the israeli supreme court asking the court to block the release of these prisoners. now, the court has never stepped in in the past to derail a high stakes political diplomatic gauche yass like this but it is just one of the many twists and turns in between where we are now, which is a tentative deal on the table and this being implemented. >> and we're learning that two doctors from doctors without borders and another doctor were killed following a strike on gaza. what more do you know about that? >> it's part of the increasingly dire situation in hospitals right now. the hamas-run health ministry is saying there are no functioning hospitals at this point. we have watched this domino effect of hospitals going out of service starting with al-shifa, the biggest hospital inside of gaza. losing power, losing electricity. israel saying that it is a major hamas command center and even today amid all this talk of a hostage deal, the israeli military is releasing more footage of what it says is a tunnel underneath al-shifa hospital, but we have seen doctors, patients, civilians at or around these hospitals being killed over recent days including at the indonesian hospital, a hospital up in the north of the gaza strip that was surrounded by israeli tanks. 12 patients inside the hospital were killed by israeli shelling. the israeli military says militants opened fire on them from inside of the medical facility although they deny shelling it. chris? >> horrible reminder of the dangers for doctors without borders as they continue to do their extraordinary work. raf sanchez, thank you for that. now to the white house and gabe gutierrez is standing by. president biden earlier spoke about this in the last hour, sounded somewhat optimistic tone about the possibility of this initial release. what role if any did the united states play in getting this done? >> as you said, president biden and the biden administration is hopeful but cautious but for the past several weeks, the biden administration has been working with its partners in the middle east to try and secure this. if you recall several weeks ago during the release of those early hostages, the white house went out of its way to thank qatar for its role in acting as a go between between israel and hamas. the president also making a point that his national security team has been on the ground in the middle east shuffling between capitals over the last several days, trying to make this happen, but they have been very cautious not to publicly confirm the details of any potential deal because of the fear that it could fall apart at any moment. again, we're waiting to hear whether the israeli government signs off on the deal. we just heard from the state department regarding questions about this tentative deal. take a listen. >> we are very close to an agreement. but we are not there yet. as you have heard us say a number of times over the past course of the past few weeks, nothing is final until everything is final and at this point, everything is not yet final, but we are close. the israeli cabinet is meeting to discuss this matter right now. we are in close conversations with them as we are with the government of qatar, whose been helping to facilitate discussions since the early days of the crisis. we are hopeful to have good news for the hostages and their families. >> again, hopeful to have some good news for the hostage families. they are anxiously awaiting. >> we want to go to the pentagon. the spokesperson is taking questions. >> determine the point of origin from where the close range ballistic missile is being fired upon or to the base. so they were able to take action because they saw the militants. they were able to keep an eye on the movement of these militants as they moved into their vehicles and that's why they were able to respond. i wouldn't say this is the first time we have responded. again, we don't read out every single time that how a certain system or capability takes down a drone or rocket attack. we have had other cases where we have responded in retaliation when we're able to identify the point of origin. it's not our first time. but it is just something that you know, has been of course publicly reported and so wanted to make sure that all the facts are out there. >> just to follow up one other topic. you said it's not the first time that you've responded but i think you've announced basically all these other strikes and said it's been a weapons storage facility and if people have been killed. because of the strike, not because they were being targeted specifically. so you're not saying like the specific militants -- do you have any idea who these militants were? >> iranian backed militia members but again, just to differentiate, we have taken three strikes in self-defense but those were preplanned. so a little different here in terms of the nuance of how we're talking about this self-defense strike we took what was it? early morning i think our time eastern time. we were able to identify the point of origin of these attacks because an ac-130 was up in the area and was able to respond. we do of course read out any retaliatory action or self-defense strikes we take. just want to sort of put these into separate buckets as we talk about them. yes, but again, it wasn't planned. so we were able, there was an ac-130 up in the air that was able to identify the point of origin and respond. >> just separate topic. as these negotiations for hostage release continue, part of what has been negotiated is that there might be a pullback of any surveillance. does this include u.s. surveillance systems? would the u.s. pull back its drones? >> yeah, i think you saw the president speak to this today. that while we are certainly heartened by the way the conversations are going, there's still not a deal reached until there is one. i'm just got going to get ahead of anything we will or won't do when it comes to isr or anything we are doing when it comes to hostage recovery. from the embassy of course but i don't have more details and don't want to get ahead of any deal that might happen. >> whether or not it's a part of it, is that one of the options? >> i'm just is not going to get into further details on it. >> north korea has confirmed north korea has successfully placed spy satellite into orbit. >> we are aware of the dprk's launch of a space launch vehicle and are consulting with iraq and japan as well as other regional allies and partners. i can confirm we are aware of that, but are still assessing the success of the launch. >> the new spy satellite would potentially enhance north korea's military capability. does that require more u.s. military assets in the region? >> i'm not going to speculate because we don't know if it was successful. again, this is something we continue to work with our partners in the region with rock and japan to continue to assess. we know this is another example of destabilizing action in the region. and we again just reiterate our very firm commitment to the republic of korea and japan but how it's going to affect the dprk's military capabilities, i just won't be able to comment on that. >> strikes since october 7th. >> you mean since october 17th. yes. as you know, again, trying to parse out the two buckets. i don't have the exact details of all the responses we've done, whether in syria or iraq. for the three strikes that we have announced, those were all in syria. for the one again that took place early this morning, we had an aircraft that was able to identify where the close range ballistic missile was being shot from and therefore we were able to take action. >> i don't have the answer to that. >> outlining that so far in syria and iraq, there have been 58 attacks on u.s. service members. that does not include what we saw last night. i want to bring in courtney from the pentagon. what more do we know about this air strike in iraq and any other headlines you've heard? >> so the two things that make this strike the u.s. took in iraq different from what we have been seeing is number one, the location. it was in iraq. the previous strikes that the u.s. has been taking in retaliation for the attacks on bases of americans in iraq and syria have all taken place in syria. specifically in northeastern and eastern syria. this was in iraq in response to an attack on al assad air base. it's in western iraq. what's also different is this u.s. strike occurred almost immediately after the attack on the base. another thing that's very notable here. sabrina confirmed it was a short range ballistic missile that was fired on al assad air base. what seems to be if this is an iranian backed militia group, we believe it's hezbollah, that would be a new capability for them. we know there were several u.s. service members who received minor injuries from the attack and there was minor damage to the infrastructure on the base but as sabrina just laid out, there was an ac-130 gun ship overhead nearby at the time. now, what the u.s. is able to see when there's an attack like this, they're able to very quickly trace back where the attack imnated from. if they had an ac-130 overhead, they'd be able to get to the site quickly, identify the individuals who fired that missile and they conducted a strike on a vehicle with some of these iranian backed militia group members in the group and several were killed here, chris. >> courtney, thank you so much for that. i know you'll continue to listen to the briefing. get back to us if there's any big news made. still ahead, the major logistical challenges that would come with a hostage handover of this size. we have national security and hostage rescue experts standing by next. we're back in 60 seconds. 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[deep breath] we are following the breaking news. israel's full cabinet meeting on a possible deal to free hostages 46 days after that deadly surprise october 7th attack by hamas. joining us now, former cia officer and nbc national security and intelligence officer. rob, former member of the fbi's hostage rescue team. with me onset, nbc news senior executive editor for national security, david rode. so good to have you here. david, help us go inside this meeting. full government officials meeting with prime minister netanyahu. how much of these conversations and it's been more than an hour now, how much is logistical? how much is military? how much is political? >> i think a lot of it is political. i think netanyahu wants as much political support as he can get. he'd love for this to be a unanimous vote for the cabinet in favor of this deal, but there are reports of some differences. he's under a great deal of pressure. remember, netanyahu in one sense is responsible for the horrific loss of life and not being prepared. hamas is the most responsible. but when this as time passes, there will be accountable on the israeli side for not being ready for a possible attack for hamas. so i think that's the key dynamic here. are there certain sort of more nationalist parties on the right in israel who are saying no, no pause, no hostage deal. continue this offensive. >> the pressure though from the families has just gotten more and more. you can obviously understand what they've been going through. they don't see the red cross going in. they don't see movement. just a lot of death and there's a lot. >> it's terrible. i just want to emphasize all of this is hamas' fault. kidnapping is like a cruel and cowardly crime. >> as you well know. >> as i know from many years of the taliban. so it is the kidnappers' fault. many times you'll see this happen where families get frustrated with their governments. american families have been frustrated with the u.s. government. why can't you just make a trade for my loved one and there is a long-term strategic question. are you encouraging more hostage taking if you make this deal? israel has waged war for 45 days. the israeli military has taken control of northern gaza much quicker and without as many house to house battles on the ground as i expected so that's a big achievement for israel. you have 13,000 palestinians who have died. 5,000 of them are reported to be children. so the other equation here is as you have more anger in the region, more anger on palestinians, does -- free hostages and bring temperatures down in the region. yes, hamas will re-group. that could cost the lives of some israeli soldiers in the future, but this could help bring down temperature, save hostages and i think israel will continue its offensive. it's very determined. it will target hamas. anyway, it's a pivotal moment for netanyahu. >> so, rob, let's make the assumption and it is an assumption at this point that there is some sort of deal. it's certainly indications have been good. talk about the logistical challenges of carrying this out. >> i mean, it's most complicated to the point actually making it happen. we've had exchanges go down where we have having people get on a plane and it stop and we have to put them back in a prison and it went the next day because something fell at the last minute. so when they talk about the hostage, it wasn't 50 up front. it was five and ten each. so again, going through those things gets very dangerous. you might have groups on either side not wanting it to happen could do something to it. and hamas is worried about the drones following from where the hostages came from which may give away their location that could lead to hostage rescue in the future is what they're afraid of. but yeah, it is the most complicated. you could have two days of it go well and the third day it breaks down and something goes bad. >> you understand why i've heard hostages say in the back until i touch down on u.s. sail in the case of these hostages, they really didn't want to get their hopes up. mark, under this agreement, israel would suspend overhead flights for up to six hours per day so hamas could consolidate the remaining hostages, but overall, they're talking about some form of a stop in the fighting. what questions do you have? >> so this is really interesting because two things can be true at once. first of all, netanyahu and the government is under intense pressure from the families and israel has always had a social contract. that you know, hostages will always, will never be forgotten. always try to recover their hostages. so it's a deal they felt like they had to make. but we also can look at this kind of clinically and for the idf, the israeli defense forces, this is not a great deal. it's a four or five-day cease fire. it gives them time to re-group. israeli soldiers on the ground may be in danger and the notion of sus suspension of isr flights. perhaps you can off set that a bit by flying in israeli air space. there's a u.s. drone that's flying hostage recovery missions. so in these instance, there are certainly benefits. there's going to be some families who are reunited and it's incredibly joyous but there's some costs, too. for the israeli establishment, this is a hard one to swallow. there's going to be questions there and that's why you see some controversy there within the netanyahu government. >> we were talking in the last hour, rob, about how this decision gets made, about who gets released and it is going to be apparently women and children. having said that, that raises the possibility of families. there are families, multiple members of single families taken hostage that they could be broken up. some family members could go home. some could not. i wonder about that part of it but also does it make it easier, harder, to continue to release more hostages in the future or is what's happening now unrelated to what might happen going forward? >> i think a lot of it for hamas is a business deal. i think they plan this out. they purposely took hostages for this exact reason. in order to pause this. i think they expected the israelis to hit them hard and the hostages were going to use pauses and get other negotiations. so they planned this. none of it is easy. the families are going to be drawn so much, especially if they're split. we've never seen this large of a group of hostages be taken and then be dealt with over time where it may split them. so it's kind of unheard of. and it's going to be complex and it's going to have the after effects that go years. >> i want to play some of what happened when israeli politicians and hostage families met yesterday. >> mark, all around the world, the pressure has built on benjamin netanyahu but he has seemed unwaivering in all of this. how do you separate and that's exactly what david and i were talking about. he says he thinks this is