together in the meetings in doha. in the negotiations, they were together in the meeting with netanyahu and his negotiation team. they were together in a meeting with the emir of qatar just the other day. and i think that because of both sides working together, both sides of the, you know, the incoming administration, the outgoing administration working together, this is something that made this deal possible. >> all right. barak ravid, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there. again, we are learning the israeli government and hamas have agreed to a hostage release and ceasefire deal. of course, we're waiting to learn more details of that. but this is a huge development. months in the making. thank you so much for joining us. i'm pamela brown. our coverage of this breaking news continues right now on inside politics with dana bash. >> this is cnn breaking news.

>> welcome to inside politics. i'm dana bash in washington, where we are following momentous news. a source telling cnn that the israeli government and hamas have agreed to a deal that will pause fighting in gaza and lead to a phased release of hostages. israeli hostages taken on october 7th. in addition to palestinian prisoners. this comes at a gut wrenching 466 days after the hamas terror attacks on israel. cnn is covering this breaking news from all angles, all across the globe. mj lee is at the white house. jeremy diamond is in tel aviv. jeremy, i want to go to you first. what are you hearing from your sources in israel and in the broader region? >> well, dana, this is an earth shattering moment. 15 plus months in the making since hamas's october 7th attack. we now have an agreement between israel and hamas for

potentially the longest cease fire that we have seen in this war to date, a six week ceasefire is expected to take effect once this agreement is actually signed on the dotted line and moves towards the implementation phase of this, which i'm told could come as early as this weekend. sunday is the date that appears to be targeted for the first hostages to be released from the gaza strip for israel to stop its bombing campaign, and for the troops there, the hamas militants, to lower their weapons and for the ceasefire to actually go into effect. and you just think about the many months of negotiations that have happened, so many moments over the course of the last year where we thought we were on the precipice of an agreement, only for talks to collapse once again, largely because of the lack of political will on one side or the other, to actually broker this agreement. but now we finally have this agreement. israel and hamas, at least for the moment, verbally agreeing to move towards this ceasefire

agreement, which is not an end to the war in gaza. but should that political will carry forward in the six weeks of this ceasefire, it could very well turn into that. that is, in fact the hope of the mediators involved here. we know that the united states has made very clear for months now that they believed that getting to a temporary ceasefire was the best possible path to reaching an end of the war in gaza. altogether. that theory will now, of course, be tested by a new administration, which played a significant role as well in getting to this moment. but for this agreement, once it will go into effect. dana, six weeks of ceasefire, 33 hostages expected to be released during that time. israeli government officials expect that the majority of those, but not all of them, will be living hostages. you will see hundreds of palestinian prisoners, some of them who have been convicted of killing israelis, released in exchange for those 33 hostages and hundreds of trucks of

humanitarian aid. i'm told as many as 600 trucks of humanitarian aid per day making it into the gaza strip, which we should note over the course of the last 15 months. if there is one thing that we have learned, it is that no place in gaza is safe. and finally, once this agreement goes into effect, gazans will experience at least a reprieve from the bombardment, a reprieve from this war that has shattered so many lives over the course of the last 15 months. truly an enormous moment, dana. here in israel, we will need to wait for the israeli government to officially approve this deal. it will go before the israeli security cabinet, then the full israeli cabinet. the israeli supreme court will hear petitions against the release of palestinian prisoners. but once all that is concluded, this deal will go into effect. >> dana, it is so nice to be able to report some good news, particularly on this absolutely horrific situation that we've seen for over 400 days in the middle east. mj, i want to go to you.

you have been talking to your sources in the white house and in the broader administration. one of the things that when the history books and when the the stories that we are all going to write will come out, that will be the most fascinating has been the way that the biden white house on its way out and the trump transition officials who will work in the trump white house have been working together to make this happen. in the final days of the biden administration. >> yeah, dana, i mean, think about the fact that we have been covering this story and this conflict for well over a year, and for the majority of that time, president biden and his white house and administration officials have been working really nonstop to try to get a second cease fire in place. and they had been until this point, completely unsuccessful at times. there were

moments when it was made clear that the will wasn't there from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. there were other times when it was clear that hamas was in no position to come to the negotiating table, even, and we have followed those conversations and the negotiations at every step of the way. and, dana, it is for certain that the one thing that made the biggest difference in getting us to this point, finally, of an agreement on a cease fire, is simply the fact that donald trump is about to take office. now, i just want to be clear to our viewers, of course, the current administration, the biden administration and its top officials have been taking the lead for the u.s. in mediating these talks. but at the same time as we have been reporting all along, trump's national security team and in particular the incoming middle east envoy, steve witkoff has physically been in the region. and based on my reporting, has been in all of

these critical conversations, even having joint conversations with the israeli prime minister, being intimately involved in hammering out these final issues to get us to this point, i should also just quickly note one piece of reporting. according to one u.s. official, you know, we have been waiting for a couple of days now for final word that hamas had said, yes. i am told by a u.s. official that there were some last minute sort of final details and issues that had come up that the parties had to address. now, obviously, that those appear to have been resolved because otherwise hamas wouldn't have said yes. but i do think it is worth talking about why that was really the reason that everybody involved had been so cautious and not making any predictions about whether this moment would come, because at the end of the day, they were dealing with hamas and that final green light had to come from that group. the one other thing that i think is one that is worth underscoring, you

know, jeremy was very clear in reminding everyone that this does not mean that the war is definitely over. we are talking about a six week ceasefire. what that means is that whenever this agreement is actually signed and begins to be implemented, and we don't know yet whether that's going to be starting tomorrow over the weekend or perhaps even next week, whatever the case may be, the majority, if not all of the implementation of this ceasefire is going to fall on donald trump and his administration. so the overseeing of that is going to be passed on to the incoming administration. and having covered the last ceasefire and just seeing everything over the last year, plus that process is going to be incredibly difficult for the new government that's coming in. >> yeah, no question about it. mj, thank you so much for that. terrific reporting, jeremy, as well. obviously let us know if you get any new details. i've

got a great group of colleagues here at the table to talk about all of this. cnn's audie cornish, cnn and bloomberg's nia-malika henderson, cnn global analyst kimberly dozier, and cnn's alex marquardt. um, alex, i know you've been talking to your sources as well about what we expect here. and one of the things that that i'm wondering at this point is how the not only, of course, how the people inside gaza who are going to get a reprieve for the first time in almost a year, are feeling. but the families in israel who have been waiting for 440 something days to see if their loved one is alive, and then, if so, which ones will come back? >> it's fair to say there is extraordinary relief on all sides. this is just an incredible moment. we've been talking about this for more than 13 months now, since the end of the last truce, and my friends and colleagues, there

are are very right in emphasizing this is a pause in the fighting. there's a very good chance that the fighting picks back up again after after six weeks, of course, the the current and future administrations are hoping that that is not the case. i think it's very important to emphasize what we know and what we don't know. and this is very much biden's model. his ceasefire, the three phases that is now getting pushed across the finish line with that nudge from donald trump and what we're expecting to see in the coming days in terms of these israeli and some american hostages, israeli americans are what they're calling the humanitarian cases, the the women, older men, injured, wounded, and some will be deceased. there has been a lot of back and forth between the two sides about who is alive, who's dead, where they are. of course, the hostages have been held by different groups all over the gaza strip for the past 14 months. we do not, as far as i know, have a solid

figure of the number of palestinians who are going to be released from israeli prisons. jeremy, hundreds, hundreds. and they will range in terms of what they have done from the least serious to, we believe, some of the most serious and on the most serious side, those they will probably be exiled to to other countries like turkey and qatar. um, one thing that hamas has been really, really strict on, and that has held up a lot of this, is their insistence that the idf completely leave gaza and that the war end. that has not happened in this case. so hamas backed off those demands. we are going to see the idf, the israeli military, pull back from population centers from cities, but they will stay within the gaza strip in certain strategic areas that netanyahu has insisted on. um, this war will not end. so there are big, big questions about what comes next. this is now trump's ceasefire. he will have to put

it into effect. he will have to pressure the parties to make sure that that, that, that, that, that this is maintained. this is biden's structure. but now it is going to be owned by the trump administration. >> and he just put on social media the following. we have a deal for the hostages in the middle east. they will be released shortly. thank you. uh, you know, you never know in times like this. sometimes it takes some time to figure out who was involved and who really put the pressure point on. it is very clear, although it it was, as you said, joe biden's plan. and they've been pushing it since they made it public in the early spring of 2024. but it the, the political pressure from trump coming in and a whole bunch of other factors clearly have gotten them to this point. and just to go back to kind of the deal, right now, we're talking about probably 33, 34 hostages, most of whom are

civilians. there are some idf hostages who are there. we don't know if they will be among those who will be released. but about 34, uh, to be sent back to israel in exchange for hundreds of prisoners who many of whom have done some pretty horrible things. yes. >> and iranian prisoners. israelis can petition to the high court against any one of those releases, though the high court has not stepped in and stopped the releases in the last exchange. now we have to make clear that biden's white house aide, brett mcgurk, has been working with steve witkoff on this and that even if this goes into effect on sunday, only three hostages would be released on that day, four more once trump is inaugurated. but the real bottom line for trump will be when do the israeli americans get out? most of the

israeli americans still being held are of military age, and that wouldn't even be decided or negotiated until this. first. >> it's a really good point. >> worked out. >> so seven of the remaining hostages are believed to be american citizens, four of whom are confirmed dead. so we are talking about. three living american hostages. >> and those male hostages of military age, or who are in the idf are. >> like edan alexander. >> correct. ah. >> i talked to his family multiple times, are likely not going to come out in this first phase. >> and hamas will hold them because they see them as the most valuable hostages, and they will exchange them in later phases for an end to the war and for that withdrawal from gaza that i was talking about. >> and we're looking at live pictures of what has become known as hostage square in tel aviv. and, audie, just thinking about the moment of where we are now,

five days left of joe biden's administration. if everything goes as we are told, it will. kim just said, sunday is the day we are likely to see some of the hostages being released. we haven't seen that since last november. i mean, it has been a very long time since we've seen those joyous reunions, and it's going to be the day before donald trump is inaugurated. the last full day of joe biden's presidency. >> i know people want to draw a lot of parallels there, maybe even to carter and iran. right. you know, there are some big differences here. we don't know if those will be joyous reunions. right? this is going to be a complicated day for israel. it's also going to be a moment, frankly, where there is bipartisanship is then everyone had the same goal, right, to bring people home. and even right now, marco rubio, in his senate confirmation hearings, is talking about he spoke today about israel and the hostage deal. and he said things have

changed on the ground in very fundamental ways in the last i think he said a couple of months talking about syria. et cetera. so as you mentioned, this is now trump's story. and going forward, how will this administration, quote, unquote, take advantage of these fundamental shifts on the ground and how will they handle the big questions? you know, who governs gaza? what does it mean to eliminate hamas to israel's satisfaction? there's a lot of questions here that i think we're going to be um, going to be presented very quickly because of how this has moved. >> and as i bring you in, nia, i do want to play as hopefully we can keep up the pictures because that's happening live. but christiane amanpour spoke just a few hours ago, i believe, to the secretary of state, antony blinken, who has been instrumental since october 7th, 2023, in trying to find that very impossible balance. we don't have the sound bite yet. we'll let you know when we get to it. but what he effectively

said was, like, we've been saying, they worked with and they have been working with the incoming trump administration. but, you know, make no mistake about it, number one, this has been held up because, alex, you mentioned this, hamas has been dragging its heels because by all accounts, when you get to the end of this whole ordeal, hamas a terror organization, uh, the whole point of the bombardment is that hamas would be no more. and then when that equals a political solution. ideally for the west and for the arab neighbors who just want peace in the region, that would also mean the end of hamas. so we'll see what it ultimately, uh, bears out. and i just want to say again, nia, sorry to make you wait here, but what you're looking at is the state of

qatar. they of course, the qataris were instrumental in helping to broker this. and we're waiting for qatari officials to come out and make the statement official. >> nia, this was certainly months and months of work by the biden administration. people on the front line, like anthony blinken. but to have donald trump come out with, in some ways it was meaningless bluster, this idea that he would, you know, unleash holy hell. guess what? holy hell has already been unleashed. so it was unclear exactly what he meant. but his he has tremendous political capital with israelis. he has tremendous political capital with netanyahu as well. and that ended up making a difference, naming sort of a time and a date saying, this is this has to happen before he gets into office. going forward, who knows what happens, what kind of negotiator donald trump is in terms of securing the peace in israel and making that region much more stable? we know he has aspirations, right, of being the peace through

strength president, somebody who envisions himself as somebody who could win the nobel peace prize. and we know that he will and his supporters and his allies will frame this as a new era in american sort of diplomacy and american presence on on the world, and that this was donald trump's might alone, that that made this happen. it is obviously much more complicated than that. but, yeah, it's much more complicated. >> audie, i'm sorry to interrupt you. i just i want to go to christiane amanpour. i'm told she has some breaking news from the state department. christiane. >> well, yes, dana, i've been at the state department today interviewing secretary of state antony blinken. his final interview before leaving. and we were talking just as this deal was being worked on. and in the interim, 30s while other anonymous sources have been confirming we have a senior u.s. official confirming to us now that this deal has been reached, as you know, it's a first phase. it's a cease

fire, hostage release, and then it will be prisoner release. plus pumping aid into gaza and having a six week kind of breathing space before hopefully a second phase of actually ending this war could take place. this is what secretary blinken told me about what this phase would contain. take a listen. >> we're on the brink, and it could it should happen in the coming hours. but until it actually does, we're not there. but if and when it does two things, it'll be on the basis of the plan that president biden put forward back in may and that we rallied ever since then, we've been working to negotiate the details, the implementation. it's been delayed and derailed by different events. but we're i think finally, at the point where this gets over the line. once that happens, here's what happens. first, the firing stops. hamas israel stopped firing. israel pulls back its forces. hostages begin to be

released. prisoners come out of israeli jails and go back. and we surge humanitarian assistance to people who so desperately need it. all of that happens during a six week period, but also during that six weeks. we have to negotiate the understandings to get to a permanent cease fire so that israel pulls all of its forces out of gaza. hamas doesn't come back in, and there's the necessary governance, security, reconstruction arrangements so that gaza can move forward. >> is that sorted? >> that's not sorted. we've worked on it intensely for the last 6 or 7 months, intensely but quietly, with arab partners, with others. i think there's some basic understandings that we've reached. but the cease fire itself hopefully would concentrate minds and get people to agree on what's necessary to get that day. after a post-conflict plan in place. >> so, donna, this is the really big deal for the moment that some 30 or so israeli hostages would be released, as you've been discussing, and all the other things that would

hang on it like blinken just said, but as you know, and as he said, this is the same deal that this administration had proposed back in may and that had been thwarted by both israelis and hamas in different periods of time. and how many people and how many lives could have been saved had this deal gone through back in may? so that's one issue. and then the other issue, which is very interesting to me and to all of our viewers, is that we know that the biden administration did keep the trump administration totally in, you know, connected on what they were doing to the fact that two of their negotiators sat side by side in this last phase, and that blinken told me that he's been in touch regularly on this and other issues with his successor, marco rubio, who today is undergoing his own confirmation hearings right here in washington. so it is something that's happening between the two administrations. >> yeah, we have done some great reporting on that. and it is one of the things that

should give everybody a modicum of faith when it's understandable, when it's understandable that they don't. when and when i'm talking about that, i just am specifically very, very narrowly talking about the fact that this is one area where the incoming trump administration, the outgoing biden administration do go hand in glove on the need and the desire to get these hostages home, to get this, to get this cease fire, temporary as it may be done. yeah, yeah. >> so it's on this phase alone that they're hand in glove and not on the rest of it. and there are i don't know how many more dozen hostages left inside a gaza. >> that's right. and that's part of the issue is how many there are, how many are there and how many are alive. christiane, thank you so much for bringing us that really important issue. timing is everything, huh? i appreciate that it is. bianna golodryga, i want to go to you because you are in hostage square in

israel, in tel aviv. what's the mood there? >> dana? there's a big sigh of relief collectively here. things are a bit quiet, but people are coming out more now in mass. i think, as this news is getting out, there have been people here, as you know, for the past 15 months, 466 days, and it took hell to finally get to this day. right now, the last major hostage release we saw was last november. as you noted, we're over 100 hostages were released, and since then, so many families have been waiting, desperate to hear anything, any sign of life, any word on their loved ones, any indication as to when they would come home. and for now, finally today, they got that news. i spoke with a number of the hostage families that are actually going to be part of

this initial phase one. their loved ones are among those that fall into the category of the 33 that would be released. and understandably, they're excited, they're nervous, but they also said they'll believe it when they see it. they don't want to be speaking to anybody about this right now until they see their loved ones come home. they don't want to jeopardize this deal at all. but dana, as one mother told me every day for her has been october 7th. every day has been a terror attack without her daughter at home. no doubt the onus, the blame, obviously goes first and foremost to hamas. it is on them to release the hostages. but there have been times over the past several months when i've spoken to families where they felt that they were left out and left and let down by the mediators and their own government, as well. as you noted, a very similar deal was on the table months ago. there was a schism within the government here between prime minister netanyahu and members of his right wing coalition and the defense establishment that

last summer said that the time was ripe for a deal, that there they had accomplished their military goals against hamas for the time being, and that they could see the release of hostages. that was in july. we know what happened in august. six hostages were tragically killed at the hands of hamas, including one american, hersh goldberg polin. that was a very dark day, yet another dark day here in israel. and finally, for these families to know that in the coming days, god willing, they will start to see their loved ones come home. this has been an open wound that they said the country cannot heal until they start to see these. these family members come home. so so that's what they're anticipating right now. the hospitals are ready. the country is ready to start to see them come back. >> and, bianna, it's interesting as you are talking, we're looking at pictures on the other side of the screen from us of hostage square. i'm sure it's not too far from where you're standing, and the mood strikes me as as interesting because it's not

jubilant. it's not solemn. it just. it looks like. it feels like suspended animation. >> i have that feeling here, too. i just arrived, dana, today, and i thought that i would be. i didn't know actually what i would see because it's been 15 months. it's been a little over a year since we last saw hostages come home. we've been in close and only seen deals fall apart, so i didn't know what to expect here. coming here tonight. but it's what you just described. it's i think people are all in a state of perhaps shock. perhaps they've just built themselves up to prepare for the worst, even though there is a deal has been agreed to. according to our reporting. and it's just a matter of actually seeing these hostages come home. and then, dana, also just anticipating what kind of state these hostages may be in. you remember back in november, after just over 50 days in captivity, those that were released were dehydrated, they

were frail, not to mention the mental anguish and psychological trauma that they experienced. one doesn't even know where to begin to imagine how these hostages that are going to be released, what their conditions are going to be like. um, obviously these families want them here first and foremost. as one mother told me, i will heal that my child. i will work on healing my child once i have my child in my arms. but to know that that's coming in the next several days, i think there's there's a lot of anticipation and nervousness. of course. >> absolutely understandable. never mind. it's unclear who is going to be released as part of this first phase. brianna, thank you so much. it's great to see you there. i want to we've heard a couple of people mention that marco rubio, who is widely expected to be confirmed as the next secretary of state, is now before the senate committee. that will determine that at least the first part of that confirmation, he was asked

about the situation in the middle east, this potential deal. let's listen to what he said. >> i can tell you what i know. obviously i'm not in the state department yet, but i can tell you as an example, the president's envoy to that region who is charged steve witkoff, who was charged with being an envoy towards reaching an accommodation between the israelis and the saudis, has been working cooperatively and together with the biden administration. and in fact, i dare to say that all involved deserve credit for the cease fire that the chairman has just announced. but steve witkoff has been a critical component of it, and he has been involved in it from day one. i think the broader consideration about whether we want to see a saudi. israeli mutual recognition and relationship would be one of the most historic developments in the history of the region. for all the factors we've discussed here today, it would be. and one of the impediments to it has been this conflict in the ongoing conflict and the lack of a cease fire. i also think it's going to be important for the saudis and others to be participants in

post-conflict stabilization efforts in gaza and beyond. so all i can tell you is that what i've said from the very beginning, from the opening statement, and that is our foreign policy is going to be driven, as the president has made abundantly clear, by whether some action makes america is in the interest of the of the united states and our national security. >> and that's that was marco rubio, who is the nominee to be the next secretary of state. i want to now go to barak ravid, who is a reporter for axios, a contributor here at cnn. barak, what are you hearing from your very deep bench of sources in the region? >> hi, dana. well, you know, we have a deal. the deal will be implemented within days tomorrow morning, local time. the israeli cabinet will approve the deal. and i think that over the weekend, the cease fire will will come into effect. and hopefully by sunday, uh, the first three

hostages will go out from gaza, will be released and will return to their families. >> can you talk about what you know, beyond the top lines, which are important? 3334 hostages expected to be released in exchange for hundreds of palestinian prisoners. any more information about. let's just start with the hostages, who they will be aside from its humanitarian, those who might need humanitarian aid and those who are civilians so we have, uh, in the first group of 33 hostages, they will be released over 42 days of cease fire. >> um, the first group to come out will be women, civilians, female civilians that were held in gaza for more than 450 days in the tunnels. they will come

out first. afterwards, it will be female soldiers, five female soldiers who were taken hostage will and were in hamas captivity. they will be next. then a group of men over the age of 50. uh, we do not know how many in this group are still alive. that's a big question mark. hamas still did not give a clear information on who's alive and who's not. but that's the next. and afterwards, men under the age of 50 who are, uh, in bad medical condition. we also do not know who from this group is that in this 33 hostages grouptn citizens. one american citizen above the age of 50. he is expected to be released something like two weeks from now. um, and, uh, we had a video from him several months ago. according to what i know,

he's supposed to be alive. uh, the second american citizen is, sajid khan, uh, who is a man under the age of 50. but he's in the group of of hostages in bad medical condition. uh, we have no information about his situation. whether he's alive or dead. i think we will know in the next few days, but he is certainly on the list. >> yeah. i recently did an interview with keith siegel's wife, who was held with him for a short time before she was among those who was released earlier on. um, just staying on this, of course. we have been hearing about a lot of of not a lot, but a few of the young american men, uh, two of whom we now know are dead. one was murdered. and that is, uh, a poland greenberg. uh, goldberg. forgive me. and then the other we learned was actually, uh, omer neutra was actually

killed on october 7th, which the israeli government just didn't know until more recently. another is adan alexander, who is a young man who was serving in the idf. i don't know that his parents or those of others, american or not, serving the in the idf of the male gender are expected anytime soon. is that accurate? >> yes. that's accurate. we also have italian, who is also a u.s. citizen. he was a soldier in the idf, was killed on october 7th. his body is in gaza. so i think that you're talking now about the second phase of this deal. and it's very important because 16 days into phase one, negotiations on phase two need to start. yes. and this phase two is highly important because you have, uh, at least, um, for, uh, u.s. citizens that are

in that phase. one of them is alexander, who we know is still alive because we just had the sign of life from him just 2 or 3 weeks ago. and i think it will be highly important to see whether donald trump, when he's already president, presses the israeli government and hamas to continue on to phase two, that at the end of april, all the hostages are out and the war is permanently over. >> and let's now look at what's happening in gaza. i believe we have pictures from khan younis with people who are gathering there incredibly, uh, eager, of course, to hear if it is in fact going to happen that a ceasefire and the bombing of gaza will will stop at least for six weeks. um, what is your understanding of what is happening inside the israeli government with regard

to what happens after these six weeks? i know it feels like i'm jumping ahead, but and we heard tony blinken talk about this and it's all, i think, pretty obvious. i don't think you need to talk to sources in the region to or even at the white house to know this, that the hope is with these six weeks, that the then trump administration, with the help of other partners in the region, will make this cease fire permanent, will somehow find a way to get a government up and running with the help of, uh, arab countries that have a lot of money and a lot of, uh, of of ability to make that happen. but they didn't even want to hear about it or talk about it until and unless the israeli bombardment stopped. but that will also require a lot of negotiation from within the netanyahu government. and so i'm

wondering from you how likely that is going to be and how far they are likely to go. >> so i you know, we look at those pictures from gaza, um, you know, 2 million palestinians went through hell, um, in the last 14 months, since october 7th. uh, um, because of this attack that hamas initiated and more than 45,000 palestinians were killed, the majority of which are civilians. uh, and for them, this ceasefire is like fresh air. and i think this is why it's very, very important. um, about the israeli government. it's very interesting because at least part of netanyahu's government, the radical right, the extreme right, uh, two parties that were already announced that they will oppose the deal. the deal will pass in the cabinet tomorrow, even if they vote against it. but what

is interesting is whether they will stay in the government or leave. if they leave. this is a dramatic political development that could bring down netanyahu's government. um, if they do not leave now, there will be another challenge when the negotiations over phase two will start, because netanyahu has been hinting to those parties won't leave the government because, you know, we will go back to fighting after phase one. uh, but it's not clear if he will be able to go back to fight and if he won't be able to go back to fighting, because the u.s. will demand that this deal will continue to be implemented, then at that moment, 42 days from now, he will be in a very, very, very difficult political situation with his government. uh, under the risk of of collapsing. >> yeah. well, especially if

there is the pressure that we expect to come to bear from donald trump and his administration. and as i mentioned, the regional partners in the arab world who who will want to make this permanent and, again, to make the the living hell that you rightly referred to for so many civilians in gaza who have been living under the thumb of a terrorist group, hamas, and despite all the war, that does not seem to have ended. so we're going to talk more about that in in a bit. i now want to go to ruby khan, the father of itai khan, one of the israeli americans who was killed on october 7th. ruby, thank you so much for being here. we just heard barak ravid talking about your beautiful son who thought he thought for for a bit was

living as a as a hostage. but it turned out that he actually was murdered on october 7th. so given what you saw, is still a hostage and he is still a hostage. exactly. so, given that and the fact that i know you want to get his remains back, first of all, can you just describe how this moment feels? >> well, you know, we are grateful, uh, getting to this point. you know, it's been stuck for a long time. it's been 467 days since this began. and, uh, we want to thank the biden administration as well as the incoming trump administration and their teams. uh, especially mr. brett mcgurk. uh, nsc coordinator for the middle east, as well as mr. steve witkoff. uh. president trump, special envoy. i actually was in

qatar myself last week meeting both of them and know the commitment that they showed to get us where we are today. but we all must remember that the job is not done. they are still, even after this first phase happens. uh, five u.s. citizens that are still being held in gaza, and we are urging the negotiators to sign speed up the process between phase one and phase two, that this ordeal will end not just for us, but also for the people in gaza and have a sustainable cease fire. >> and ruby, you were in qatar. that's really interesting. so you had a, uh, an involvement in a front row seat to this, a really extraordinary partnership between the incoming trump administration and the outgoing biden administration to try to get this done. can can you talk about those discussions? and, of course, the question is, as part of those discussions, as part of this deal, do you know if your son's body will be

returned? >> yeah. so the catalyst of of deciding to go to qatar was, was based on the fact that, uh, we we felt my family that, uh, you know, the people negotiating, they see a excel sheet, they see a list, they do not see the people. and it was important for me to get on the plane and meet with the qatari officials of the prime minister office. uh, minister of state, as well as the nsa, as well as mr. brett mcgurk. look them in the eye and tell them, you know, what the families want and what the families, the majority of the families want to see is an agreement that not only speaks about the first coming out, but actually how the last one comes out and making it personal, i think, was something that was helpful. and i, again, would like to commend, uh, mr. steve witkoff that when speaking to

him when i was in qatar, uh, urged him to, uh, be physically in qatar because the commitment and guarantees that the incoming president gave to the commitments of the united states, uh, to get us to where we are, were essential. so i think everyone stepped up, uh, including the qatar's, egypt, and everyone involved. but again, it is a bit bittersweet. as for the first phase, my son is not on that list as well as five other u.s. citizens. and i think that the united states still has a commitment to us to get us united with my son. so he is not on the u.s. citizen. >> forgive me. so he is not on the list in this first phase. and this current deal exactly why we wish to speed up as much as possible to the second phase

that hopefully all the other hostages can be released. and as a dual citizen, your son was an american and an israeli still is and still is. what? what is your message to the incoming trump administration about? i spoke to another family member of a of a hostage yesterday who was very, very clear in saying that he is concerned that after this initial phase is done, that the trump administration would, um. maybe, uh, lose sight of what's happening. and he was imploring them not to lose sight of the fact that it is far from over, far from a done deal. even with this first phase. what is

your message to president elect donald to be grateful for the president? >> uh, he has showed his commitment to this topic and has been vocal on social media about it. there have not been a lot of topics that he has been vocal on. i could say from the elections, uh, the two teams, both the trump incoming and trump team with the existing incumbent biden team, have worked very closely together. and we had an opportunity to meet mr. mike waltz a few weeks ago, and he showed us his commitment, as well as mr. steve witkoff and adam boehler. all of them have showed their commitment, and i am positive that they will continue to push for this topic, especially since they are still u.s. citizens that are being held hostage. and i know they have a personal commitment to make this to the finish line. and i would also like to thank as

well, the different members of congress and senate that have been with us, which has been a bipartisan issue while we've been getting support from both sides of the aisle. and i would only hope that the 119th congress and its committees would also be helpful in making sure that there's no daylight between the trump administration and congress and making sure that there are different levers that can also be provided by the congress and the senate to make sure that all the hostages come out. >> ruby, as you're talking, we're seeing your beautiful son in that photo behind you. can you tell us about him? >> yeah. so he's the middle sibling, so he has a elder sibling and a younger sibling. so he's the connector, fun loving kid. um, you know, like any kid that you would see

growing up in the states, uh, i am a proud new yorker. proud new york knicks fan. for the love of god, i do not know how, but he became a celtics fan, and we would always watch basketball together. and, uh, he at the age of 18, he had the opportunity to go to college. uh, he, by the way, also has a german citizenship via his mother. so he had all the alternatives open to him. but he, uh, grew up with values of, of giving back. and he decided to join the idf. and he has a loving girlfriend. uh, that is still with hope that maybe the notice that we got, uh, is not, uh, what? you know, we were. told, uh, because we do not have that physical component. uh, and maybe a miracle did happen. so we, you

know, miss him a lot, and he is someone that, you know, always lights up the room and is very vocal and loves to dance and sing and just be the life of the party. and it's been 467 days and again, uh, we very much want to be at that place where we hear that, you know, our son is coming out. you know, i've had this, uh, vision. we are coming in next week to the inauguration. uh, the inauguration team invited us to us families. and i still have that hope that maybe sometime during that inauguration or a few days after, uh, mr. trump, the president will actually come to me and say, mr.. ken, i've been able to get your son out. i'm waiting for that to happen. >> you are incredible. and your whole family is just remarkable. you're relentless love. and, uh, you know,

aggressive push to do everything you possibly can against all odds. and we're looking at a picture right now of, uh, of your son. and i can sort of see somewhere in there his rebellion and why he said, no, dad, i'm not going to be a knicks fan. i'm going to be a celtics fan. so we appreciate it. >> that's the kid. >> yeah. we appreciate you coming on and talking about your experience with the negotiators. and most importantly, your son. stay in touch. appreciate it. ruby. >> thank you. have a good evening. >> thank you. and back here at the table, alex, i know that as i've been talking with our colleagues and others, you have been talking to your sources. >> yeah. um, just listening to mr. hendler, i'm reminded of the different nationalities who are represented. we've been talking about the israelis and the americans, some of whom are dual dual nationals. but there are at least ten who are from other countries, eight from thailand, one from nepal, one

from tanzania. so when they would come out is also a big question. and i think we're hitting on some important points here about how this is all going to unfold. the biden and the trump administrations are very much on the same page about wanting to get this deal off the ground, but what comes next? i'm not necessarily clear on where the trump administration stands for the future of gaza. what happens at the end of of those six weeks, the biden administration has been very firm. about the day after plans and wanting to come up with a palestinian government that could that could run the gaza strip, um, to rejuvenate the palestinian authority. you heard secretary blinken in just a moment ago saying that it is important for the israeli troops to pull out of the gaza strip. that's always been the biden administration's position. is that the same in the trump administration? and we've been talking about how firm, um, hamas has been, how reluctant they have been to agree to a deal. and that's in part because also netanyahu and his

government have been moving the goalposts at different times, saying, we want to remain in the gaza strip. we're going to stay in that philadelphi corridor along the border between between gaza and egypt. so this has been a very, very tough negotiation. and once these negotiations for phase two get underway during the trump administration, i think it's going to be very, very interesting to see what the trump administration's view is of the future of gaza. do they agree that israel should pull out of the gaza strip for months and months? the u.s. and the israeli military structure and officials have been saying that that israel has has accomplished its military goals, that they have decimated hamas to the point where they can no longer carry out another attack. but on october 7th, there's a but here, but there is a remarkable admission by secretary blinken just yesterday and one of his outgoing speeches saying that of all the thousands of hamas militants who have been taken off the battlefield, they have replenished their ranks, they have managed to recruit an

equal number, he said of hamas fighters to to join hamas. so hamas is not going anywhere. so this is very much a political and diplomatic question that needs to be answered in order to marginalize hamas and make sure that they no longer control the gaza strip. >> yes, hamas is not going anywhere unless and until, uh, its funding from iran largely is gone. and that would only happen if there is, as you said, a diplomatic and political solution that includes other countries in the region who are willing to, um, put skin in the game and to help reconstitute a gaza. >> dozens of young palestinians joining because they have no other hope. they need to be given another choice. they need to be given more hope for a future of gaza, for a future of a palestinian state. and so far, they have not seen that. >> and one of the reasons that hamas probably agreed to this right now is the fear that the

trump administration would back netanyahu if he decides, we've got to stay in gaza, we've got to reoccupy gaza, especially since some parts of trump's orbit have talked about that reoccupation. so that's the stick in this deal. >> well, on that note, the president elect just put out a more lengthy statement taking credit for what he called the epic cease fire agreement. it said it only happened because of our historic victory in november. also said that the steve witkoff, who we've been talking about, who was in the region, was helping to get this done. he's going to be the incoming trump mideast envoy that he will continue promoting peace through strength throughout the region as they build upon the momentum of the cease fire to further expand the historic abraham accords. that is an interesting statement right there. the

abraham accords. what is that? and that is a during the first trump administration, a very historic, important treaty that did deals with with the u.s. and also israel and some arab countries in the region, normalized relations, normalized relations, and what prime minister netanyahu has been desperate for is to extend that to saudi arabia, one of those countries i mentioned that has some pretty deep pockets and there was a there was a belief that the terror attack, the brutal terror attack on october 7th, 2023 that ended what was a ceasefire. beforehand was in large part to try to blow up the saudi deal with with israel. that was impending. and by the way, it worked. so the fact that he is saying extend, expand the historic abraham accords is a signal to the

saudis. we're in business. again, let's talk about this. >> yes. that's one of the reasons that trump has wanted the hostage deal and the fighting to be over before he took office, because the only way you're going to expand the abraham accords to other arab nations. and once saudi signs on, then that will be a green light to a lot of other arab nations to also sign on. but the populations in each of those gulf countries have been furious over the israeli crackdown in gaza. you've got to have that go away so that the leaders of those countries can move forward on the abraham accords. >> and there have been two major conditions that the saudis have put down to normalize with israel. and by the way, they want to normalize with israel as well, because they're going to get all kinds of things from the united states and end to the war and palestinian statehood, an irreversible path to palestinian statehood. the israelis have not been willing to give that. understandably, there are a lot of israelis, both in the government and on the streets, who are saying, why should we give them a state after the october 7th attacks? but i would go back to what i

was just saying before is that a lot of people are arguing that you need to give palestinians some kind of hope for their own country so that they reject forces like hamas. >> yeah, right. that's exactly right, audie. >> i think that this is one of those moments where a lot of interests came together, and especially for the families involved, that's a joyous thing. but considering where our politics are, it's a joyous thing. there were many people who had an interest in getting this done. and when we talk about what influence trump had, i mean, we can't let go of the fact that so many people in the biden administration talked about just uncertainty, not knowing what the various players coming in, the potential ambassadors, secretary of state, what their positions would be and how that would play out. so i think it should be considered like kind of a win for the moment or the word that people have been using today and should probably stick with, which is reprieve. this is a deal with a phase one, and if it doesn't survive, it's phase one. you don't get to your phase two. so i think for the rest of the

day, as people are listening to this reporting, what you're hearing is what are the parameters of that phase one, what has to hold for us to make it to sunday, for the world to make it past sunday? it's it's really a day of more questions, but at least it's a day where, as you said, it's positive news to talk about and listen. >> biden will address the nation tonight in his farewell speech, and i'm sure he's in there tweaking that speech. right? yeah, i'm sure he'll take credit for what we're going to see with this, with this hostage release. and historians will look back at biden's administration and wonder what could have been in terms of his his engagement with israel, what that did to some of the folks in his party may suppressing some of the enthusiasm for his administration among people on the left, could he have pressured israel more earlier in terms of funding their efforts in gaza? could that have moved this along further? did he have any leverage that

he didn't want to use because it was too politically toxic? so there are a lot of questions that historians are asking about this moment in. and i think some of the comparisons to that you mentioned to jimmy carter. but listen, it is a happy moment. some of these families are going to end the day very, very happy with, you know, reunions at some point with their relatives and some will obviously get not so great news as well. >> and just picking up on what you just said about how the biden administration approached israel, as tony blinken has been giving a series of interviews, including with christiane, earlier today, he has been much more open about what happened in those initial days after october 7th, his very long, uh, hours long meeting with prime minister netanyahu and his cabinet, trying to convince them that, understandably, in their anger and despair, to just take into consideration the humanitarian

aspect of their retaliation and other points along the way that the democratic base didn't want to listen to, but was very much factored in to their conversations. a lot of times it wasn't just the base, didn't want to listen to what they were trying to do. the challenge for the biden administration is that neither did prime minister netanyahu. >> yeah. blinken revealed that netanyahu had supported the call for a total blockade on gaza. no humanitarian aid in that was what his very right wing government was calling for. and blinken had to tell him. behind closed doors, biden will not come here. i will get on the phone and tell him not to come here for that bear hug. if you don't agree to give the palestinians aid. and i think a lot of the democrats in places like the arab americans in michigan didn't understand this tightrope. the biden administration has been walking to keep the israelis on side and and keep the punishment private. the threats private,

while publicly embracing them. >> and that the we had no idea who was going to win the election at that point. but that for for them at that point, maybe the biden administration was their best bet because donald trump and the people who are going to come into his administration might not care about as much. i'm not saying they don't care about the humanitarian situation in gaza, but they are more focused on backing israel and what they say that they want and need at any given time. >> yeah, i think israelis are certainly very happy to see donald trump coming into office. he's seen as much more pro-israel than, than than president biden has been. biden kind of took a lose lose approach where he kept giving israel the weapons that it wanted to to continue this war. and obviously, there were a lot of israeli critics of israel who were not happy with that, both here in the united states and all around the world. but he was also seen by a lot of people as not giving carte blanche to to israel to basically do whatever is, whatever, whatever they wanted.

so it'll be very interesting to see the leash that the president that president trump gives to, to israel in terms of what it does, not only in gaza and the west bank, questions over settlements there, but also there's a much bigger overarching question about iran right now as well. dana. >> yeah. oh, well, the west bank is a whole nother kettle of fish, as they say. thank you guys so much. don't go anywhere. i want to go back to mj lee at the white house, who helped start off our coverage of this extraordinary hour that we've been in over the incredible news about this deal between israel and hamas with the help of the united states, both the incoming administration and the incoming administration, not to mention the arab countries like qatar in the region. mj, what are you hearing at this point from your sources in that building behind you? >> well, for starters, dana, at this moment in time, we are, of

course, waiting to hear directly from president biden. and given the gravity of this news, given what an important priority this was for the president over the last year. plus, to get another cease fire in place in gaza and get the hostages out, it's impossible to imagine that he wouldn't take the opportunity to, in some fashion, really address the american people, to share the good news and also just take a political victory lap that in the end, in literally the final days of his presidency, under his watch, he was able to finally get this agreement in place. you know, he has been pushing for this deal for more than a year plus, and obviously unsuccessfully until this point. and at various moments, you know, speaking to u.s. officials who have been involved with this process, you know, you would ask the question to them, why is it

that this deal is so elusive? it's so difficult to come together? why can't this happen? and their answer was very often just simply that the political will wasn't there, whether it was on the israeli side that the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, was not interested, often because of sort of the domestic politics at play for him back at home, or just that hamas was not in a place to even come to the negotiating table. and i think, you know, once we sort of really have time to digest how this deal has come together and get more information from all of the parties involved in the final stages of this agreement coming together. i think it will be quite clear that the upcoming swearing in of donald trump, donald trump's return to washington as a second term president, we will learn that that made really all the difference in the end. we know from all of

his public statements how important it was to him to see this war come to an end, or at least come to a pause, not even after he was sworn into office, but before he had taken office. he basically was sending a message to the current president, joe biden, that he wanted him to get this job done. dana, i will toss it back to you again. we are just waiting to see what official word we get from president biden. of course, the moment that he has been waiting for for a very long time, the announcement of a gaza ceasefire. >> yeah, no question about it. we've already heard from his successor, uh, very excited about what is going on. thank you so much, mj lee. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> and now at the top of the hour, we're going to reset with this very important, momentous news out of the middle east. and that is a

temporary cease fire deal in exchange for the release of 33 hostages being held inside gaza since october 7th, 2023. we have all the angles covered, beginning in israel with cnn's jeremy diamond. jeremy, what are you hearing right now about when we're going to hear officially from the players here? >> well, dana, we expect that later this evening. we will likely get more official statements from the various governments involved about this cease fire deal. the prime minister's office just said that they believe that there are a few issues that they are wrapping up, but that they expect those to be wrapped up by tonight. but make no mistake, dana, this is an enormous moment. so many months in the making, following so much pain that has transpired in the gaza strip and also among the families of the hostages, 15 months of war in

gaza, 15 months of captivity for those hostages, 94 of whom who were taken on october 7th, who remain in captivity in the gaza strip. 33 of those are expected to be released as part of this six week ceasefire that could take effect as early as this weekend. what we are now awaiting beyond the official announcement from the mediators of this cease fire, with all of the details of what this agreement actually looks like, is the israeli government to approve this through its process, and that involves a vote by the israeli security cabinet, as well as a vote by israel's full cabinet. we expect that that will likely take place tomorrow. the israeli supreme court will then hear petitions against the release of those palestinian prisoners, who are expected to be released in exchange for those israeli hostages. that is likely more pro forma than anything else, given that the israeli prime minister has tremendous leeway to release those prisoners for national

security reasons. and that takes us then to this weekend, which is when we expect that this agreement will most likely take effect, when we will see the first israeli hostages come out of gaza in many, many months. the question, then is in what condition will those hostages emerge from gaza, and how many of them will be alive? we understand that the majority of these 33 hostages are believed to be alive by the israeli government. but the expectation, i'm told, is also that there will be some of the bodies of deceased hostages included in that list of 33. and so the roller coaster of emotions for the families of these hostages, certainly, dana, is not over yet. i spoke with the family of kfir and ariel, shari shaw and yarden bibas, the two youngest israeli hostages, kfir and ariel, who were taken from the kibbutz bay area on october 7th when they were just babies. hamas has said that they are dead. the israeli government has yet to confirm that, and so this will

be a moment of of perhaps devastating truth for their family. but they are still maintaining some hope, i'm told that perhaps they will still emerge alive, but certainly many families will be getting news, perhaps as early as this weekend, as early as next week, about the fate of their loved ones. and then, of course, we have to also talk about the conditions in the gaza strip, which are set to really improve quite dramatically, if indeed this cease fire agreement goes into effect for 15 months now, the people of gaza have experienced constant, unrelenting bombardment that has revealed that there is no safe place inside of the gaza strip. they are experiencing dire humanitarian conditions. this agreement will allow for the entry of as many as 600 trucks of aid per day into gaza, to relieve those humanitarian conditions, and finally, they will be able to sleep soundly without the constant buzzing of those

drones, without the constant fear of bombs being dropped on the gaza strip as well. so tonight we are watching as there are celebrations that are unfolding, both in the gaza strip as well as here in tel aviv, at hostages square, where people have been embracing each other. you know, it's important to remember how many times, dana, we came so very close to this moment, only for those negotiations to ultimately collapse. it seems that finally, dana, there was the political will on both sides, with enormous pressure being brought to bear by the biden administration as well as the incoming trump administration for this deal to actually get done. >> yeah, it is so true. timing is everything in life. and certainly when it comes to something as delicate and difficult as what we are seeing unfold right now. thank you so much, jeremy. i now want to go to cnn political and global affairs analyst, barak ravid. barak, we were talking in the last hour about just picking up on what jeremy was just saying about how many

times we heard from sources on all sides of this that they were close, and then it fell apart. the x factor here is that donald trump is about to be president, and the very public pressure that he was putting on, on hamas and on israel to get this done, you know, we see the president elect take credit for a lot of things. a lot of times in this particular instance, it's credit that i am sure we're going to hear people inside the biden administration agree that he and his aides deserve. >> yeah, definitely. >> and i think it will work the other way around, too. meaning when you when you ask trump's advisers, they tell you that, you know, they came in and and helped to framework that was presented by

president biden. so i think what is interesting is that both sides, the biden administration and the incoming trump administration work together on this, and they actually are willing and ready to give credit to the other side, which, as you know, in u.s. politics, this is not a very, um, it's it's a it's a very unusual, uh, phenomenon. but i think that what happened here is that, you know, trump was so important to this deal because hamas and israel needed to know that they're not only negotiating with an administration that is about to leave, but they're also negotiating with an administration that has another four years in office so that anything that's being negotiated, the next administration is committed to it also. and i think this is why it was so important, because, uh, both the israelis, the the qataris,

the egyptians and also hamas, they're looking at what's going to happen in the next four years. and i think all of them knew that if there's no deal by january 20th, they would start on the wrong foot with donald trump. and i don't think any of them wanted to do that. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i don't know that hamas will ever be on the right foot with donald trump or anybody. but i take your point more about the other regional players who are helping to to negotiate this. can you just talk for a moment about what is going on inside the israeli government? and first and foremost, about them approving this deal, how that's going to go down. >> so first, it's going to be approved. okay. it's not a there's no question about it. netanyahu has a majority both in the security cabinet and in the and in the government plenary. um, but he has two extreme right wing parties in his coalition that already said that they will oppose the deal.

they did not say, however, if they're going to stay in the government or leave, if this deal is implemented, and i think this is the most interesting point. netanyahu has been trying to convince them to vote against, but stay in the government if both of them if both of those parties leave his coalition, his coalition will collapse and israel could go for elections. and this is the last thing netanyahu wants. so i think this will be the main question tomorrow when the israeli cabinet votes what those two parties, led by, uh, jewish supremacists. uh itamar ben gvir, the minister of national security and radical right wing minister of finance, bezalel smotrich, both of them said that this deal is a disaster. they will most likely vote against it, but also most likely stay in the government. >> um, well, that is definitely something we're going to be watching. thank you so much for that, barak. appreciate it. i want to go now to alayna treene, who is in west palm

beach near donald trump's mar-a-lago home. alana, we have been talking about some of the statements we've seen coming onto donald trump's social media feed. uh, claiming credit, saying that this is, uh, this is because he was elected his incoming national security advisor. mike waltz just retweeted, or we retrieved one of his statements saying that this is the trump effect. and, you know, uh, i'm sure they're they're saying that. and, you know, as i said to barack, i'm sure that this is something that the biden administration might not be thrilled about just on the raw politics, giving them some credit. but it's pretty clear that they work together on this phase very, very closely. they being the biden administration and the trump team. >> that's right.

>> specifically, his special envoy to the middle east, or at least his name, special envoy to the middle east steve witkoff, as well as mike waltz, who is picked to be his national security advisor. look behind the scenes. i will say many people i've talked to acknowledge that this has been a joint effort, that, of course, joe biden's team have been great partners in some of these negotiations and that also witkoff and waltz and others who have been involved from the trump side have worked very well with them to get to this point. but i will also say that one thing i had heard consistently for weeks now was that donald trump did believe that if such a deal, such a ceasefire and hostage deal were to come to fruition before he was sworn into office, that he would be able to take credit for it anytime after the november election. and part of that is because, um, donald trump wants this off his plate. he had said repeatedly to his advisers that he did not want this on his plate when he was sworn in. he wants his team to focus on his domestic agenda. but also some of those officials that he has named to be focused on the middle east, to be more focused on an off

ramp to the war, rather than having this. now, again, a lot of people ask me, why wouldn't donald trump want or urge these leaders, particularly netanyahu, to wait so that he could take full credit for such a deal? but again, this is something he believed, and he was told repeatedly by people close to him that any time after the election that they could say that this was in large part thanks to him and to his victory. and so that's exactly what you are seeing him do now, as well as many of his advisers really try to portray here, even though we are going to hear from biden shortly on this, i know that donald trump wants this to be seen as well as something that he played a major role in. >> all right, elena, thank you so much. i want to go now to michael oren, who was israeli ambassador to the u.s. in addition to a member of the knesset. thank you so much for being here. first, your reaction to what seems to be an agreement for phase one of this deal? >> always good to be with you, diana. um, joy. but a joy

greatly mitigated by sadness, by sorrow. um, we believe that not all of these hostages will be coming home alive. we have to deal with hostages who have endured unspeakable tortures and maybe life changing nightmares and the road to recovery, if there is a recovery, will be very, very long. um, and then, of course, the hostages who remain in captivity, we think about them, we think about all the soldiers who have died in order to bring israel to this point. we were able to bring pressure to bear on hamas, to release the hostages. all of that is is very much tempering whatever joy we're feeling about the the release of these hostages. and and then, frankly, donna, there's fear. um, we will be releasing a great number of prisoners from our jails, people who have committed acts of terror, who have jewish blood on their hands. and we know from previous exchanges that such prisoners go back to to committing acts of terror,

such as yahya sinwar, the former head of hamas, who was released in a in a prisoner exchange of 2011. um, and we have to think about the families of all the of all the people who were murdered by those terrorists who have to now confront a reality in which the people who murdered their loved ones are going home to a hero's welcome, but their loved ones remain in the ground. so it is a very fragmented and very fraught reaction by the israeli public. >> i want to kind of take a take your time and talk big picture for a second, because i was just handed a really interesting piece that it looks like it was just published in the free press that you wrote uh, ambassador, uh, and in it you talk about how difficult it was for israel in the approach that it took from the beginning, after the october 7th attack on, on, on its land and on its people.

because you say from day one, israel's twin goals in gaza were fundamentally irreconcilable. and the argument that you make and i just got it, and i've been able to skim it. so please explain it better than i can. but it looks like the argument that you're making is israel's whole approach and whole strategy was to put so much pressure on hamas with the bombardment of gaza killing a lot of its leaders, including yahya sinwar, who you just talked to, and forcing hamas to release hostages. but what ended up happening was that because the bombardment was so intense and there was some a lot of support globally and including in president biden's own party for, um, for certainly for the palestinians, which is totally understandable. but it even went over to hamas that hamas felt emboldened and dug in. so the entire premise of israel's strategy was flawed from the

beginning. can you talk about that? >> well, i wouldn't call it flawed. i would call it really no choice. israel had no choice but to go to war against hamas. hamas had waged a war of of genocide against israel, had killed, uh, 1200 israelis, massacred, raped, mutilated them, the equivalent of about 44,000 americans in a single morning. uh, again, it bears repeating. it's the single greatest massacre of jews since the holocaust. israel had to respond militarily against hamas. the question is whether that that operation, at the end of the day, would guarantee the release of the hostages, because what we found out ultimately was that by increasing pressure on hamas, military pressure on hamas, they didn't necessarily release the hostages. they shot the hostages, they executed the hostages. and we were dealing with a terrorist organization, uh, which and terrorists for whom death was a real option. it's difficult for us in the west to understand a negotiating situation where you're dealing with somebody

who prefer death under a number of scenarios, not the least of which was the offer the israeli government, that all the terrorists could go free. they can get on a boat and go wherever they wanted to. if they just relinquished the terror at the hostages. so there was no what the point of the article was that there actually was no real solution for israel's quandary, which no country in history, certainly not this country, has ever confronted before. and one of the reasons is the deep and passionate caring which israelis have for hostages for for prisoners. it's it's a principle that is comes from jewish law. it's in the torah. it's in the bible that we must do everything possible to redeem hostages, to the point that, as i mentioned in this article, many israelis, including many of my own family, said that they would not send their kids to the army unless the hostages were released. so the hostages were not just a moral issue for the state of israel. it was a strategic issue for the state of israel. would we have soldiers in the future if the

hostages were not released? on the other hand, if hamas were perceived to win in gaza, get away with the massacres of october 7th, 2023, to emerge from the tunnels and reconquer the gaza strip, we wouldn't have an army at all. and that was the deep and profound dilemma. we found that confronted us. and the best you could hope for. and i think that's what this deal represents, is a is a time limited ceasefire in which numbers of hostages are released. and we see in the future whether that ceasefire will halt or whether it will, it will lead to subsequent phases are supposed to be three phases of this particular deal and whether all of the hostages, at the end of the day, living and dead, can be repatriated. >> yeah. i mean, we're looking at the screen and you see two images that speak to exactly the challenge. and you're right to correct me. thank you. as i said, i read it fast. you're not suggesting that israel's response was flawed. it was just incredibly complicated. you see one photo of a of a

hostage and a sign behind it saying, end the bloodshed. bloodshed, which is case in point of the of the difficulty that you talk about. i don't want to put you on the spot here. i'm getting this information, as i'm saying it out loud to you. so i just want to get your reaction knowing, uh, prime minister netanyahu and of course, having served in government for so many years there, the israeli prime minister's office is now saying that several unresolved points remain in the gaza ceasefire hostage deal, but still expects it to be settled tonight. here's a quote that i have from the prime minister's office, quote, several unresolved points in the framework remain, and we hope these details will be finalized tonight. can you can you translate that as best you can, knowing that you're out of government right now well, one of the one of the factors would probably be who would be controlling the philadelphia roots. >> that's the border between egypt and the gaza strip. that border had been very porous in

previous years. hamas had smuggled vast amounts of weaponry and munitions beneath that border, and the prime minister has made it his personal point to say that israel must retain control over that philadelphi route. but there have been speculations that that that position has been softened somewhat. um, but the degree to which it will be softened, i think, remains to be clarified. i think that also, frankly, some of the issues that have to be clarified are internal political issues. uh, members of netanyahu's coalition, the far right members of the coalition, the treasury minister bezalel smotrich, the police minister, um ben-gvir, who have opposed all hostage release deals in the past and have insisted that israel continue its war to destroy hamas, are probably engaging in some type of, what can i say, horse trading? what is the prime minister and the government willing to give them in order to get them to agree to this deal? um, and i think,

you know, i can think of some of the things they'll be asking, most likely increased support for israeli settlements in judea and samaria. >> um. >> um, before i let you go, mr. ambassador, i do want to pick up on something that you mentioned, which is what is going to happen in the next 24 hours and longer inside the current netanyahu government, as this deal does, assuming that it does get finalized and he's going to bring it to his government, there doesn't seem to be any question about whether it will be approved. but the question which you kind of alluded to there is at what political cost for prime minister netanyahu since he has people who are as right wing as they come and as who has very little regard for life of palestinians who are genuinely caught in the

crossfire in gaza and even in the west bank. what is your sense of how this plays out? >> i think there's another huge factor that we have to we have to take take into consideration here, and that is the relationship between benjamin netanyahu personally and generally the state of israel. and with the incoming administration. um, there was i wrote in that article in the free press that president biden often said, don't both to israel and our enemies in the middle east. and everyone pretty much did. at the end of the day. um, i think that when president trump says, don't, people are going to think many, many times before they do. um, and i think that the prime minister especially wants to remain on the good side of this president. the president has just come out and tweeted that this is an epic achievement. he's taking credit for it. um, and it would be extremely how could i say impotent for for the israeli government and certainly for benjamin netanyahu to say for the president? well, oops, we made a mistake. we're not going to go through with this. um,

and i think that that is a huge consideration, particularly on the eve of the inauguration. and i would expect that the president will make some mention of this in his inaugural address. >> yeah. >> and i'm sorry, before i let you go, what i mean isn't necessarily that he's that netanyahu will somehow, um, not go through or his government will not go through with this deal. my question is, do you think that the netanyahu government will survive after this deal is done, given how fragile it is, and given how right wing, uh, you have some of those ministers who you talked about who are so far to the right, they don't want to have any anything to do with anything regarding diplomacy and hamas whether they'll help dissolve the government. >> it's always a possibility. i don't think it's a large responsibility at this point, not a possibility at this point. um, it's not as if the members of the coalition have other coalitions that they could go to, and, and right

now, following the military achievements of the government, particularly in lebanon, now that the dissolution of syria, the weakening of iran, the government's popularity had gone up in recent weeks. so it's riding relatively high. people are loathe to bolt a government when it's on, it's on the rise. they usually leave when it's on the on the down slope, right. um, and so no, i'm the only one reason why they would leave the government is that they are so ideologically rigid, they would prefer to be out of government entirely rather than agree to this deal. i still think the chances of that are small. >> really interesting. thank you so much for coming on and giving us all of your insight, your experience, your knowledge. and we do hope that this is the beginning of much needed good news. uh, even though it is mixed, as you said, bittersweet in so many cases. thank you so much, ambassador. appreciate it on that. i want to go back to cnn's bianna golodryga, who is

in hostage square in tel aviv. what's happening there now, bianna? it looks again pretty subdued. >> yeah. and i was thinking back to the point that you made because i was noticing the same mood here, and somebody put it perfectly to me by saying that that you could cut the tension here with a knife. this has just been such a roller coaster process. not just these last few weeks, as we did see these developments moving towards an ultimate deal. but over the past 15 months, 466 days to be exact. and now here we are. the fact that you even read that note and the report from the prime minister's office, that there appear to be some issues where there are disagreements between what israel agreed to and hamas. nonetheless, they do appear to agree that a deal will be in place in the coming hours. even headlines like that make people very, very nervous

here because we have not seen these hostages come home, even though there are reports that a deal is imminent, it's now done and they should start coming home in the next few days. as we've reported, the first phase would include the return of 33 hostages. that includes female hostages, children, men over the age of 50 and those who are infirm or in great physical pain and dire need of medical treatment. um, the the other issue is not yet clear how many of these hostages are alive. and so that is yet another hurdle for these families to have to endure now, not only wondering whether or not they will see their family members come home and whatever physical, mental condition, one could only imagine the hell they've been through these past 466 days. but whether or not they'll even come home alive. and another point i would make, dana, is that what is likely going to be inevitable

and very painful for these families? it's a horrible club to be in, to be families of these hostages over the course of the last 15 months who have grown very, very close, as together and trying to get all sides, including their own there are concerns about what happens to those who are not in the initial phase, because that's where things become much more complicated. obviously, hamas could just release all of the hostages, and that's what they've been asking for. all 98 hostages out at once. sadly, that's not going to be the reality. and so the concern is for those other family members that are going to be very happy and joyous to see 33 of these hostages come home. but then, of course, a lot of concern and trepidation about their own family members who will remain in gaza. the majority of them male soldiers and those over the age of 18.

so therein lies another tension point here that it's going to be very painful, as you spoke with michael oren there. this is a moment everyone's been waiting for. but at the same time, it comes at a very, very heavy price. >> it sure does. bianna, thank you so much. it's so incredible to have you there on the ground. appreciate it. we have so much breaking news, and the developments are coming very fast and furious. of course, the headline is that israel and hamas have agreed to a deal that will pause fighting in gaza and lead to the fai's release of hostages. as bianna was just talking about, in exchange for palestinian prisoners being released as well. stay with cnn. we have some new information to bring you on the other side of a quick break. >> kobe believed in himself at the youngest possible age. >> it's one of the most remarkable stories in sports history.

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these savings options. >> the right money moves aren't as far fetched as you think. >> there it is. see, i told you it's going to all work out. thanks. future me. >> i'm phil mattingly at the panama canal. >> and this is cnn welcome back. >> and the breaking news is a ceasefire deal reached between the israeli government and hamas. the agreement would pause fighting in gaza and lead to the phased release of hostages. and the release in exchange for the hostages in gaza. palestinian prisoners in israel. and that could start as soon as this weekend. i want to bring you new information, and that is sources are telling cnn that american hostages are expected to be released during the initial phase of the cease fire, that we just described. now, it is not clear which american hostages will come out as part of this first group released, whether some or all of those released are alive. our panel

is here. and, alex, we've been talking since we got this news. just staying on this topic of which hostages will come out. the understanding is that it's women and men who are older. the women could include idf, female idf soldiers, but that younger men, particularly idf soldiers like edan alexander, whose parents we have talked to many, many times, who was serving in the idf, is serving in the idf and was when he was captured, is not likely to be in this first phase. >> the way this deal has been structured for a long time since president biden announced it last may, is that this first phase would be what they're calling the humanitarian cases. so essentially not men of fighting age, not men who are in the idf, but everybody else women, both civilians and in the idf. older men, people who have been injured and some of the deceased. one of the big questions we're trying to

figure out right now, dana, is who will be among those 33. and i think that's why you're seeing a bit more of a muted event. i don't even really want to call it a celebration yet in israel, because there are there is so much uncertainty about who is actually going to get freed in this first phase. i think it is quite notable. we have not yet heard any sort of victory or claim of credit from the biden administration just yet, because it sounds like, you know, we are treating this as a done deal, and i think it will be soon, we just heard from the prime minister's office in israel, talking about how there are several unresolved points that remain. i was just speaking to a diplomat who is familiar with these talks, who tells me that this is almost done. once this is done, i think we're going to see a lot of these claims of credit. we're already seeing them from from president elect trump. and those around him will probably see the same from president biden and others. i mean, i'm reminded of the expression that success has many fathers and failure is an

orphan. we've been following this, these talks, for months and months, every twist and turn, and there's been a lot of finger pointing to go around. now we're going to be see a lot of people taking credit. we've already seen celebrations breaking out in the streets of gaza and khan younis, in particular in that southern city. and i think we, you know, as everyone, all the diplomats and officials take credit. we need to remember the people who are being affected here. you have 2 million people in gaza who have been living through absolute hell, tens of thousands of people who have been killed over the past 15 months. you have all of these families in israel who have been suffering with questions about where their loved ones are, whether they're alive, whether they're dead. of course, now they're waiting to see who's going to come home. there are a lot of questions that remain. if i had to guess the and i'm certainly asking these questions about these outstanding points, probably about the ratio of hostages to palestinian prisoners and about the withdrawal of the idf. we know that they're not going to fully withdraw from the gaza strip, but they will be withdrawing to certain areas, certain strategic areas. that's been a major point of contention between hamas and

israel. so even once this deal gets underway and we believe it's going to be a six week pause in the fighting, there is still a lot of questions that are going to need to be sorted out that will be negotiated during those six weeks and beyond. >> yeah. and just to reiterate what you're hearing from a diplomatic source, despite what the prime minister said in the statement publicly, which, you know, we have to understand that it is not a done deal. we haven't seen him come out, announce it and announce it. we haven't seen anybody in qatar or president biden come out and announce it yet. i'm also told i was communicating with a source who said that there are some details that are not totally finalized. details really matter. we know this the hard way. after so many fits and starts here, but that it will get done. >> yet there are certain things that we're supposed to be decided in the second phase of this deal. this first part is a trust building exercise that the israelis pull back and allow gazans in the south to go

north, but they remain. the idf would remain in a buffer zone where they could be targeted by hamas or palestinian islamic jihad. other fighters, terrorists who don't answer to hamas. and that could break things down in the weeks to come. in this second phase, that's when they're supposed to talk about how the rest of the hostages and the remains of the hostages who have not survived could still all get up, and we could have it fall apart again, you know? >> and i just want to go back to one of the things i was talking about with former ambassador michael oren, which is this whole time, these brutal 467 days are part of the the biggest part of the challenge has been that what the israelis and the americans and the qataris were trying to do was to get hamas to agree to

a diplomatic solution that will lead to its demise as as a leader in gaza, because that obviously is the ultimate goal, because hamas is a terror organization that is making life hell, not just for israel, but for so many of the palestinians living in, in, uh, in gaza. so it's just interesting that they got them to this point, even if it is just phase one, and that perhaps is part of the struggle. well, in getting to phase two and beyond, in this deal, there's a carrot and a stick. >> the carrot would be all of the aid that will hopefully get in 600 trucks a day. to the palestinians who've been without food, water, et cetera.. but the stick is that the trump administration is believed to be much more willing to go along with whatever the netanyahu government wants to do with the future disposition of gaza. you have the palestinian authority prime minister speaking just now, as all of this is

happening in oslo, saying that the palestinian authority should be in charge of gaza in future. but, you know, the last trump administration broke relations with the pa. so the question of what happens in gaza in future is unclear. and surely the egyptians, the qataris, are telling hamas, if you want us to be able to support you existing in any way in future, you've got to say yes to this deal. >> now, let's talk. jeff zeleny is here now. nice to see you, jeff. let's talk about this moment that we're in. i mean, there are going to be reams and reams of of, of paper that go into books and books and books, assuming that people still read those, let's hope they do. about this moment in history, this, this historic transition between the biden administration and the trump administration and the way that they appear to be working together to have, as audrey said earlier, this common goal

and the strategy that dovetails which doesn't happen very often, and it not only is happening now, but all sides understand that common goal without question. >> i mean, the first historical guide here, as we've talked about, is, of course, the 1980, 1981, the iranian hostages, which were finally released in the opening moments of the reagan administration. that is what, uh, some biden officials had been worried about. obviously, they they want a deal regardless of when it happens. but that is one of the extraordinary things. i was down in florida last week talking to trump officials and the president elect had his middle east envoy in the room, and he brought him to the podium to talk a bit about what they've been doing. and and we've since learned that the biden administration and the trump incoming administration have been working hand in glove on this. and one of the new dynamics in all of this, obviously, these talks have been going on for months and months. it is the incoming

trump administration, and steve witkoff has been very aggressive. he's the trump middle east envoy, very aggressive in trying to push this forward. again, we expect president biden to speak at some point. he obviously scheduled to speak this evening, likely will speak before then. if there is something to finally address. but for history, as you said, it will be the this contentious, contentious campaign between these two rivals that in the final days here, their advisers and aides are working together behind the scenes for the greater good. now, there obviously will be a rush to, uh, sort of take advantage of this. and the trump administration has been already, you know, saying that it was them that brought this to before. but should this happen, i think it will be one of those moments of actually trump and biden teams working together, which i can't think of. another example really, across the the policy front. >> yeah. and one thing i think

we all understand about middle east politics and the history there is it's indifferent to what's going on with the domestic politics of the u.s. this is going to be a tiny chapter in the story of mideast relations, but i think it will still be one of those inflection points every time there is a war. the resettling that happens after the shifts that happen in societies, especially in israel specifically, they're really profound and they reverberate long after whatever little moment in time that was. and so much of this, you're listening to michael oren was really incredible because you were getting at the schisms within israeli domestic politics that have been revealed by this moment. and even on our tiny scale for democratic politics, right. there were schisms revealed within the democratic party. so it really can shift how people think about these things. and, and the sort of that's how i'm looking at the history that there's going to be this moment where people will say, the cards were tossed in the air, and when they came

down, what direction did we go in? >> you know, it's so true. one area where i do think that domestic politics in the u.s., and it wasn't just in the u.s. and other western countries did matter in this conflict, was the way that you saw the protests in the streets. i have not talked to an american official or an israeli official who did not say that hamas felt emboldened and that they had leverage because of the support. i'm not saying that the support was for hamas in some in some places it was unfortunately so. but the support for ending the war and so what hamas saw in the streets was, okay, well, if we just ride it out or we push back, we've got some leverage because of public opinion and domestic political turmoil in western countries, first and foremost in the u.s. ideas, i

mean, the discussion over when to use the word genocide, the discussion over sort of what does it mean for israel to protect itself? >> i feel like there was kind of an international dialog, again, about these very big and sort of philosophical questions. and now the rubber is going to meet the road about what that means going forward. >> i want to go to frank lowenstein, who is a former u.s. special envoy for israeli-palestinian negotiations from 2014 to 2017. thank you so much for being here. um, what is your takeaway from what we see right now? >> well, i would just inject a cautionary note. it does seem all indications are suggesting that we'll have a deal in the very near future. but i worked on one of these ceasefire negotiations with hamas and israel with secretary kerry in 2014. and we thought, i'm so sorry to ambassador, i'm so sorry to interrupt you. >> we do have word that the press conference is starting in doha. we're going to listen in the new president elect.

>> and mr. brett mcgurk, whose efforts have contributed to push the negotiations forward to reach this agreement. i would also like to thank all our colleagues and our colleagues from the arab republic of egypt and minister hassan rashad, who had contributed and worked hard in partnership with their qatari brothers to achieve this achievement. at this agreement, the two sides agreement both sides. agreeing we are continuing to go through all the other procedures throughout the night. after that, we will take measures within the israeli cabinet. after that, the agreement will go into effect on sunday, the 19th of january. the date, exact hour will be determined later. as to the details of the

agreement, the first phase is 42 days, will see a ceasefire and a withdrawal of israeli troops to the east, far away from populated areas, to regroup along the borders and exchange of prisoners and hostages. according with a mechanism and exchange of the bodies of the dead ones and the citizens to go back to their to their homes, also facilitating treatment for injured. also, the first phase will cover entering humanitarian aid all across gaza and rehabilitation of hospitals and clinics and bakeries, and allowing civil defense equipments, fuel and other equipments to help the displaced people to go back to their homes. as soon as hamas will release 33 hostages,

including civilian women, elderly and some elderly people, in return for a number of palestinian prisoners. as the details of the second and the third phase, they will be agreed upon during the implementation of the first phase, the state of qatar emphasized the importance of both sides to implement all the agreed upon throughout the three stages to avoid bloodshed and to prepare for achieving a comprehensive peace and just. egyptian state of qatar and the egyptian republic and the arab republic of egypt, the united states will continue to work with all parties to ensure that the agreed upon phases will be implemented. we will look forward to other international partners to help with the international effort and the united nations to help with the delivery of humanitarian aid inside gaza. the state of qatar will not shy away from putting all efforts to put all the

effort it can to alleviate suffering of the people of the gaza strip. throughout the past period, the state of qatar has not has worked hard to help, to help with all whatever we can do to achieve this moment, to reach this moment. ever since, the negotiation has been succeeded in stopping the fighting in last november and achieving an exchange of prisoners and hostages, we would still continue to reach an agreement to stop the war and to return hope to our agents were peace and stability can prevail for 411 days, meetings have continued with our partners and both sides, and today we have reached this desired moment. the responsibility now stays with the both sides and with the help of international partners.

that is where our efforts in the next phase will focus upon. i would like to thank all our regional and international partners who helped us in these efforts, and all the way till the point we reach an agreement. i also would like finally to think, to tell our brothers and our friends in the gaza strip that the state of qatar will always continue to support the palestinian people. his excellency, the amir of the country, will, is of utmost importance to him and will continue to follow up all time to ensure the implementation of this deal. we thank god we've reached this phase. we hope that this will be the last page in the time or the days of war. i hope that all parties will fulfill their obligations in this agreement, and will

continue to implement these measures in accordance with the agreement. the state of qatar will always work together with its partners to make sure that this agreement is implemented fully. and, and. durable. calm to go back to gaza and will never give up gaza. thank you any questions? yes. the first question from sky news prime minister yalda hakim from sky news. >> congratulations. >> this is a huge moment. you, as you say, have been working on this deal for for many months. and the question is why now? why this moment? and was it pressure from the incoming trump administration that got it over the line? thank you. >> well, thank you very much for this question. actually, we've been raising the question of the right moment for the entire period since the collapse of of the first phase. uh, but we have seen a momentum that started to

build in the last month, and we kept pushing for that, working together very closely with our partners. and i can say that what we have seen from the u.s. in the past few days, seeing a collaboration transcending both administration, was a clear demonstration for the commitment of the u.s. to reach to that deal. and i really would like to thank, uh, both the envoys who are here with us in the last couple of days. and they played a vital role in reaching to this moment. and, of course, for us and egypt, this is something that we are a stakeholder in that conflict, that we have to do it and we have to help and to support. but we have seen the steps that's been taken recently. uh, from the u.s. has has yielded to this moment

cnn. >> cnn. congratulations. thank you. thank you very much indeed. and to steve witkoff, who is a becky anderson from cnn. congratulations to you. and to steve witkoff, who is also here in the room. how much confidence do you have that the deal will progress beyond phase one? sir? >> well, we have faith that brought us to this moment, and i think that's that's the most important part that we are committed. we will continue to do everything we can, everything possible to, together with our partners, to ensure that this deal is implemented as it's agreed. and this deal will bring us peace, hopefully at the end of it. i believe that it all depends on on the parties of the agreement and acting in good faith in that agreement in order to ensure that no collapse happening to that deal. >> can i just follow up? what

mechanisms are in place to ensure that neither side breaks the ceasefire? >> there is a follow up mechanism that. egypt, qatar and u.s. are going to handle. it will be placed in cairo, and this follow up actually will be a joint team from the three countries that will monitor the implementation of the agreement. and everything has been agreed upon and will be in place, hopefully on the day of the execution. thank you. >> thank you reuters. >> thank you, prime minister. >> congratulations. andrew mills from reuters. um, can you talk a little bit more about this follow up mechanism? if if elements of the agreement put in place tonight are violated, what will happen? who is it that is going to report and that that that a violation has happened? and how will that violation be communicated to the parties, the world, the the

guarantors of this agreement? >> thank you. well, this is this is what i have just mentioned to becky. there is there will be a follow up mechanism that all the parties will be placed in egypt, and they will follow up the implementation of the agreement. there will be a reporting mechanism for any at those violations will be addressed at a very early stage. look, we expect from the parties to adhere to the agreement. we expect the parties to, uh, to stay committed to what they have committed themselves to in that agreement. but we know that these kind of of agreements are very complex and will have some issues down the line. and we are ready and we are we will stay committed to address those, uh, those issues ahead of time. >> and prime minister. just as a follow up, the the last truce that was in place in november 2023 did fall apart on the eighth day. what has changed in this agreement that will ensure

that this has less likely to fall apart than that agreement was? >> well, the agreement on november was to build the momentum in order to lead for a longer term agreement, which we have today. but unfortunately, uh, the agreement in november was very transactional. so it was like a day by day. but this agreement has a clear mechanism for the first 42 days, and there is a clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three. and all the details of the agreements will be published in the next couple of days. once the details are finalized. thank you. suhail arab, al jazeera, al arabiya. al-wazir adnan al jazeera. >> my first question will this agreement will reach a permanent ceasefire? will the guarantees? are the guarantees strong enough so that