off his bo cap. >> whoever was going to win would do it gritty, grimmie, nasty, all those -- what are those, adjectives? i went to mounts union. but it is a good school. but, you know, it was going to be that way. and the guys just stayed together and kept fighting and grinding it out and we were able to come out on top. >> and so this bizarre trend continues. taylor swift has missed five of travis kelce's games and he is averaging just 41 yards and the chiefs have two losses. but in the four games she's been there, he has over 100 yards and undefeated. so they need to do whatever they can to get her in the stands. >> i was going to say, i mean, obviously chiefs have to go to the super bowl and taylor swift has to show up otherwise america i think will be very >> now we know how to beat them if you're playing against them. just make sure taylor doesn't go. >> for real. all right, coy, thank you very much. i'll see you tomorrow.

thanks to all of you for joining us. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere because "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. we're so glad you're with us. phil is off this week. erica hill by my side. good morning. >> good morning. >> we have a lot of big news to get to this morning. let's start with five things to know for this tuesday, november 21st. breaking overnight, sad news to report. a gunman opening fire inside of an ohio walmart just days before black friday. four people injured and the gunman died of self-inflicted gunshot wound. there's movement in the talks to release hostages this morning. a hamas leader now echoing what the white house is saying that they are, in fact, getting closer to a deal. new this morning, we could get a decision on donald trump's gag order in the federal election subversion case. the judge is signaling they could narrow it down. the speaker of the house meets with the former president at mar-a-lago, though it's not clear what they talked about. after mike johnson endorsed trump for 2024 last week.

thanksgiving travel troubles. get ready. weather in the forecast for tens of millions americans and you know all about that ripple effect as a key airport and connection hub possible delays. "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ and we do begin with the breaking news overnight. police say four people are injured this morning after a shooter opened fire at a walmart. this happened right near dayton, ohio. that shooter then took his own life. >> of course, this happening just days before the thanksgiving holiday. police say the man entered the store around 8:30 last night and began shooting. a woman recorded this video on facebook live shortly after the incident. take a look. >> you guys nobody that's in walmart right now, call and check on them because he shot like ten times and i don't even know how much more afterwards.

but i'm so lucky to be alive right now. he literally walked right past me. >> cnn's jason carol joins us now. walk us through what happened here, jason. >> reporter: first of all, the condition of the victims unknown at this point. this all started, as you say, at about 8:35 last night when a gunman walked inside that walmart in beavercreek, which is located east of dayton, a suburb there. according to a witness, the gunman walked inside, started firing then he turned the gun on himself. police say the suspect died at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. one eyewitness describe what had he saw when he was shopping and suddenly heard the shots. >> while we were shopping, we were passing the tide aisle and 5 to 6 shots rung out. and she looked at me and said, is this a joke. no, i know what that sound is.

i've been around gunfire in the past. and turned around and told her, you know, get behind me and then i turned around and i was 10 to 12 feet from the shooter. >> reporter: guys, walmart released a statement on the shooting saying in part, we're heartbroken by what's happened at our beavercreek, ohio, store. this remains a developing situation and we're working closely with investigators on the scene. all questions should be directed to local law enforcement. so, this walmart has made national news before. it's the same walmart where nearly ten years ago police shot and killed john crawford iii, an african-american man who was holding an air rifle that he found on a shelf when he was shot by police. it should be noted there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the u.s. this year. >> yeah. >> guys, back to you. >> on pace for a record sadly. jason carol, appreciate the reporting this morning. thank you. well, just moments ago, a

massive explosion -- you can see that cloud there, seen in gaza. this is just across the border from israel. we'll bring you more information on that as we have it. but as you can see, quite the cloud there from that explosion. all of this as overnight hamas leader says the militant group is close to reaching a truce agreement to release hostages as the israeli military ground assault grinds on. and that comes after the white house had said the negotiations -- negotiators rather were closer now than they have ever been on a potential deal. there is still work to be done. >> we are laser focussed on the american citizens that we know are being held hostage. we want them out, all of them, everybody should be out now. but here we are in a negotiation. and we're getting closer to the end, we believe, of that negotiation. >> key words, getting closer to the end, we believe from the white house. meanwhile, anger and frustration growing in israel. those are the families of hostages. they are demanding more action

and more transparency from prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his government. we were able -- some were able to meet with netanyahu and his cabinet yesterday. at a heated committee hearing, family members confronted the national security minister and other members of that far right government. watch. >> they're saying talk about the living. as we bring in oren lieberman, our correspondent on the ground. oren, you know, that was just a sample of an incredibly heated meeting there about what is being done and how much they believe the netanyahu government is doing or not doing, they believe, to bring home their loved ones. what can you tell us this

morning? >> reporter: well, there's clearly quite a measure of frustration on the part of the families of the hostages held by hamas in gaza because they haven't seen their loved ones yet, haven't gotten concrete information on their condition. we heard from hamas a deal is close, closer than it's ever been. you can still be 99% of the way there but you're still 1% away from it happening. and it can all fall apart in that 1% as they try to hammer out the final details, whether that's the number of hostages released, how they're released, how quickly they're released, how long of a pause in fighting in order to release a certain number of hostages. these are the details where we understand this keeps getting tied up and effectively not getting over the finish line. as we saw, a number of the families of the hostages met for the first time with the war cabinet at the defense ministry behi mn tel aviv. they waited for hours for that meeting. it lasted several hours on its own. we spoke with one of the family

members there. and he left early because he said there was no new information and although it was certainly good to have a meeting, there was quite a bit of anger on the part of the families when they pressed the government, including israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, on whether the release of the hostages was number one and the answer they received was, it's not number one. it's at the same level of defeating hamas. that's clearly not the answer they want. they want to hear that the government is doing and the war cabinet is doing whatever it can to make sure the main priority, the only priority is bringing home their loved ones. >> appreciate it. we should share with you as well, we just got a statement from benjamin netanyahu. that statement reads rurng our hostages is a sacred and supreme mission to which i'm committed. we will not let go of the mission to return them and it is my responsibility as well as the war cabinet's. so, perhaps heard some of it, but to your point, oren, still not the answer that many of these families were looking for. there was also an attack on a hospital in northern gaza

yesterday, different hospital. what more do we know about that? >> reporter: so, this is focussing on the indonesian hospital in northern gaza, one of the few functioning hospitals left as many of them have already shut down for lack of resources, lack of fuel, lack of water, lack of the ability to treat patients. israeli strike killed 12 people inside the hospital including patients and a member of the medical staff. that as we have seen video and pictures from the hospital showing kids lying down on card board on the floor, which speaks to the conditions that already existed before the strike. the world health organization says they were appalled by that strike on the hospital. israel defending its actions saying it was in compliance with international law and followed the principles of proportionality and distinction. foreign policy adviser for prime minister benjamin netanyahu telling cnn that israel is the most moral army in the world. >> oren lieberman, appreciate the reporting. thank you. so this morning a federal appeals panel is expected to

rule on a gag order in donald trump's federal election subversion case. the panel has signaled that that gag order will mostly be reinstate bud narrowly. the three-judge panel heard oral arguments yesterday in what was a tense, two-hour hearing in washington. >> trump's team argues it violates his free speech right. when does political speech derail or corrupt the criminal justice process. >> there's a balance going that has to be undertaken here. and it's a very difficult balance in this context. we certainly want to make sure that the criminal trial process and its integrity and truth-finding function are protected, but we have to use a careful scalpel here and not step into really sort of skewing the political arena, don't we? >> zachary cohen joins us live in washington. the fact that that judge said we

have to use a careful scalpel and weigh these things. shows this is unprecedented to have a case like this with a front-runner in an election for president. they have to weigh these things very carefully. >> yeah. we're seeing precedent set in realtime because it is unprecedented, as you said. look, the judges did indicate yesterday they are open to restoring a version of this gag order on donald trump. and one that might actually let him attack special counsel jack smith more directly on the campaign trail. trump's lawyers really took issue with how broad the original gag order was. they said it essentially would not allow the former president to defend himself outside the courtroom and that he was in a unique situation because she in the midst of a heated political campaign. the panel of judges was skeptical about that as saying, no, not everything qualifies as political speech and no, donald trump cannot say whatever he want. they were open to nailing down on certain areas where he could speak out publicly and one of

those was about jack smith. take a listen to what two of the judges said yesterday when they were discussing this issue of political speech. >> well, and it can't be that he can't mention mr. smith. he has thick enough skin, he's on this team. he has to speak ms. manners while everyone else is throwing targets at him. >> reporter: so, we'll see what the appeals court rules. it could come as soon as this morning. but as you said, unprecedented ruling. unprecedented hearing and more to come for sure. >> for sure. thanks, zach. appreciate it. growing divide among democrats over president biden's handling of the israel-hamas war. this is the second senator calling for a cease fire. plus, how the white house is responding to protesters labeling the president genocide joe. also, severe weather could disrupt your travel. hope not. but take a look at that map as people head out for thanksgiving. we're tracking the storm.

♪ well, new this morning, democratic senator jeff merkley is calling for a serious fire between israel and gaza but with conditions. the cease fire requires an immediate cessation of military hostilities by both sides, but the cease fire and the negotiations that follow must

accomplish a number of objectives or it will not endure. hamas must release all of the hostages without conditions and lay down all their arms. a group of 13 democratic senators wrote a letter to president biden calling for the administration to work gaza to open its border. all coming as the white house is pushing back against protesters now dubbed the president genocide joe for his stance on the war. >> this word genocide is getting thrown around in an inappropriate way by a lot of different folks. what hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide. they want to wipe israel off the map. they said so publicly. what happened on the 7th of october, murder, slaughter of people in their homes or at a music festival.

that's genocide. thanks so much. let me start with you giving your experience in the government dealing with issues exactly what john kirby is talking about. he says the word genocide is being used too casually here and certainly the white house is not happy to seeing it applied to the president. can you speak to this issue? >> he's absolutely right. i was surprised at the beginning. genocide is a legal term. it is where you have the deliberate killing and ethnic cleansing of a group of people specifically of that group with the intention of wiping them off the map basically and proving intent -- >> part of the hamas charter by the way when it comes to israel. >> 100%. it's very clear. hamas doesn't hide the fact they want to annihilate israel and pursue, jihad against jews in order to do that. so it is absolutely part of hamas goal to apply in part in this war and not to say by the way -- i'm not trying to diminish the ugliness of war. you have numerous wars around the world.

the war in syria, for example, which killed almost half a billion people was not dubbed genocide. and so, genocide is a legal term. it's meant to imply specifically the intent to kill a group of people because of their background. and proving that intent is critical. and using that word inappropriately it just further polarizing things, divides things, it undermines the foundation needed for peace. it's not an appropriate way and certainly not appropriate to apply to the president when he is supporting israel in this because if this were to happen here, by the way, when your talking about a terrorist group like hamas or any islamist radical group, these terrorist attacks can happen here, they have happened here. when he's pursuing this effort, it's as much deterrence as much as it is to defeat hamas. >> you talk about the legal definition. understanding the terms. the way things are getting thrown around. the reality is, it's further enflaming already enflamed rhetoric and divide that is growing every single day.

is what we're hearing from john kirby the best way to combat that in this moment? >> well, mine, it is what it is. i don't think a protester out there calling the president genocide joe is a gettable voter for the president. there's always going to be a left element that rejects the democratic party. the extent to which that speaks for a large portion of the electorate, clearly there's a large generational divide within the democratic party about israel. i don't think the election that we have next year is going to be about israel principally. i think it will be about domestic issues. but when you look at that statement where he says there should be a cease fire and says that hamas should lay down its arms, uncondition bli release the prisoners, they cannot govern gaza anymore. none of that is going to happen. so i think part of it is easy to look at all of this from the united states and say, if all of the people on the ground over there had a more reasonably set of preferences and idealogies, it's very easy to fix the situation. you can draw the map for the two states and say people should be

satisfied with this. this should be the solution. but we have a history of decades of those sorts of agreements being rejected. the palestinians rejected them over and over. the israelis have been basically trying to gradually annex the west bank with the expansion of settlements aimed at preventing a two-state solution. if the u.s. could fix this problem, it would have been fixed already. >> but speaking to the west bank k you speak to how significant it is that the biden administration said they would put sanctions on people who go after palestinians in the west bank. i don't think we have seen that since clinton. >> when i saw that piece of news, it felt like it was -- it came out there and then it was -- no one really covered it that heavily. >> what does it mean? >> well, so, the u.s. for a long time has viewed settlements as a major problem and major sticking point to peace negotiations. there haven't been the principle spoiler. hamas suicide attacks have been the principle spoiler in peace negotiations. the settlements are a major

problem. the u.s. views them as illegal. they have always been a problem because they are -- they undermine the ability for a two-state solution. if you've got hundreds of thousands of settlers in the west bank, and many of whom pursue very -- some pursue violence, some are purr sug tough or provocative -- it undermines the process for peace and the united states, which is in a position of -- by the way, not only supporting israel but the u.s. also provides a lot of support to the palestinians financially. the u.s. has an interest in solving this problem, in having two states and this has been one of the sticking points. but for them to come out there and say, we're going to go so far as sanctioning those individuals is the strongest step i have ever seen. >> what does it mean? what would it look like? >> well, it's a little bit hard to see if they're going to identify each individual settler. >> to your question, how do you enforce that? >> technically you could

identify each individual settler and put them on a sanctions list. my guess is they would do it by settlement and say this settlement overall is sanctioned and therefore if let's say they produce oil, then they're not going to be able to sell that olive oil. sorry, i'm talking about olive oil. they won't be able to export that olive oil. i'm giving a specific example. so they'll go after that leader specifically. that is kind of how sanctions work in general. but, yeah, it was definitely a strong announcement. and something i didn't expect to see coming from the administration. >> karine jean-pierre was asked about that growing divide in terms of support and how it breaks down when you look at this by age. here was her take. >> but what i'll be very clear about is we're going to not going to govern by polls here. we're going to -- or poll numbers. we're not going to change the minds of americans. i get that. americans are going to feel how

they feel. >> i get that answer and yet my question is what's the real conversation, josh, privately that is being had in the white house about this? >> look, it's clearly a bad political issue for the president. he doesn't choose geopolitical events. and so i think, you know, they realize that they have been dealt a very difficult political hand here. this is an easier issue for republicans where you have voters who are basically broadly aligned within the coalition. but so it's sort of makes sense to take the perspective that she has there. if they can't do anything here that is going to please the broad political coalition, they might as well do what they think is the correct course. >> do you think there's anything happening behind the scenes? do you think there's actual concern? >> i'm sure. but again i think the u.s. has limited ability to create the sort of situation on the ground that it wants there. if israel was truly a client state of the united states, there would not have been netanyahu governments through the obama administration. we didn't want israel pursuing a set of various policies that it had there. to the extent that biden leans on israel, the israelis know

there will be republican administration sooner or later will be reliably supportive of whatever they want to do. that reduces the need to moved. broad shift in u.s. politics that was bipartisan, it would be possible to put pressure on israel. this is not domestic politics. people weirdly talk about this like we get to make the decisions here and ultimately this is a foreign war thousands of miles away involving other parties. >> it's a really important reminder. thank you both. new developments in the open ai drama. nearly all of the companies employees threatening to quit unless their fired ceo sam altman is reinstated. we have reporting on that. plus, the super bowl rematch of the season. the kelce brothers facing off on the field. so who was watching? who wasn't watching? that's ahead.

you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ ♪ and a live look inside reagan national airport, just outside of d.c., as the thanksgiving travel crunch is under way. there are some severe storms, though, threatening travel for 27 million people today.

allison chinchar keeping an eye on all of it. good morning. what can we see? >> and good morning. well, there's a lot of rain. there's some snow. there's also some very gusty winds. we have several different systems here. so it's spread out over quite a wide area. you've got rain and snow off to the midwest. and then possibly severe thunderstorms down across the gulf coast. we begin on the north side right now. heavy rain moving through chicago, detroit, columbus, down through cincinnati. you've also got some of that snow mixing in across portions of wisconsin and michigan. farther down to the south, rain spreading into birmingham, charlotte and then some stronger thunderstorms down there along mobile, alabama. now today the best potential for the strong to severe thunderstorms exists from the coastal region of mississippi all the way over towards virginia beach. the main concerns today will be damaging winds and the potential for an isolated tornado. then from there, these systems continue to slide off to the east. taking with it the rain and the snow and the subsequent travel delays likely. you'll start to see it spread into the mid atlantic and the northeast by tonight.

so if you have some travel plans for cities like new york and d.c., make sure you check to see if any of your connections may have been delayed. >> allison, thank you very much. plenty of excitement for last night's game between the philadelphia eagles and the kansas city chiefs. the super bowl rematch. of course, the brothers playing each other. here is what didn't happen. taylor swift and travis kelce's parents did not end up getting to meet each other for the first time. i know you were waiting for. it there was still football to watch, though. that game apparently lived up to the hype. coy wire, i had to go to bed, so i was relying on my kids for the recap this morning. they didn't leave me any information. >> i needed to go to bed, but i stayed up. i was looking forward to this. taylor swift had to do a makeup concert in brazil, so mom and dad decided against the nfl versions of meet the parents, erica. we still had a kelce/swift sighting. jason kelce and deandre swift. travis did score. second quarter kansas city was up 10 at the half.

kelce had 44 yards. philly came out on fire in the second half. travis kelce fumbling by bradley row by's punch out there. philly made them pay. jalen hurts setting up the go ahead score and a bit of deja vu from the super bowl. mahomes getting a chance to win this one. final drive marquez drops it. chiefs lead the league in drops. mahomes can't believe it. k.c. would not win this time. the super bowl rematch and perhaps a preview of this next one lived up to the hype. brotherly love on display. the eagles win, 21-17, avenging their super bowl loss. now 9-1 for a second-straight season. but erica and poppy, this bizarre trend continues. taylor swift missed five of travis kelce's game. averaging just 41 yards and the chiefs have two losses in those. but in the four games she's been there, kelce has over 100 yards. k.c. is undefeated so i think travis is probably wondering when is she coming back to my

game. maybe all of chiefs fan dom as well. >> why is this not surprising. do we not remember trying to show off for our crush in high school. >> is that what he is doing? >> you're better when the person is there, right? >> it would stress me out more and i would screw up. i would be terrible. >> no. she does have a day job. >> she does have a day job. let's not forget that, you know, she does sort of -- maybe you have a point. >> amen. i'm here for this conversation. thanks, coy. >> you got it. mar-a-lago welcomed a high-ranking visitor last night, the new speaker of the house, mike johnson. new details on his meeting with former president trump. elon musk facing growing criticism for agreeing with that anti-semitic post on x. now there's legal action. we'll explain.

we're waiting for a federal appeals court to decide if it will restore a gag order against donald trump. this is in the federal election subversion case.

it appears the three-judge panel is leaning toward significantly narrowing that gag order, as one judge on the panel put it, the court would need to use a careful scalpel. >> the panel heard arguments during a tense hering in d.c. yesterday. trump's attorneys arguing that any gag order would violate his free speech rights. >> the order is unprecedented and it sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech. >> this is only affecting speech temporarily during a criminal trial process by someone who has been indicted as a felon. no one is threatening the first amendment broadly. >> josh barro is back with us and also joining us at the table is cnn legal analyst elie honig. what is your take away in terms of the questioning and the answers as well, specifically from trump's attorneys. >> so the court has to conduct a balance here between the first amendment on the one hand but the district judge, the trial judge's ability to protect the proceedings on the other hand. it seems clear to me the court

of appeals is not going to strike down the gag order. they're going to leave some version of a gag order in place. they may well take a scalpel to what's there. i think they're likely to carve it down. specifically we listened to the arguments, what you could see they were concerned with is the restriction on trump's ability to talk about the prosecutors. why not? prosecutors are fair game. at one point they said jack smith has thick skin. he may have to take it. i think they're right about it. i think we could see the gag order get carved down but left in place. >> what they were worried about, the doj was basically asking for a really broad gag order before it was literally anything that blocked trump from saying anything bad about witnesses, courtroom staff, prosecutors. what do you make of that judge who we just heard from, patricia millett on the panel saying, you know, we have to weigh these things here given the unprecedented nature of this being a front-runner for president? >> well, i mean, where the law is on this as elle notes is

requiring balance. it's not super well defined exactly how those factors are supposed to be balanced in part because it's not typical for a defendant to appeal the gag order the middle of a criminal proceeding. normally more concerned about the criminal proceeding itself and whether they'll be convicted. trump is extremely unusual position where he has tremendous resources to litigate there and unusually concerned about what he can say publicly partly for political reasons and because that's his nature. you saw judge chutkan coming in with a significantly narrow order than what prosecutors asked for in the first place. i think it's fairly likely we'll see little more adjust from the that. any version of this leaves trump with a fair amount of leeway to talk about the prosecution broadly, the idea that it is a politically motivated prosecution and so i think as a political matter, i think the things that he will be able to say are actually not that different in terms of their affect on our politics depending on how this comes down but obviously the judge has some concerns about the specifics and how that affects running the

trial. >> to your point, it's sort of a win for him, right n terms of he can continue with the narrative he has used for years he is being silenced, people are coming after him. there's still a way to say that. that wouldn't necessarily be impacted. how would something be enforced? >> yeah. so, if the gag order remains in place and trump violates it, then the judge has two options. one is fines. we have seen fines in the new york civil case, $5,000 and $10,000. but judges can fine more than that. the other option, which is not realistically going to be used here is imprisonment. i don't think it's useful to talk about that. to the point we were talking about, about how some of this plays into trump's hands. i think doj comes in for some criticism here. their original proposal was ridiculous. it was way overbroad. it was way overly sensitive. they said he can't say anything about anybody. that was never going to stand. give judge chutkan credit. she looked at that and said, no way. she substantially narrowed it down. now it's probably going to be narrowed down a little more. one other thing i feel obliged

to point out, the federal court of appeals yesterday gave us a live audio stream of the proceedings so we could go on our computer and listen to it. note to the district court the sky did not fall. we got to see this. we all benefitted from it. let the cameras in. at least give us an audio feed. >> supreme court i would grant they should put cameras in, they should give us audio as well. mike johnson is now the highest ranking republican in congress to officially endorse trump. went down to mar-a-lago. let's listen what he said. this was on cnbc a couple days ago and talk about this here. >> have endorsed him wholeheartedly. i was one of the closest allies that president trump had in congress. he had a phenomenal first term. those first two years we brought about the greatest economic numbers in the history of the world, not just the country, because his policies worked. i'm all in for trump. i expect he'll be our nominee and he's going to win it and we have to make biden a one-term president. we have to do that.

>> he has always stood by trump. on his impeachment team. >> it was always weird that kevin mccarthy hadn't endorsed him. i didn't fully understand why. there was some reporting about that kevin mccarthy felt there was some donors to house republicans who didn't like trump and raise more money for house republicans if he didn't endorse him. the party and the whole broad apparatus is obviously in for trump. it might as well be out there on the table. you note his history of support. he is also one of the people pushing the ideas in the lead-up to january 6th about the idea that you, in fact, could have an effort in congress to overturn the outcome of the election. >> he was one of the leads on the texas lawsuit trying to do that. >> yeah, yeah. >> representing all these states. >> so as the spectrum of people in congress and how in they are for whatever nonsense donald trump wants to pull, he's been fairly far down that spectrum. >> thank you. josh, elle, good to have you both. the head of microsoft satya nadella leaving the door open for sam altman the former ceo of

ai to come back to the company maybe after the board fires him days ago. the latest on this rapidly developing story. new video just into cnn of a navy jet overshooting the runway, crashing into the water off of hawaii. we have details about the crew members who were on board.

>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. ♪ we do have this breaking news just in to cnn regarding a potential hostage deal between hamas and israel. let's go straight to our mj lee who joins us at the white house. what can you tell us. >> reporter: well, poppy, sources familiar with the negotiations tell myself and my

colleagues that a deal is on the cusp of being announced and it could come as soon as today. under this deal, hamas would release 50 women and children hostages. that the group is holding in gaza. and this would be in exchange for a pause in fighting of up to four to five days. and importantly, three palestinian prisoners we are told would be released by the israeli government for every hostage that is released. so this is a three for one agreement. hostages, we are told, are various nationalities. we are told by u.s. officials that 3-year-old american toddler that the president himself has talked about is expected to be a part of the hostages released. that is certainly what they are hoping for. it is unclear at that time whether any other americans would be among the initial 50 hostages that are released. now, during this four to five-day pause, the idea is that hamas would continue rounding up

additional women and children hostages that could potentially be released and also we are told that during that pause the flying of surveillance drones over northern gaza would be paused for at least six hours per day. now, as you know, and as we have been reporting, hamas has been insisting from the beginning that hundreds and hundreds of additional aid, humanitarian aid, be able to enter gaza. unclear right now exactly where that number will end up. but, of course, what u.s. officials have stressed is that a pause in fighting is necessary for there to be sort of a surge in the aid that goes into gaza. so this is going to be a very important area to watch, particularly because we know hamas has been very focussed on additional fuel being sent in to gaza. this has been very contentious because, as experts have said, fuel is what helps hamas with

their military operations and other things like ventilating its tunnels under ground. so again, this would be an incredibly big breakthrough after weeks and weeks of negotiations. we have been discussing this for a while. and at other points, people that are involved in the talks have said we are close to a deal. things have fallen through. but again, where we stand right now is that, according to sources familiar, we are on the cusp of an announcement being made and that announcement could come as early as today. >> could come as early as today, this potential pause, four to five days. folks, are just joining us, 50 women and children hostages, three for one deal when it comes to three palestinians for one hostage. i was struck by this agreement potentially that could be announced of this pause in drone surveillance of six hours each day. that was something that was really being pushed for. there was some push back. important to note that that could be announced. >> reporter: yeah. and you can easily imagine why

that would have been an incredibly contentious point for everyone involved. the idea that the drones overhead, surveilling gaza, that that activity would be stopped for even a significant portion of time, we're talking again of at least six hours a day. that, at least as far as the israelis are concerned, would be windows in time when hamas could regroup. where they could basically go about doing their business without having eyes over them. now, the idea that this was agreed to probably means that hamas initially had asked for an even longer pause, that they have could have asked for that pause of surveillance drones to be longer in time. and where we ended up, again, we are told is at least six hours a day over northern gaza. but you're very right, that that would have been a very contentious point of discussion between the negotiators that are involved. >> mj, you said that the 3 year old is also believed to be

included in this. you see her there on the left of your screen. and we had her aunt on last week just talking about the efforts to try to get her out. she in many ways been one of the key faces of all this. what else can you tell us about her and the other children that are being held? >> reporter: yeah. the hope and expectation again is that this 3-year-old toddler, she's the youngest known american hostage will be among the 50 hostages that are released. obviously nothing is guaranteed right now. i just have to stress that this is the hope and the expectation. but, we did notice, of course, starting a couple of days ago the president himself talking about this 3-year-old in particular. as you put it, this is somebody who has almost become a face to represent some of the american hostages that are being held by hamas in gaza. but the truth of it, poppy, is that we just have so little

information right now about the identity of the hostages, including the americans that are in the mix, their condition, their whereabouts. so it has been incredibly difficult for really any of the officials that are involved in the negotiations to talk in specifics about the hostages. the fact that we have heard u.s. officials in recent days specifically refer to this 3-year-old has had a lot of people hoping that this means that there is a good amount of hope and understanding that she is, in fact, alive and that she will be returned as this initial -- as a part of this initial group of hostages that is released. again, this is the hope right now. and of course, what we don't know right now is whether there are going to be other americans that are in the mix of this initial group of 50 hostages that are released. >> and that had been one of the key questions that john finer was asked on cnn this weekend, would any agreement happen without all americans included hostages.

we just don't know, as you said. >> yeah. >> mj -- go ahead. >> reporter: no. i was just going to quickly say we are talking right now about the release of 50 initial hostages. obviously begs the question, even if those 50 hostages are successfully let out of gaza, then what happens next in the negotiations for everybody else? again, for anybody who missed this at the top. the idea is that during the initial four to five-day pause, hamas would use the pause to gather up additional women, additional children, but there's also just very little trust here when it comes to what hamas has promised, any reassurances that hamas tried to give. i think there's a lot of skepticism and has been all along when it has asked for a pause in the fighting just about the ulterior motives. is it really about the hostages or clearly is there sort of an effort here for hamas itself to regroup and get ready to do more fighting, sort of hide and make

secret its whereabouts. so i think all of those things have very much made the negotiations incredibly tenuous and just a big question mark as to the many, many other hostages we know are probably being held in gaza right now. >> yeah, absolutely. mj, stay with us. i also want to bring in oren lieberman in tel aviv and natasha bertrand also joining us from washington. we were talking about the anger and frustration we have seen from so many of the families just yesterday in israel speaking with officials there. what is the reaction this morning? what more are you hearing in israel this morning, oren? >> reporter: well, what's interesting is one of the key questions of course we had for the families of the hostages who met with the war cabinet is that you get information that a deal was imminent, that this was about to take place? certainly you have to believe that prime minister benjamin netanyahu would have known it was this close to happening. but there speaking to several of the families who were in that meeting, they gave us no i indication they were told some

sort of deal for the evacuation or release of 50 hostages were about to happen. that will add to the frustration they were already feeling. they say they got no new information in the meeting with the war cabinet. they got the sense that the priority, the number one priority for the war cabinet was not the release of the hostages, that it was on the same footing as the on going campaign to defeat hamas. and that was another point of anger where, again, one of those who was in the meeting said many of those became very angry with the war cabinet because they got the sense that the release of the hostages wasn't their absolute number one priority. the crucial point here is as we asked them, did you get any new information about when there might be the release of some hostages? they say, no, there was nothing new on that front. we're going to circle back with them and see what they're hearing now. one of the issues that had come up is who gets to determine the names of the 50 hostages released. is that up to hamas? is that up to israel? or is there some sort of back and forth that would of course be a key questions for the

families of the hostages to find out are there loved ones on that first list. are the families being held together. there are multiple members of the same family being held hostages in gaza by hamas? are they all being held by families together or does hamas have to reach out to other factions that have prisoners and hostages. these are all questions that need to be answered and questions that the families are eagerly awaiting answers to from the war cabinet and from the government. >> oren, stay with us. mj, stay with us as well. qatar, again, the central role, right, our reporting is that qatar would be making this announcement. there has also been some reporting that some of hamas' top leadership may not know where some of the hostages are being held now. which would speak to why they may need days to try to gather the rest of the hostages. can you speak to the role of qatar here? >> reporter: qatar has been a really key entire immediate yar throughout all of this because as you know, the u.s. does not

communicate with hamas directly. and so they have been passing messages to hamas through qatar, through egypt as well. and we have seen this be somewhat successful in the past. we saw that qatar in communications with hamas, they did successfully secure the release of four hostages last month, including two americans. and so we have seen this process bear fruit. but something as big as this, 50 hostages over a matter of days, that of course is a lot more complicated. and part of the issue, even though hamas has been communicating with the qataris because hamas political leadership has a presence in qatar and they have a relationship there, is that over various points throughout this process hamas has gone dark, including over the last several days. there was a fear that the hostage negotiations were not going to proceed because hamas simply disappeared and was not talking to the parties involved because of that israeli raid on

al shifa hospital. this process is made more difficult by the fact that the u.s. has been not been communicating with them directly. now one of the questions that we will be asking the pentagon is whether the u.s. is going to be also halting its surveillance flights over gaza because if you recall, the u.s. has been flying drones over the gaza strip in order to help the israelis try to locate the hostages, provide intelligence support. so one of the key questions here is whether the israelis have asked the u.s. to also halt those flights. the answer is likely yes because hamas, of course, is going to be expecting likely that all of the drone flights be halted. but that is a key question in the coming hours as well, guys. >> natasha, mj, oren, thank you. incredibly significant reporting. stay with us, we're going to continue to follow this. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. ♪ and it is the top of the hour. we have significant breaking news in to cnn. a hostage deal between israel and hamas could be imminent.