♪ ♪ it is the top of the hour. i'm brianna keilar with boris sanchez in washington. wolf blitzer is live from tel aviv. intense talks are under way to try to extend the truce between

israel and hamas. here in just hours the current deal is set to expire. >> we want to show you some video with a red cross convoy entering the rafah crossing. this, as we wait for hamas to release in the group of hostages today. wolf? >> as these critical talks continue, we know the top u.s. hostage envoy is here in israel and that secretary of state antony blinken is headed here in the coming days. he'll be in israel very soon. a key mediator from qatar says they're hopeful an extension will be announced soon. cnn is following all these angles of a very fast developing situation.

let's start with oren liebermann. what have you learned? >> reporter: two israelis were handed over to the red cross from hamas and will have a quick medical checkup and to the hospital for fourth evaluations. it's important to note, these are russia israeli citizens released as a favor to president vladimir putin by hamas. they're not part of the ten israeli women and children that we expect to be released later tonight. that process as far as we know hasn't begun yet. we expect it to play out over the next several hours. the process of the overall release has begun on this sixth and, as of right now, final day of the cease-fire. >> these two women are dual

citizens, russian and israeli, that is right? >> that's what we learned from the idf and from hamas. >> hamas is also claiming -- i want your thoughts on this -- that the youngest hostage, a 10-year-old and his 4-year-old brother and their mother are all dead. what is the israeli military saying about this? >> we'll treat this story carefully because of the lack of evidence hamas put out. the idf is assessing this claim. they haven't said whether they believe it or not. this is a statement from hamas saying the family of the youngest israeli hostage, the 10-month-old, the 4-year-old and their mother were killed in the israeli air strike. there's no evidence to support this claim and there's no timing on it. we're on day six of a truce here which means it couldn't have

happened during these six days. there's information missing here. the idf is in touch with the family and assessing this claim. it's worth noting that the family who has spoken to us extensively as they've lobbied for the release of the family were pushing for the red cross to be able to visit the family to make sure they were okay. that never happened. the family released a statement. they said, our family learned of hamas' latest claims. we're waiting for the information to be confirmed and hopefully refuted by military officials. we thank the people of israel for their support, but request pri privacy. they're waiting for more information. a senior israeli official said he hoped it wasn't true. the information is not there yet. >> see what happens on that front. oren, thank you. alex, you're in washington. you're doing a lot of reporting

on this. what can you tell us about where the negotiations stand right now to try to extend this temporary truce? >> reporter: wolf, the u.s. hopes that this will be extended. we'll know in the coming hours. it comes down to whether hamas presents another list of hostages they'll release tomorrow. israel said clearly if hamas agrees to release hostages, at least ten per day, they're willing to extend this pause. the biden administration is pushing for the pause to be extended in order to get more hostages out. we've seen the director of the cia in doha meeting with counterparts. he's been the point person. there is a belief that hamas still holds enough women and children that they could release at least ten for at least two more days. if we're in day six now, it could be extended to an eighth

day. here's what antony blinken said earlier today. >> we would like to see the pause extended. what it's enabled first and foremost is hostages being released. it's enabled up to surge humanitarian assistance into gaza where they so desperately need it. >> reporter: wolf, the cia director bill burns wanted to start the conversation about negotiations over the other groups of hostages, the elderly men, the idf soldiers, men and woman, who hamas are holding and it's also believed that hamas has some bodies of hostages that were brought into gaza or died in gaza. on the question of red cross access, the u.s. has been pushing qatar to push hamas to

allow the red cross to visit. >> alex, if the extension of the temporary truce does not happen, what happens next? the resumption of military activity, is that right? >> reporter: that's the expectation. we heard from the israeli minister of defense who said if the hostage releases end, the israeli is ready to resume land, sea and air operations immediately. we expect negotiations to continue over the remains hostages. a military campaign would greatly complicate those talks. there's a major fear on the u.s. side, wolf, because the expectation is that israel will move its military campaign into the southern part of the gaza strip. israel has told north gaza residents to move to the south. the majority, close to 2 million gaza residents have moved into the south and are currently displaced. what we've learned is that the biden administration issued a stark warning. they say they have expressed in

very clear terms to the israeli military they do not want to see the israeli military carry out a similar campaign in the south as they did in the north where we've seen such extraordinary destruction and more than 14,000 people killed, wolf. >> very quickly, alex, you point out that the cia director is in doha hoping to negotiate an extension of this truce. it's significant he's meeting with the head of the israeli service who is also in doha, qatar, meeting with the head of the cia. it's interesting because israel and qatar don't have formal diplomatic relations. they have informal relations. it's interesting they're all there. >> reporter: it is, wolf.

we hav we don't think they're meeting today. we think the director, bill burns, has left. the meeting took place yesterday. he was meeting with the qatar prime minister and his counterpart. of course the u.s. does not speak with hamas directly, but the egyptians and qatar does. the reason bill burns is so involved in the process is because you need someone who is extremely experienced. bill burns is a veteran diplomat. but also the israelis named the head of moussad to be the point person. it made sense for his counterpart, bill burns, to be involved in the conversations. what is complicated on the israeli side is if there are agreements -- we've seen this in the past. the u.s., israel, qatar and egypt come to an agreement, but

that has to be taken back to the israeli government. then it becomes more political and decisions are made among various israeli politicians. the conversations are taking place, but then they're agreed to on the israeli side of things on the political side of things. >> yes, the stakes are enormous. alex, thank you. thanks to oren as well. as the negotiations are continuing over extending the temporary truce, i want some perspective from someone who was involved in the al qaeda hos hostages. during his tenure he directly managed the interagency response to 400 international kidnapping

situations. dan, thank you for joining us. secretary blinken will be traveling to israel in the next day or two. he says the next few days the focus will be to extend the pause in gaza. what do you think these talks are looking like now? how do you assess the situation? >> well, to be honest, the fact that the cease-fire has been extended another 48 hours shows it's working and both sides are getting hostages back for israel and prisoners back to palestine. again, every time hamas gives up a hostage, they're losing their leverage. they are their bargaining chip to sur vivival. we're down to about 130, 140. when we get under 100, the stakes are going to be higher, as if it could be even higher,

in terms of how high stakes this is for the u.s. and the fact that they've committed the secretary of state to the cia director to play a direct role in trying to get the hostages home. >> it is such a critical moment. dan, only one american hostage has been released. there could be a second one today. a handful remain hostage in gaza right now. why do you think more american hostages, at least so far, have not been released? >> well, again, just as i mentioned, the high-stakes involvement of the u.s. government, all the way up to the president. i hate to say that but the high profile exposure by the president and the cia director, it's raised the value of the americans to hamas. they're their strongest leverage right now. when you raise the value of the

hostages, guess what, the price to get them out gets higher. that's what i believe is happening here. >> interesting. if the truce, the temporary truce, dan, gets extended -- let's hope it does -- it gets to the point where all the women and children have been released and all that remain are men and idf soldiers remain. what are the chances of releasing these two groups still held captive in gaza? >> listen, hamas was under pressure. they're leveraging two things, the hostages and world opinion. the fact that grabbed grandparents and women and children, they lost the propaganda side of that. once it's just men and soldiers -- i believe women still serve in the idf.

every military age male and female who has an idf affiliation their hostage drama is going to be extended out over weeks, months and maybe longer. the last israeli soldier was held for five years and he was released for more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners. this situation is only going to get more complicated and not easier unfortunately as this rolls on. >> dan o'shea, thank you for your service over the years. thanks for joining us. we'll have much more news right after this.

we're going to fight for every single person in new hampshire. we think it's important. i think new hampshire's primary has always been an incredibly important point in the election cycle. >> fresh off her big endorsement nikki haley is doubling down in new hampshire. the presidential candidate is

out on the stump in the granite state. this is after she got the koch endorsement. is it enough for her to take out trump? we have jessica dean and harry denton here to talk about this. jessica, what's haley's strategy? >> we talk about everything, but until people start voting we don't know. this endorsement yesterday was a big deal in the sense that she's going to have so much money thrust behind her. we're talking about ads up in all the early states and also in super tuesday states. we're talking about an incredible network of contact information, donor information. they can go door knocking. the question becomes can this convert into real momentum for her? we're seeing the data points, but she has to not only convince

people that she's the best trump alternative. she's vying against governor ron desantis for that slot. she also has to peel off trump supporters. it's a high bar and tough to do. >> will the dollars translate into votes? how do you see them going to work? will we see pro nikki haley ads or anti-everybody else ads? >> they launched an ad all about her. when americans for prosperity announced they were backing her, they talked about turning the page. they said republicans are putting up not good candidates. florida governor ron desantis and his campaign is calling this an in kind donation to the trump team, making the argument that desantis is the only one that can actually beat him. of course, haley's team and she have been making the case that, no, that's her.

here's what she's been saying. >> i think that's what a candidate says when they're losing. there's nothing establishment about the tea party candidate who ran for governor. when you have americans for prosperity, the most conservative grassroots group in the country endorsing me. he's saying what he has to say because he's grasping. >> they're trying to cast her as the establishment's choice. she's become the establishment backing. here's the thing for nikki haley, she has to get out of the primary first. you hear her saying i came from the tea party. i'm a bona fide conservative. she has to win in the general as well. >> jess, thank you. we have new developments out of israel. we have to get straight to jeremy diamond who is there. jeremy, what are you seeing and

hearing? >> reporter: well, you're seeing right now two of the newly freed hostages, two russian israeli women just arriving right now, greeted by a big crowd of people who are thrilled to see these israeli russian women freed from hamas captivity. they were released earlier today, not part of the framework of ten israelis per day, but rather part of a deal between russia and hamas. we have seen another russian israeli citizen released earlier this week in that same manner. right behind me is the entrance to the air base where we believe they'll get on helicopters to head to a hospital in israel. people here are thrilled to watch their fellow come patriots coming home.

we're expecting a second convoy with all ten israelis will be coming through here as well. people are fired up here and want to show them the love they didn't get during those 50 days in captivity. >> jeremy, there's jubilation right now, but it comes with the understanding that this lull in the war may soon come to an end. we understand there are officials in qatar negotiating an extension to the truce. have you heard from folks on the ground about how they feel regarding the sort of uncertainty surrounding when hostilities might pick back up? >> reporter: people are certainly hoping that more hostages will be freed, whether it's -- whether you have someone in captivity or you know someone. everyone here feels very connected to the state of those hostages. so we will see whether or not they can achieve that extension of the pause. we know there's been ongoing

negotiations between israeli and -- excuse me -- between israeli and qatar, hamas, u.s. officials to see if they can extend the truce. the initial goal is to see if they can extend that to get all the women and children out of hamas captivity. i spoke to a senior israeli official today who said only after they get all the women and children out will they consider an expanded deal to get men and israeli soldiers who are also being held by hamas. >> jeremy, tell us about the scene there. it's extraordinary. we saw the camera catching a glimpse of one of the vehicles with one of these hostages who had been released driving by. you're in the middle of the crowd awfully close to the vehicles. a lot of jubilation around you. what has the scene been like? >> reporter: look, people --

word travels fast here. when we first got here, there were only a few people and very quickly this square effectively started to fill up with men, women and children, lots of children behind me, thrilled to welcome these folks home. we saw the scene a couple nights ago. there's been different ways this hostage release has happened. sometimes they're flown directly in helicopter from the crossing as we saw last night directly to hospitals. other nights there are times where they come in a convoy and come to this air base in order to be lifted to hospitals. clearly the people here are thrilled they were able to come to get a close up look at the newly freed hostages. you can see the smiles. i saw one of those two russian israeli women in the convoy and her smile -- i mean, you can tell it has an impact for them to be welcomed in this way as they come back to their country. >> jeremy, you mentioned these

two russian israeli women were not released as part of the framework of the truce between hamas and israel. we know there have been other hostages released similarly, not as part of the framework. do we anticipate more coming soon, that there are more talks going on in the background as we speak? >> reporter: yeah, we are still waiting for the official group. there's the two russian israeli women outside of this framework who were released. we're waiting for the official ten israeli citizens set to be released today. women and children expected in that latest batch. we expect they'll come in the same way, driving this time rather than taking helicopters directly, coming to this air base. people here are happy to welcome them in this manner. >> at this point, jeremy, according to israel there's still 159 hostages still

currently held in gaza. obviously this is -- the hope here is that they'll get women and children out and then tackle a difficult issue, which is going to be what about these male hostages and also tracking down these hostages where it seems that hamas may be having difficulty exactly locating them if they're being held by other militant groups. >> reporter: that's right. there are believed to be 40 hostages held by other groups. i spoke to israeli officials who said they don't believe hamas should have trouble locating or getting those hostages back in their captivity. hamas is firmly in control of the gaza strip. they have some power over some of these other militant factions that exist there as well. nonetheless that has been cited by hamas as the difficulty in

getting these hostages released. it's also thought that's why they have israeli and american drones stop their flights, not only to be able to get these hostages without revealing their locations, but also so they could search for the other hostages speaking with other militant groups and trying to get to them. it's also hamas trying to regroup for the next phase of this war. it's also something to keep in mind here, which is once this pause ends we'll be returning to war in israel and in gaza. that has been made explicitly clear by israel's leadership that this is not a permanent cease-fire. they want to get as many hostages out as possible, but they'll return to the critical mission to get the hostages out, but also to destroy hamas and remove it from its hold on power

in gaza. >> key officials are also looking at the day after hamas -- that's part of the talks we've heard from antony blinken concerning his discussions. jeremy diamond, please stand by. we may come back to you. more hostages expected to come through that road in the near future. >> so much jubilation. we see that, but at the same time we have to remember these are families where as the women and children are coming out, often they're leaving their spouses and fathers behind. some of them coming home to realize that some of their loved ones were killed on october 7th and they were not necessarily aware of that. it's a moment of jubilation, but a moment of so many mixed emotions for these families. >> absolutely. "cnn news central" continues in just a moment.

we are back monitoring the latest hostage release in gaza. a red cross convoy has just arrived in israel with more freed hostages. the current six-day truce between israel and hamas is set to expire in just a few hours. top diplomats are racing against the clock to try to extend that truce agreement and get more hostages out. we're joined by a senior adviser to the prime minister. thanks so much for joining us. what is your view and the prime minister's view on a possible extension of this temporary

truce? do you see a deal happening in the coming hours? >> so we don't need to make a new deal, wolf. all we have to do is extend the existing one for another day, another two days. according to our numbers, there's something like 25 women and children still on the list. that's the deal, for women and children. we've said publicly -- it was the decision of our government last week, that we will extend a day of this humanitarian pause to get the hostages out. we'll extend it out for ten hostages to be released. because, as i said, there are over 20 women and children left in gaza, they can be released and we can extend this special humanitarian pause. the ball is in hamas' court. >> we heard the foreign ministry spokesman from qatar say he was pretty optimistic, very hopeful

that an extension of the temporary truce will, in fact, go forward. are you confident this will happen? >> confident is a difficult word because we have to remember who we're dealing with. we're dealing with brutal hamas terrorist who have no qualms about inflicting the most vicious brutality that we know. we saw what they're capable of. we saw the manipulations they do. we see the way they treat their own people. confident is a strong word, maybe too strong. we said publicly we're willing for this extension and all those people who want to see the humanitarian pause continue, they have to put pressure on hamas. the key to that is releasing more hostages. hostage president reagan famously said trust, but verify. we don't trust. we verify. ten hostages are released, we

extend the cease-fire. another ten, we extend again. >> we're following also a very sensitive situation. hamas a little while ago claiming the youngest hostage the 10-month-old, the 4-year-old and their mother are all dead. they insist they died as part of the israeli air strikes into gaza. we know israel is, quote, assessing that hamas claim. can you share any updates on this sensitive issue for us? >> it really is a sensitive issue. here we have a family, once again, this 10-month-old was kidnaps when he was 9 months old, his older brother 4-year-old and the mother all kidnapped on october 7th. hamas at the time said their attack was only against military targets. for hamas a 9-month-old baby is

a military target. it shows you who we're dealing with. if i called them brutal fanatics, i wasn't exaggerating. this is the clearest demonstration of what we're dealing with. they said they're killed. we're trying to verify that. in the past there have been statements from hamas about people being killed and we saw they were alive in the end. we have to check this out. of course we worry. we worry about all the hostages. there are still 159 hostages in gaza and we worry about every one. that's why we're extending the pause to get the hostages out to try to save these people. it's an integral part of our aims, get the hostages home. >> let's hope they all come home and come home very soon. mark, thanks for joining us.

>> my pleasure, wolf. we'll have much more news right after this.

in washington there's a stare down for critical aid for ukraine. members of congress meeting to reach out for a way to move forward. speaker mike johnson meeting with senator mitch mcconnell. on the other side democrats are divided over placing conditions on any assistance to israel. we're joined by republican congressman nick lolatta of new york. congressman, thank you for being with us. the white house is demanding $61 billion for ukraine. one plan being floated among

your conference would be significantly lower, 15 to $20 billion. do you worry that's not enough to support u.s. national security interests? >> listen, the reason that public support for ukraine funding has plummeted is the president has not issued a war plan whatsoever. the secretary of defense has not engaged congress enough to tell us what a winning war plan is, nor have they provided the auditing necessary to make sure hard-earned american tax dollars are going to the right place. public support is at a low because the white house hasn't done what it should to support congress getting to yes on sending more aid over. >> what about the nine audits that have been done since the war started by d.o.d., by the i.g., not to mention the ten classified advisories on how this is being managed? what are you talking about that

you want besides that? >> it's not the quantity. it's the quality. nine sounds like a nice number to many of our viewers, the but the quality has been s substandard. millions, if not billions of dollars, are going into the wrong hands. we need more accountability on those dollars if we'll have true public support for more ukraine funding. >> you have the ig coming before you in february. you had the d.o.d. and the ig the state giving you regular updates more than monthly. you had lloyd austin before the house armed services committee in march. blinken and austin before the senate in october. what more oversight do you want that is -- what's more quality than that, having those opportunities to get your questions answered before those people who obviously are in charge of aid that's going to

ukraine? >> i'm an 11-year navy veteran. i sit on the armed services committee. i've been in rooms and asked questions and my concerns have not been assuaged. there's no surprise why a number of armed services committee members who would typically lean into helping an ally defeat a common enemy have the same questions i do. it's because this administration has been negligent in providing real answers and data showing that the dollars are going to the right purpose. the administration needs to do a better job not in the quantity, not more briefings or more reports, but the quality to ensure when we send money to ukraine, which has a history of internal corruption, that it's going to the right places. >> do you have the same concerns about the aid to israel? >> no, i don't. the histories are much different. our allegiance is much stronger

with israel. israel is america's strongest ally and america is -- >> but about how israel -- the way forward, that's a concern you have with ukraine. do you have concerns about who is going to govern gaza once hamas is gone? is israel creating more terrorists than it is eliminating with the way it's executing this with so many civilians killed? do you feel like your questions about that are being answered? >> i have much more confidence in the israeli defense forces' prosecution of a common enemy in hamas than i have in ukraine. while i have reservations with one, i have far less reservations with the other. that's because, one, my confidence in israel, but, two, it's clear that hamas is a great common enemy to the united states. it chants death to the america and wants to wipe israel off the

map. i recognize what that means to americans and american safely. that's why we should act swiftly and clearly with our support to israel. >> sir, thank you for taking the time. we appreciate it. we're back after a quick break.

thanks for your well wishes. both engines running on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. we're ready to go. >> that was a virgin airlines boeing 787 taking off from london to new york, becoming the first commercial airplane to use

100% sustainable fuel. joining us to discuss now is bill weir. bill, is this a promising step or is this just a gimmick? >> reporter: well, it's a little bit of a one-off, but the wright brothers had to start somewhere. this is a plane basically running on fryer grease. it's fat from restaurant waste and other sources. it is the first of several tests we saw in recent weeks of aviation proving this could be done. right now you can't have more than 50% of the sustainable stuff in the mix, but this is their plan, aviations plan to get greener over time. it's a drop in the bucket right now. richard branson who is a showman knows the power of these moments to inspire people. there are all kinds of ideas cooking in this space. new york is going to have

electric helicopters running from downtown to the airports. >> sir richard branson was actually on that greasy flight, if you want to call it that. bill, tomorrow the top 28 climate summit is set to take place in dubai. we're learning vice president harris is scheduled to attend in lieu of president biden. is there anything to take from her attending and not president biden? >> reporter: the white house says he's got other things. there's a lot going on in the world. if you look at the top three emitters of carbon pollution, it's china, the united states and russia. 200 world leaders will be there. the cloud is who's hosting this. the ceo of aubu dabi's biggest

oil company is hosting it. there have been claims he's going to try to use this meeting to sell their oil and gas. it's a blatant conflict of interest when the world needs to burn less oil. so many of the vulnerable countries that depend on this conference for their very existence are relying on this summit. the sultan denies this is true, but we'll see. >> an unwanted distraction at

the conference. bibill weir, t thank you f for rereporting. stay with h cnn. we'l'll be rightht back.

welcome back to "cnn news central." i'm boris sanchez alongside brianna keilar. we're tracking some developments in the middle east. more hostages arrived in israel after being released from hamas on thi