without their loved ones? dozens of israeli and palestinian families holding their collective breaths, waiting to see if a deal to release 200 hostages and prisoners will actually happen, and if their family members will be among those coming home. in just a few minutes, i'll talk to one woman whose three relatives were kidnapped including 12 and 16-year-old siblings. and we could get brand new details on how all of this will unfold when israeli prime minister netanyahu holds a press conference just a little over an hour from now. here in the u.s., anyone planning to travel today for thanksgiving will have plenty of company. 2.7 million americans expected to fly today alone. an estimated 49 million hitting the rough roads through the weekend. the good news, the storms that made things so messy earlier this week are mostly gone. we'll have the latest coming up. and the more trump the better? an emerging democratic political strategy that puts the former president front and center, the goal as one political activist says, to remind people of what a total and absolute disaster trump was. is that really democrats' best shot to win? so lots to get to, but we begin with the growing anticipation that hostages could start returning home as soon as tomorrow. that's according to israeli officials, and national security adviser jake sullivan now says at least three of them are likely to be americans. they are among at least 50 women and children currently being held in gaza, expected to be freed after israel and hamas agreed to a deal negotiated by the u.s., egypt, and qatar. it will also include the release of 150 palestinians from israeli jails. now, the logistics are sure to be a high wire act. one critical component is the four-day pause in fighting that a senior hamas official says is set to begin tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. local time, which is 3:00 a.m. eastern. that will be a serious test in trust. the deal also includes an option to extend the pause in fighting in exchange for ten israeli hostages today and a proportionate release of palestinian women and children. again, all of that according to an israeli official. so far now, families and friends are filled with hope and fear as the agonizing wait to see if their loved ones are among those released continues. >> it's a moment i see them and hug them, then i know that my nightmare is finished. until then, everything's open. it's very delicate and fragile. >> are you able to in your heart, are you able to allow yourself ethiopia at this stage? >> yes, yes, of course, that's what i got. hope. >> have you allowed yourself to think about what you might say to her the first time you see her? >> i don't think i will speak. i will just hold her and hug her. >> nbc's raf sanchez has more for us from tel aviv. raf, a mother of one of the hostages said it feels like russian roulette to her. do we have any idea of when we could see the first hostages move or what these four days could realistically look like? >> reporter: so chris, here's our understanding of the time line right now. both hamas and an israeli official i spoke to little while ago say the plan is for the cease fire to go into effect 10:00 a.m. local time, 3:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow. we expect at that point the guns to go silent and critically for israeli drones to stop flying overhead in gaza for a number of hours. at that point hamas fighters, officials, leaders will begin moving around and gathering these hostages, we think 10 or 12, slated for release tomorrow. after that, we expect them to be handed over to the international committee of the red cross. they will either go straight to the israel-gaza border, or they will go south to the rafah crossing with egypt, into egypt, and then they will be handed over to israeli officials. we have seen both of those models used when those four hostages were released earlier on several weeks ago. but as you saw, chris, the families of these hostages still do not know whether it is their loved ones who are coming out tomorrow. we spoke a little earlier today to a grandfather. his name is gilad. two of his grandchildren, including his 3-year-old granddaughter, are being held in gaza right now, and he told us that until he has them in his arms, this nightmare is not over. take a listen. >> i saw him here, i see him here in house, then i will believe it. i don't believe nothing yet. >> if you could speak to your family now, what would you tell them? >> that i promise that i do anything to release them. >> reporter: and chris, just agony for that grandfather, agony for so, so many families in israel, in the united states, around the world. chris, i can tell you that the israeli government has drawn up incredibly detailed guidelines about how to handle these children when they emerge from gaza. remember, we believe that they have been held in tunnels for most, if not all of the 47 days that they have been held hostage. they may not have seen sunlight. they may have seen and experienced terrible things. so beyond just the medical care that they need, the israeli government is telling israeli soldiers when they first encounter the hostages, these children, don't pick them up without permission. you don't know what they've been through. they have been forced to do things. don't pick then u. they're saying limit the number of visitors. you can imagine the entire family is going to want to hug, to be around these kids when they are free. you have to limit the number of visitors. don't over stimulate them, and finally, these israeli soldiers have been instructed, if the kids ask questions about their parents, don't answer them. say you don't know. it's not for you to give answers. and chris, that is going to be especially relevant in the case of abigail, that 3-year-old american toddler. she turns 4 on friday. she may very well have questions about her parents, and her parents were both murdered on october 7th. it's not clear whether she knows that or not. chris. >> unspeakable horror, raf sanchez, thank you for that. i want to bring in nbc senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. now, president biden called this deal a testament to tireless diplomacy. having said that, how confident are u.s. officials that this -- at least the first part of this deal will come off smoothly? >>. >> reporter: well, chris, that's a real challenge at this point because what it took to get to this point, an agreement that was supported by the israeli, that was brokered in large part with the help of the qataris and with influence from the american president, to get to this point was so difficult. and now the reality is kind of a reset of the clock, with everything that you and raf have laid out about how there will be points along the way here where it could simply fall apart, where there could be a resurgence of violence, which is not supposed to be what's happening, and so there is real risk. and the moving of the hostages who will be designated as a part of this needs to take place, and then the release over time. so getting to a deal seemed like an end, but it actually just begins a new phase of this. earlier today, the national security adviser jake sullivan talked about the pressure that's now on hamas, now that they have agreed to this and the steps that are coming. >> really now, the ball is in hamas's court. israel has said that it will continue a cease fire day by day as long as hamas continues to release hostages. so if hamas has any care or concern for continuing a pause in the hostilities, and frankly, any sense of responsibility, it will continue to release hostages and this pause can continue day by day as hostages come out, that would be the best possible outcome. it's an outcome the united states government, president biden have advocated for. >> reporter: and the president is here on nantucket with his family for the thanksgiving holiday, and certainly grateful for the progress that has been made. we do not expect to see or hear from him today beyond the fulsome statement that he put out in writing. and of course part of that is the sort of unsettled time we are in, wanting to hold the deal, to make certain it goes forward, not wanting to tip by saying too much publicly. that's the guidance we've been given by officials, and certainly the president has more work to do because the best expectation we have at this point is that the deal includes three americans. there are roughly nine americans as best as the u.s. has been able to assess, who are in hamas custody or in gaza in the hands of captors, and of course the president is also deeply involved in trying to assist in ways he can for the israelis and other nationals who are a part of this or swept up on october 7th and taken to gaza. so a lot more work to do. there is certainly a sense that this is in a positive place now, but it's fragile. certainly fragile, chris. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. i want to bring in dennis ross, he's the counselor for the washington institute for neri's policy, and msnbc senior director for the central region. also with me, senior analyst at the times of israel, ha vooef gur. thank you both for being here. dennis, now that this deal is in place, give us insights based on your experience. what are both sides likely doing now, right now behind the scenes? >> oh, i think they're preparing for what's going to happen tomorrow. it is fair to describe this as fragile, but it's also in each side's interests to see it happen. interestingly enough, it's probably in hamas's interest even more than israel's. it gives them a respite. they're going to get palestinian prisoners released as part of this. palestinian prisoners are having iconic status among palestinians. this will be something that will look like a game for hamas. they have every incentive to carry it out, and i expect that they will. but look, these arehe kind of things that they're never done until they're actually done. >> and haviv, i want to play a bit more of what one mother told our keir simmons. take a listen. >> all i know is that the israeli government have to bring everybody back home, everybody. not to leave anyone behind. this is their mission. >> try to get a pause for longer so that more hostages can -- >> they have to bring everybody back. everybody. nobody should be in gaza. >> we know that the pressure had been building on prime minister netanyahu. we're going to hear from him just about an hour from now. what would you expect? >> i think netanyahu is going to steal us for the possibility that it won't work out. obviously it all depends on hamas cooperating, but i have to tell you, israeli officials are very optimistic, similar to what dennis said. when the negotiations were underway, hamas very quickly lowered the number that it expected, you knows, in 2011 we had a prisoner exchange of one israeli soldier, including some of the murders that took part on october 7th, were released in 2011 in that prisoner exchange. now it's down to 3 to 1, and it's not actually hamas fighters being released. what hamas cared about in the negotiations were those days of cease fire, and so thesraelis asss that hamas dperately needs those days, and it's going to be releasing the roughly ten a day until roughly eight days pass, which is the maximum that it probably has to release. >> what do we know about the 300 palestinians or so who are going to be released? >> they include women. they include minors. minors is not 4-year-old children, minors is teenagers who try to -- attempted murder or even murder, but these are not hamas fighters, but they are people who many of them feel affiliated with hamas. they are in israeli prisons for terrorism offenses of various kinds. each one is a different story. one of the interesting points is that they're going to be released to wherever they want. in the past prisoner release is the prisoner incentive, leave the country or go to one specific place. israel has no such conditions this time around. hamas didn't demand conditions. it didn't -- you know, this was -- i think the prisoner exchange itself is secondary to hamas next to the actual cease fire. >> so dennis, let me ask you about something that the qataris had to say. they released an official statement, and it says in part, quote, we hope this agreement can pave the way for a sustainable end to the war, after which the international community needs to come together to support a comprehensive political process that can finally bring this decades' long conflict to an end. is that optimistic, unrealistic? what happens? let's say the pause in fighting works. then what? >> if the pause in fighting leaves hamas in power in gaza, then we will see this again. hamas rejects the very idea of peace in israel. it's not about ending occupation, it's about ending israel. so if this pause leads to an enduring cease fire, it means that hamas basically has won. the u.s. and i think israel together both look at this as something that is essential for humanitarian purposes. look, there is an imperative to get these hostages out. if this was purely being governed by military considerations on the israeli side, they wouldn't be doing this right now. hamas does have an interest, not only because they can point to getting prisoners out, they need the pause because they're under immense military pressure from the israelis. so the statement is nice at a level of abstraction. what is really required is to get beyond this -- one way to get beyond this is to have all the hamas leaders release gaza. and then you save the palestinians in gaza. then you can create a different administration in gaza, but so long as hamas is in control of gaza, so long as they basically are in a position to continue to pursue their ideology, which is rejection of israel, the idea of any peace is really an illusion. >> haviv gur, thank you, and dennis ross, you'll be back with us later in the hour. appreciate you both. coming up, one of the family members waiting, hoping that her loved ones will soon come home from gaza. a father and his two children who will be on the list to be released. but first, travel trouble for millions ahead of thanksgiving, the latest forecast in just 60 seconds. e crohn's disease. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are looking up, i've got symptom relief. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. and the majority of people experienced long-lasting remission at one year. 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. ♪ now's the time to ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohn's with skyrizi. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. treacherous weather is leaving travelers scrambling to get to their thanksgiving tables. with winter storms bringing rain, wind, snow across the central u.s. and east right now. already airports knew that they'd be jugging what could be the busiest thanksgiving on record. take a look at the line for security that's been wrapping around the terminal in philadelphia or maybe we won't. and on the roads, accidents. in new hampshire, authorities are urging people to drive slowly because the highways are coated in snow, already causing a collision that folded a tractor-trailer in half. in massachusetts, the power company national grid says it's preparing for downed power lines and the state government says it has 400 pieces of equipment deployed to handle problems caused by freezing rain. nbc's trymaine lee is live from new jersey's newark liberty internationals also with me nbc meteorologist bill karins. what are you seeing? >> reporter: all day folks have been pouring in and out of north liberty international airport. many of them had their prayers answered and their fingers were crossed that everything would go smoothly, and it had. especially considering the tsa was expecting this could be the busiest travel day ever during the holiday, nearly 3 million people traveling by air today. some people said it was kind of a smooth, easy path, but others weren't so lucky. i talked to some of those folks. check it out. >> not as crazy as i thought it would be. >> we thought it would be way busier, and it's been pretty easy getting through. >> how are things going so far? >> pretty terrible. >> terrible, what happened? >> so we were supposed to get home yesterday from costa rica, but they delayed us, and then they sent us to florida, and then after florida we ended up here, but we missed work. i'm tired, i've never felt more exhausted in my life. >> reporter: despite that one traveler's experience, most of the folks we talked to said it was relatively smooth, and they're hoping that things continue. again, we're in the middle of the afternoon rush now, and folks are still, again, hoping that everything goes smoothly, chris. >> all right, so bill, is the worst of the storm behind us? that's the big question. >> almost for everyone, not quite, though, in areas of maine, we're exiting the outer banks with all our heavy rainfall. here's the heavy rain that was over wilmington, savannah, charleston earlier. it looks like the rain is ending in areas from myrtle beach to charleston. another hour you'll with all cleared out. boston you've cleared out, from portland, maine, this is messy, snow, sleet, everything. i-95, that's the worst of it. airport delays, so far so good. i mean, the winds are picking up a little bit. we are green across the board from baltimore to washington d.c., all the airports in new york are doing pretty well, and including even logan after that heavy rain this morning. no significant delays. so for thanksgiving day, we are good to go. almost everywhere, the exception, our friends in wyoming, casper, lander, cheyenne, you're going to be dealing with a snowstorm on your thanksgiving day. so keep that in mind for anyone traveling through the state. by the time we get to friday, that snow is going to be in colorado. denver's going to get some snow out of this too. it looks like the highest total is up to a foot for casper, cheyenne, locally around 6 inches of snow. fairly significant early season snowstorm for you. saturday is pretty quiet on the east coast. that snowstorm ends in kansas, and chris, they say that sunday is actually the busiest travel day on the roads and in the area. everyone getting back home. that's where we're going to see a storm system moving through the great lakes with light snow and rain down along the gulf coast. eastern seaboard you're fine, everyone in the west is fine. sunday we shouldn't see too many cancellations, maybe just a couple of delays, especially o'hare and detroit. >> keep our fingers crossed, bill, thank you so much. and still to come, inside the biden campaign's new re-election strategy to turn up the attention on donald trump. will it work? you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. hris jang reports" onlony msnbc sofia vergara: dwight was a 13-year-old kid with cancer, when he came to st. jude. dwight: this kid is now 73 years old. sofia vergara: that's what we do at st. jude. marlo thomas: give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give a gift that could last a lifetime. hi, my name is damion clark. if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. all of these plans include a healthy options allowance, a monthly allowance to help pay for eligible groceries, utilities, rent, and over-the-counter items. the healthy options allowance is loaded onto a prepaid card each month. and whatever you don't spend, carries over from each month. other benefits on these plans include free rides to and from your medical appointments. and our large networks of doctors, hospitals and pharmacies. so, call the number on your screen now and ask about a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. humana. a more human way to healthcare. in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to a $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yep, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network and that powers more businesses than anyone else. learn how you can get $1000 back for your business today. comcast business. powering possibilities. we've got some breaking news to tell you about from niagara falls. the rainbow bridge, that's the famous arch bridge across the niagara river gorge, it goes from niagara falls u.s. to niagara falls canada. it's closed until further notice. an erie county executive says all western bridge crossings between the u.s. and canada have been closed because of the incident. the eerie county sheriff says that there's been an incident involving a vehicle coming into the u.s., and new york's governor kathy hochul tweeted that she's been briefed on the incident, is closely monitoring. we'll have updates for you as soon as we get them. that rainbow bridge iconic and about a mile away from the famous falls. meantime, an apparent change in strategy from the joe biden campaign. one of the things that they've been looking at is, as "the new york times" puts it, ignoring the former guy. democrats now want him plastered all over the news. in other words, more trump. the former president has been relatively quiet out of the headlines and off mainstream social media. democrats are hoping that more attention on him can help turn around president biden's fortune. former republican congressman carlos curbelo is an msnbc analyst and he joins us now. so carlos, i think we saw this, right, in the closing days of the 2016 campaign. we saw donald trump get uncharacteristically quiet, uncharacteristically disciplined. he seems to be a little lower than he has been in the past. are democrats right to be worried? do they need to keep it out there front and center who they see trump to be, which is dangerous. >> well, chris, typically donald trump does best when he's out of the news. a lot of his advisories in 2016 advised him to stay quiet towards the end of that campaign, and that certainly did work out for him, and let's think back at what happened in 2022, the midterm elections. republicans were doing well, polling indicated that republicans could have historic wins that fall, and then donald trump went out and started stumping for some of these candidates in swing states and swing districts in states like arizona and others, and what happened? as donald trump became more and more prominent in the news, republicans did worse and worse, and their polling numbers started coming down. and sure, republicans did have some gains in '22, but nowhere near what people had anticipated so this change in strategy by the biden campaign certainly seems like it makes sense. people need to be reminded of who donald trump is, and he needs to be compared to president biden. right now president biden is struggling in the polls and we certainly saw that in the last nbc news poll because he's not being measured against the alternative. people are just looking at him and his record, and sure, he's struggling but making donald trump more prominent certainly seems like it would make a lot of sense. >> here's the argument for why the strategy won't work. doesn't everyone on the planet already know about donald trump? you've got those who either firmly are against him, those who support him. so whatever he says, are there really still many persuadable voters out there? >> well, there's a small universe of persuadable voters, chris, that's certainly true. most people have very firm opinions about donald trump, but the voters who decide elections, the voters who make a difference in states like wisconsin and michigan and georgia, these voters do swing, and we've seen them swing in past elections. people who supported barack obama but also supported donald trump. so those are the voters that both campaigns have to win if they want to win this next election in 2024. we know how evenly divided the electorate is, and it's those voters who will -- who will choose the winner. >> let me read a little more from the times reporting, quote, behind the improbable longing for the former president to gobble up political oxygen again is demoats' years long dependence on the trump ouage machine. since hiss aen mr. trump has been a one-man democratic turnout operation uniting a fractured opposition and fueling victories in three straight election cycles. i guess the question is whether this combination of fear and loathing that we know a lot of democrats have will juice turnout or are they so disillusioned, disaffected, especially with their concerns about joe biden's age, ability to serve four more years and the lack of an alternative that they'll just stay home, which is the rough equivalent of voting for the other guy? >> yeah, i think what you just read is exactly right. donald trump is his own worst enemy. and donald trump has been a gift to democrats when it comes to turnout in recent elections. donald trump gets people fired up on the left, and yes, a lot of these voters are disillusioned with president biden, especially a lot of young voters. so if president biden cannot motivate those voters to turn out, certainly it makes sense to try to remind those voters of the alternative, which many of them have reacted to in the past to get them to show up at the polls. so this really seems like the best strategy that democrats have right now with an incumbent on the ballot who is not popular and who's struggling to get his base motivated. a lot of times your opponent is better at motivating your base than you are yourself, and certainly i think we're going to see that play out with democrats, as we get closer and closer to this election. >> former congressman carlos curbelo, happy thanksgiving to you and yours, it's always good to have you on the show. >> thanks. more americans are armed now than ever before. a new nbc news poll finds that gun ownership is hitting record levels across the u.s. 52% of americans now say they or soon in their household owns a gun. that's up 10 points in the past ten years, and the highe the poll has ever rerd. the jump was particularly pronounced among black americans, where gun ownership jumped 17 points from 24 to 41% in just the past four years. a january 6th rioter who represented himself at trial has been found guilty, uing a defense that the judge described as gobbledygook. the jury only deliberate add few hours after a trial that also included the suspect questioning an fbi agent over whether he accepted his apology. nbc's ryan reilly is following this for us. ryan is the author of the book "sedition hunters: how january 6th broke the justice system." you can't make this stuff up, ryan. who is this guy? walk us through what happened in this case. >> yeah, so he's an individual from washington state. he was very early on arrested by the fbi in one of the earliest arrests in february of 2021, but finally, this case went to trial and he chose to represent himself. this was a jury trial, but he came in with a sort of sovereign citizen language and was trying to basically say he wanted to accept what the government was saying, but didn't want to plea. he basically wasn't accepting the underlying court system here, and how this sort of process works. so he ended up, it did go to a jury trial, and he ended up questioning a couple of the witnesses including that fbi agent who was on the stand and asking the fbi agent about what he had planned coming up to january 6th and asking them do you forgive me? do you forgive me for what i tweeted out, what i said on facebook, and the attack he took on pushing that police line towards the capital on january 6th. the fbi agent responded that that wasn't his place. this wasn't much of a mystery how this case was under the -- ultimately going to come down. all the evidence sort of lined up. what surprised him is that he was taken into custody after all of this, after he was found guilty by that jury. the judge had warned him about that in a pretrial conference saying essentially when the jury finds you guilty, you're going to jail. the evidence was overwhelming in this case, and ultimately his choice of how to handle this case is probably going to add time to his sentence, whereas if he pled guilty and took a plea deal, he probably would have got a little bit of time shaved off that. sentencing will be set down the line. we can expect a significant sentence given the violent activity he participated this this day. >> you're going to have to do an update to the book, ryan reilly, thank you so much. we do have an update on that breaking ns from the niagara falls, where the bridge known as the rainbow bridge has been closed while the fbi buffalo field office is now investigating an explosion on that bridge. in a statement, the fbi says it, quote, is coordinating with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners in this investigation. we'll keep you posted on that. pope francis meeting today with the families of israeli hostages and palestinians with loved ones trapped in gaza. we've got a live report from the vatican. but first holding out hope, my next guest's agonizing wait to learn if her family members will be among the 50 freed hostages. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. g "chrisg reports" only on msnbc want a ne? 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( ♪♪ ) welcome to big tobacco's fantasyland. the industry's idea of a healthier tomorrow. where vapes are deemed safer. nevermind that they'll increase your risk of lung cancer. and they're anti-aging. because you're more likely to die younger from a stroke. in big tobacco's fantasyland, the deadliest industry can rebrand itself as your friend. an excruciating waiting game is now underway for families of hostages waiting for word on whether their loved ones will be among at least 50 people kidnapped by hamas and held now for 47 days. among them, 12-year-old erez, 16-year-old zahar and their father. they are part of abbey own's family. and she joins me now. thank you for coming on the program. i can't even imagine what it must be like as you wait to find out whether your family members will be freed. can you tell me who has been in contact with you, if anyone? do you know when you might officially hear if your family members will be freed? >> thank you for having me. it is an excruciating waiting game. i think the last 47 days have felt like one long nightmare, and now every hour seems to take days. we are in contact with the government and war cabinet, but we are as up to date as the rest of the world in a sense. we know that the first group of names will be released in -- i don't even think tonight but in the coming hours, and that things will get started tomorrow, but i don't believe we'll know anything until things are officially moving. >> is the family making any plans yet to welcome them home? do you let yourself think about that or what that moment might be like? >> i think that there's a process put in place for the entire return and so the first thing would be medical and the next would be the family, and so i think it's very, very organized. there's social workers, there are doctors, there are a lot of things that are put in place because the trauma that each of these people have experienced is so deep. i think at this point there's hope but you're still kind of just pushing and doing everything you can until there's something concrete it latch onto. >> there is of course the possibility that only one might be released, maybe both children but not their father. how do you work through that part of it? >> look, i think the whole thing is beyond human capacity in a sense to think about sorting people by age or by gender or medical need, it feels unreal, and at the same time, it makes sense to me that children would be among the first released because children don't belong in war. all of these hostages are innocent civilians, and i think any release at this point,even if it doesn't include my family would be motivating knowing that there's a possibility for a diplomatic solution. and i know so many of the families whose hostages don't fall into these categories, are not children or women, and they're heavy on my hearts, but i think we don't stop fighting until every single hostage is home. >> you have done a remarkable job of keeping this in the forefront, and so i'd love for you to talk to us a little bit about irez and zahar and ofur. we're rooting for all of the hostages to be released, but help us know them a little better. >> so they're a family of six. they have four kids, erez is the youngest. he turned 12 in captivity, but he is an outdoor kid. he rides bikes and horses. he plays the trumpet. he builds legos. he's the baby of his family. sahar is 16, she and her older sister are best friends. they're both artists. she also loves music and dancing and tiktok. she's a teenage girl, and they're a very close family. they grew up on the kibbutz, it was devastated on october 7th. one quarter of the kibbutz, 100 people have either been murdered or taken hostage, and so everyone single person is going through a massive trauma, and i think these kids will come back to that, but i think at the owned. day, this is a human issue. these are children, and we just want them home safe and whole. >> and i know you lost 13-year-old noy a, a member of your family and her grandmother, so our hearts break for you as they in equal measure have great hope for you. thank you, abbey onn for coming on. >> thanks so much for having me. >> stay strong if you can, we are all trying to stay strong for you as well. thank you. >> powerful and emotional images coming out of vatican city today. pope francis met personally with families of israeli hostages. at one point the pope blessed the image of a hostage and hugged the man who had brought it. the pope told the crowd at the vatican, he had heard how both sides were suffering adding, quote, wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars. this is not war. this is terrorism. we pray for the palestinian people. we pray for the israeli people that peace will come. i want to bring in nbc's anne thompson who is live in rome, and msnbc foreign affairs analyst dennis ross is back with me. anne, talk a little bit about the pope's meetings today and what the impact is or at least the vatican hopes it might be. >> reporter: i think, chris, there are two impacts. one is a global one, when the pope brings his moral authority to an issue, it forces the world to pay attention, and in this case, what he is hoping for is that his calls for peace will be realized, peace that goes beyond a temporary cease fire. the more immediate impact obviously is on the families, and in that group of israelis was an american, rachel goldberg, whose 23-year-old son hersh goldberg poland has been a hostage since october 7th. here's how she describes meeting pope francis. >> after each person spoke, he spoke directly to the person and really shared in our agony and anguish and validated our despair, and said that he was going to use any influence that he could to help free these hostages, get them home safely to their families. he really shared in our heartbreak. and it was a very validaing and beautiful moment. >> reporter: the meetings weren't long, chris, but they certainly were impactful, and for rachel goldberg and her husband john poland who you saw there, their son hersh was injured on october 7th. the lower part of his left arm was blown off by a hand grenade. they are now hoping if he is not among those who are released in this most recent agreement, that at least the red cross will be able to see hersh and they will be able to find out how badly he's been injured and how his injury has been taken care of because 47 days in they have yet to hear from him. they have no proof of life. chris. >> dennis, these stories cut to the core of anybody who has any humanity in them. anne was talking earlier about how the pope looked at a video of hersh and what had happened to him with his hand being blown off and taken away to be a hostage. you just heard from abbey onn, the excruciating situation for her family, having lost two people. still waiting to see what will happen with the other three. when you hear the pope saying this is not war, this is terrorism, i wonder, do you think that it reflects in some ways the moral problem and the challenge for benjamin netanyahu, which is many people who support israel are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the result of the way israel is prosecuting this war? >> you know, everyone who is looking at this cannot help but be moved by it. these are real people who are suffering on both sides. what we saw on october 7th was a level of human depravity that you don't even typically see in war. there is a distinction, obviously, the israelis don't deliberately set out to kill civilians, whereas we've seen hamas does that not only toward the israelis. they make their own population human shields. having said that, you can't ignore what the cost is for the palestinians. it reminds us that israel needs from the united states the ability to give it time and space to achieve its military mission, which is hamas loses control over gaza, but to have that in time and space, israel has to do everything it can to minimize the civilian casualties. it has to do more in the humanitarian area. there's 200 trucks a day will be going into gaza over these period of the pause, but you probably need to get up to 5 or 600 trucks a day. so if israel looks at the strategic imperative of defeating hamas, it also needs to think about how it can do more to aid in the humanitarian inside of this, so it has the time and space that the u.s. is trying to give it to achieve that. at the end of the day, this affects real people, real families, and, you know, we see it with what you've shown, these conversations you're having with the family members of those who have been taken. none of us can even relate to what they're been going through for the last 47 days. but also, you look at what's happening to palestinians in gaza, and they're not responsible for what hamas does, but they pay the price for what hamas has done. we need to keep the strategic imperative we can't lose sight of what the day-to-day costs are. >> dennis ross, anne thompson, thank you both so much, and i wish you both a very happy thanksgiving. coming up, it's the bargain shoppers super bowl, and when is a deal really a good deal? cnbc on msnbc is next. d it... ♪ centrum silver is now clinically shown to support cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your health. so every day, you can say, ♪ youuu did it! ♪ with centrum silver. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ [bell ringing] and doug says, “you can customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual.” he hits his mark —center stage— and is crushed by a baby grand piano. are you replacing me? with this guy? customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache! oh, look! a bibu. 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