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we are back with another hour of our special coverage of the hamas hostages being released today. i'm chris jansing in new york. it was a long-awaited moment. just last hour we saw this convoy of vehicles with israeli hostages crossing into israel. just moments after they were handed over to the red cross ahead of their medical evaluations and reunions with loved ones. these are the faces of the 13 hostages, women and children who were in captivity for 49 days as young as 2 years old, as old as 85. israel is releasing palestinian prisoners in the exchange, women and teenage boys. that is part of this deal, and with aid trucks arriving today through the gaza-egypt border, the palestinian red crescent is warning of a dire situation inside gaza saying the needs of the palestinians are increasing. a u.n. spokesman in geneva weighing in as well.

>> we hope it allows grieving families to honor their dead and bury them with dignity. and we hope that this humanitarian pause leads to a longer term humanitarian cease fire for the benefit of the people of gaza, israel, and beyond. >> joining me now nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin in tel aviv, nbc national security and global affairs reporter, dan delouis, and carleen savage. we were talking a little earlier with martin savage, whose two family members were released many weeks ago. they are still not talking about it, understandably so. the trauma that they went through. the folks who were released today have been held hostage. we don't know in what condition. weeks longer. what is facing them, even as we celebrate the fact that they're released, what is facing them and their families?

>> this is life altering for them. this is going to be a lifetime that they need to work on this. community needs to work on this. family needs to work on this. and this is one of the worst traumas that they have faced, that anybody can face, and so they're in for a lifetime of work, not that they can't level out someplace, but it's going to be a long road ahead of them that great support can do a lot to heal. >> erin, 24 hostages overall have been released. bring us up to date. give us the latest. i see you're holding your phone, so my suspicion is you may even have some new information for us. what can you tell us, erin? >> reporter: that's right, chris, in terms of the total hostages released today, as you mentioned, 24 hostages.

13 israeli hostages, ten thai hostages, and one filipino hostage. so many of the farm workers that were working the kibbutz scene on october 7th were taken hostage into gaza. it appears that many of them have been released today as part of this overall release. it's not necessarily a part of the negotiations, what was negotiated by the israeli government. we are also hearing from the prime minister release a list of the identities of the hostages, their names, and their ages, they're grouped by families this list, we're hearing that the aloni family, daniel, 45 years old, amelia 5 years old, ruth monder, age 78. karen monder, 54 years old, ohad monder, hanna perry, 79

years old, yaffe adar 85 years old, and we're hearing that the asher family was also released, doron katz-asher, 34 years old. raz asher, 4 years old, and aviv asher 2 years old, and tonight yoni asher, their father expressing his extreme relief posting a statement on facebook saying they are finally here at home. there will be more time to talk about everything. for now thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the support and the warm hug. incredibly emotional moment for all of those families and also a symbol of hope for the vast majority of the hostages, which have yet to be released from gaza. now, we are also hearing that 39 palestinian prisoners were released today from israeli prisons. 15 males and 24 females.

they'll be returned home to their -- to the occupied west bank, east jerusalem as well as gaza. the israeli officials announcing that this exchange for today is now complete, and the big question now overhanging all of this is what happens tomorrow, chris. >> that is the key question, and you mentioned the asher family. andrea spoke with the father, yoni asher back on october 11th, and i was struck by one of the statements he made about his daughters, who as we said have been released today, they are 2 and 4. he said they are tiny balls of energy. with three women in the house, there you see on the left his wife, we had enough noise for any man, and managed at that point to give a little bit of a smile. it does tell you, karleen how people who live these ordinary lives, if i can say that. you know, there's a dad, he's

got a wife. he's got two little girls, he's got all this as he sees it female energy in the house, and the next thing you know he is in the middle of an international crisis. now as erin just pointed out, what happens tomorrow? what do you imagine are the negotiations that are going on so that other families tomorrow can have the relief that this family is feeling right now? >> the negotiations going on -- and i am so thankful that children are resilient, amazingly resilient, and they will do their work that they need to do. there's going to be some quiet in their house, but moving forward, the negotiators, this looks like a template negotiation. you negotiate, you look at the goals, what they want, there's obviously a want here that they have. that's what you look at, and then you start to deliver on

that. and i think that everything that i've followed, heard and researched, they're doing what they need to do. the goal is to release hostages, and so that can take time, and unfortunately people that get in the cross hairs of that, you know, they're in the cross hairs, a much bigger problem, and a much bigger issue. and so as they move forward, they're going to have some of that same discussion of now we need to get this done next. you certainly don't want to have the wrath of this to come down. you certainly don't want to see this happen next. those are the discussions that they're going to have because there's a different goal that maybe we're not completely aware of. we get to be told what they want us to know, but those negotiators, there is a deep going on there, and it looks like they're doing their job in

order for us to have accomplished this. so i commend what's happening as far as the negotiations go. we are releasing hostages. is that our goal? >> dan de luce, we know that president biden may speak on this today. we also know from our nbc reporting that he played a key role in the negotiations that led to this release today, both in terms of his own conversations with the israelis, but also getting the qataris to stay involved in being a go between with hamas. what's top of mind for u.s. officials who are watching this truce and this exchange today? >> chris, i think on the one hand, i think they will see some vindication that all of their long, pain staking diplomatic work along with the qataris has paid off. it seems to be paying off. i think they will also feel that -- the president himself i think sees this as the

vindication also of his idea of personal diplomacy. he's also put a huge amount of value on personal relations with other leaders, other officials, and he was very much trying to push israel behind the scenes to agree to an arrangement that would allow some kind of temporary cease fire and the release of hostages. i think the white house is also, of course, looking to make sure the cease fire holds. there's no guarantee that it will hold. it's holding so far. and they're hoping obviously that it holds so that all the remaining 50 hostages as part of this deal get released. it's also giving him a little bit of breathing space with his own party because, as you know, he's come under criticism from progressives in his own party, publicly and privately, to be more critical of israel and how they've conducted that military offensive in gaza. and so this is a little bit of proof to say, listen, all of this wrangling and pushing and diplomacy has beared some fruit.

>> dan de luce, erin mclaughlin, and karleen savage. joining us now is former ambassador to the uk, mark regev. tell us what you know, where are the hostages now, and anything you can tell us about their conditions is, how are they doing? >> well, the first thing it's good they're back. what is it, 13 people who were in hamas's captivity in dark tunnels. i don't yet -- cannot tell you what they went through in those last 50 days, but i can only presume it was not pleasant and that these people are free, and that's a good thing. but it's bittersweet because as you've been saying on the panel, these 13 people are out, but there's still over 100 kept in gaza. it's true, according to the

formula that was negotiated and here we have to praise president biden who played a key role in making this happen, but according to the formula in the next four days, another 37 hostages have to be released, taking the number to 50. that was agreed and it's also agreed that the humanitarian pause can continue if hamas continues to release extra hostages. we've got a formula for that too. once again, negotiated with the help of president biden that says we will give an additional day of humanitarian pause for ten hostages, and another day for another ten hostages, and so basically now the ball is in hamas's court. this humanitarian pause can stop four days from now and we'll be back to square one and back at full scale war or we can extend the pause by the release of more hostages. i hope they release more hostages. >> is there anything you're seeing so far, your government

is seeing, ambassador, that would suggest that hamas at least at this early stage is not keeping its end of the deal? does everything seem to be going as well as could have been expected? >> i suppose the expectations are low, and they are low, when something succeeds, everyone is pleased, and of course we know who we're dealing with with hamas. just looking at the names of the people released. hamas released a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old girl, a 5-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. together with six people over the age of 70. they claim their operation was against military targets, yes? the 2-year-old, the 4-year-old, the 5-year-old. this just shows what we're up against, a brutal, fanatical terrorist organization. so when actually we did get a release today, of course everyone's happy, but we have to keep making sure that hamas stands by its commitments. we have to see 37 additional

people released in the coming days, and once again, if hamas want this is humanitarian pause to be extended, they know exactly what they need to do. they have to free more of the hostages. >> so in addition to the children you just mentioned, there are five women who are in their 70s and an 85-year-old. >> six. >> oh, sorry, you're correct, yes, yes. >> five. and then a sixth who was 85 yees old, who is not in good health, and who has a number of we know medical needs, so it's going to be different from person to person, but what can you tell us about what the coming days look like for the hostages who have been released? >> so obviously they have to be cared for and no one could have gone through 50 days being taken hostage by a terrorist group like hamas and it can affect them. so obviously their physical health is a concern, but also their psychological health, what trauma did they go through?

especially the children. and so i think here we'll have israel's best experts working with the families to try and help them come through this in a way that they can return to normal lives, that these children can return to being normal children. i'm not a psychologist, i don't know what they went through, and i don't know what needs to be done, but i can tell you israel and all its social services will be working with these families to make sure they get the best help that is available. >> i was looking at the statement from your prime minister, and one of the things that benjamin netanyahu said was this is one of the goals of the war and that the goal continues to be to obtain the release of all of the hostages, but he added and we are committed to achieving all the goals of the war. he has been very clear, you have been very clear about what that is, which at the top of it is to destroy hamas, to see that that terrorist threat is gone.

but given that there is a pause now, that pause may go on for four days, perhaps longer depending on how the situation unfolds. how do you restart a war? >> i don't think we have a choice, to be frank because to leave hamas in power in gaza is just an invitation for another october 7th massacre. it's not that mark regev says so, they said so. hamas leaders when interviewed said they would do october 7th again and again and again. given the capability, given the opportunity, they'd once again massacre israeli civilians. they'd once again pitcher our people. they'd do the massive rapes all over again, they'd machine gun the young people at the music festival, all that they say they will do again given the opportunity, so when israel says no more, we mean it, and we refuse -- the people of israel refuse to live next to this

terror enclave on our southern border. it's just not sustainable. we don't have to live in permanent terrorists butchering our children in the middle of the night. no one should have to live like that. let's be frank. getting rid of hamas is also good for the people of gaza. hamas has ruled them for 16 years, and what have they bought, the people of gaza, just pain and suffering and poverty. surely the people of gaza deserve better too. >> if i can just put this little point forward, we've just been informed by the white house that we will hear from president biden, who is in nantucket right now at 1:45. so a little more -- a little less than half an hour from now, if he is on time. but let me go back, if i can, to you talked about the other 100 hostages. of course there are more than 180 hostages still being held by their families, 100 it is believed to be held by hamas. let me ask you about the other 80. how much clarity is there, how much intelligence do you have about where they are, who is

holding them? and what is going on behind the scenes to see that they are released as well? >> so the numbers are a little different. there were 236 hostages that we knew about before today's release. so you take off the 13 israelis who are freed, and then you also had, i believe it was a group of nine foreign nationals, mainly thai and filipinos who come here to work in israel, in agriculture and other areas. so the number's gone down, but once again, hamas has committed to release a number 37. so that means there's over 100 left of all the hostage community, that's probably the wrong word, but the people who have been abducted and held against their will by hamas. we want to see as many of them released. our goal in this campaign is to see all the hostages released. now, people say but you're at the same time doing a military war against hamas, and they say

there's a contradiction. there's no contradiction. hamas wouldn't have released anyone today, not one of the 13 israelis would have been released today without military pressure. because hamas knows -- and we've said it repeatedly. we will only agree to this sort of humanitarian pause for the release of our hostage, and we were hitting hamas hard. we were destroying its military infrastructure. we were eliminating its top command. hamas was receiving very powerful blows from the israeli defense forces, and they needed this time-out. they needed this pause, and so our military action expedited, in my opinion, the release of hostages, and if they release more hostages, it's only because they fear the resumption of israel's military operation. so we see the two goals of our operation, the military campaign to destroy hamas's military machine and getting our hostages out, they complement each other. >> you don't have to be a military strategist to understand the advantage for hamas of continuing to hold the

american hostages, no americans were released today. what is your level of confidence, ambassador, that tomorrow or in the coming days americans will be released? >> they promised as part of the understandings to release the children, and there's one specific, abigail, who you know is a joint israeli american citizen. we will hopefully see her in the next coming days. we are waiting to see the next list that hamas will bring us, yes. they have committed to release 50. we believe all the children should be part of that 50, and i hope she'll be one of the people. once again, we're dealing with a brutal fanatical terrorist organization, not humanitarians, and it's difficult sometimes to understand their calculations. but we will insist, yes, that they keep what they agreed to, which is there has to be 37 more people released in the next three days. and that all the children must be released. >> former ambassador mark regev,

thank you, we appreciate your taking the time to talk to us. stay with us as we continue our breaking news coverage. we'll have more right after this. we'll have more right afte this

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let's take a look at abigail moore adan, the little girl whose family hoped against hope that she would spend today, her fourth birthday coming home to them. it's not to be. she is not among the group of these 13 hostag.

this little israeli american girl whose mother and father were both murdered by hamas on october 7th. but 13 families are celebrating the return of their loved ones. let's go back to israel and gaza for the latest on that hostage and prisoner swap. nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez is back with us from tel aviv. i wonder how israelis are reacting, and of course whenever we talk about abigail, i think back to who you mentioned last hour, ohad who had his ninth birthday while being held captive but he today has gotten his freedom. >> reporter: ohad is free today. he out of gaza, chris, along with his mother, along with his grandmother, his grandfather remains in captivity, so you can

only imagine what a bittersweet moment it is for the monder family to have that little boy whohey agonized about whether or not he had his glasses, whether heould see in the darkness of those tunnels underneath gaza for these last 49 days to have him out, to have his mother out, to have his grandmother out, but to know that their grandfather is still a hostage inside of gaza. and chris, you were just talking with mark regev about the more than 100 families whose loved ones, even if this deal holds together, even if all 50 of these israeli women and children are freed, the vast majority of the hostages will still remain inside of gaza, and there will be many, many hard choices, many painful decisions, a lot of tough negotiations to go to try to get those people out. but i can tell you, chris, here in israel, there is a feeling

not only of joy, not only of relief, but also that this is proof of concept that israel and hamas, mortal enemy who are fighting a war in which israel has committed to destroying hamas as a military organization, as the rulers of gaza with the mediation of qatar, the help of the united states, these two sides were able to reach a deal, and today they delivered on that deal. one day of cease fire inside of gaza in exchange for 13 women and children freed, and the hope is that they will do it again tomorrow and the day after and the day after until all 50 are out, and then, chris, as we've discussed there, is the possibility that this deal could be extended beyond that, another day of cease fire in exchange for ten more hostages. now, the israeli government has said they are skeptical. they want to see whether this first 50 are delivered or not, but so far so good as they say. israel upholding its end of the

bargain releasing 39 palestinian prisoners, women and male teenagers from prisons in the occupied west bank and in east jerusalem. it is that 3 to 1 ratio that we have been discussing. three palestinian prisoners for every israeli hostage. that was one of the terms of the deal. and the cease fire does appear to be holding, chris. it came into force at 7:00 a.m. local time. it is now 8:30 p.m., 12 1/2 hours of relative quiet in gaza, which is just a blessing for the 2 million people who for the last 49 days have lived through constant war, through air strikes, through the endless hum of israeli drones overhead, the roar of israeli war planes. the guns are silent in gaza. the question, of course, is will they stay that way? >> in our final minute, can you

tell us what we know about how much aid has gotten in the other part of this deal. i think it's, what, two-thirds of the 2.2 million residents of gaza have been displaced. we know that there were just two doctors left at al-shifa hospital caring for hundreds of patients who were too sick to be moved. what do we know about aid getting in specifically? >> reporter: yeah, chris, before this war started, gaza was a poor place. today it is one of the most devastated places on the planet. the united nations estimates more than half of the homes in gaza have been damaged or entirely destroyed. people have been without water, without electricity. disease has been spreading. some of those aid trucks are coming through. the rafah crossing from egypt to gaza, we don't have an exact number at this point. even if the promised hundreds of trucks makes it through, chris t is going to be a fraction, a fraction of what the people of gaza need right now. but one of the few bits of good news is there is fuel in some

form coming through as part of this agreement. there is also cooking oil. that is going to mean that in some places, they're going to be able to turn the lights back on using diesel generators. people who have been eating a piece of bread a day as one woman i was speaking to this week told me are going to be able to cook for the first time. but they know, chris, this cease fire has a limit. it's four days right now. maybe it can be extended but the israeli military says they are committed to continuing their war against hamas on the other side of it. and one of the things we've seen inside gaza today is even with the fighting paused, people are not able to return to their homes in the north, which is something they desperately, desperately want to do, and that may end up being one of the real threats to the cease fire if you see large crowds of palestinians heading north to gaza city and israeli forces determined to stop them, even if that means live fire, chris. >> raf sanchez, thank you.

coming up, more on how israelis are reacting to today's news that some of the hostages being held by hamas are going home. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. ansing reports" only on msnbc sense, r. ♪ so caramel swirl is always there for the taking. i'm kareem abdul jabbar. i was diagnosed with afib. the first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib.

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we are just getting some new pictures that we want to be able to bring you. they were freezing for a bit, but there they are again. live pictures from the west bank where it is 8:36, and you can

see darkness has fallen. you can see that it's crowds of people. you can see that the flags are flying. this is where the huge crowd is waiting for palestinians who have been held by israel are being brought and being released as part of the deal that also saw the release of 13 prisoners of hamas. i also want, as we're watching these pictures, to turn to an update from our nbc news correspondent david noriega who is in ramallah there where those palestinian prisoners were reportedly bussed in just moments ago. here he is. >> reporter: what we're seeing now is the moment in which 39 palestinian prisoners are being released from an israeli military prison that's just down the road that way into the streets of ramallah and the occupied west bank. these are red cross buses carrying the prisoners there. is a large crowd here of palestinian residents of the west bank. many of them are waving palestinian flags. many are waving green hamas flags and chanting into part of hamas. the prisoners being released today are all women and tee

males 18 and under. some were convicted of serious crimes, including attempted murder. many were neither convicted nor charged, but detained under suspicion of violent activity. the palestinians that i've spoken to here tonight say these arrests are unjustified, that they happened -- i spoke to the father of one of these 17-year-old boys who said he was arrested without engaging in violent activity or political activity. it's been a tense and chaotic evening as the crowd has attempted to approach the prison. they have been rappelled by tear gas and rubber bullets. the atmosphere has changed from one of hostility and confrontation to now one of exuberance and celebration. this is the moment that palestinian residents of the west bank have been waiting for.

>> david noriega, thank you for that. again, as we see those pictures from the west bank, from ramallah, the world's attention has also been fixed on the release of hostages from hamas as that temporary halt in fighting inside gaza takes hold. nogatar napulsky is an independent journalist based in that region. it's been a long and emotional 49 days since the october 7th attacks. some rejoiing obviously today in israel, but i can only imagine how bittersweet it is as well. the deaths that have happened since then and of course the hostages who are still being held, is it possible to even describe the mood on the ground in israel tonight? >> hi, chris. i think we have to say that for tonight there's this kind of like a cloud break of jubilation and relief.

until israelis began to see the buses carrying hostages out of gaza, they weren't even sure they were alive. nobody had any information about their condition or really who they would be. it has to be said some families had received notification, but it wasn't confirmed. so at this moment there's just this kind of breath of relief, and tel aviv certainly where there's the main encampment of the hostages' families, real jubilation, and yet, i think that by tomorrow morning as you say, it's going to become clear that hamas is playing with israelis. hamas was supposed to have released the names of the hostages that will be released tomorrow. many hours, like four and a half hours ago. no names have been released, and the fact that the entire state of israel is kind of waiting on, you know, tinder hooks to see what hamas a terrorist organization that murdered a

thousand 200 israelis says next. the fact that they are managing this entire event is deeply problematic, both for the people and the government of israel. >> we're expecting here in the state, noga a briefing or at least a statement by the president of the united states, president biden coming up just about five minutes from now. but i wonder on the ground in that region, what are the broader implications of this deal and for the potential of it to get extended right now, is it clear? >> it's absolutely not clear, and my best guess is that it's also unclear even for the american mediators at this stage. hamas is dangling this kind of promise of further hostage releases in front of the states and in front of israel. i want to mention that a very young hostage, i think a 4-year-old little girl who's a dual u.s. israeli citizen called abigail, the president has mentioned her by name.

there were explicitly, you know, stated hopes that she would be among the first to be released, and no u.s. citizens were released tonight at all. so my understanding is that basically while the negotiation was successful and some hostages have been released, which is a huge, huge relief, the basic situation is that everybody is just waiting on the word of a terror organization that has its own interests in mind. mostly it's survival in mind because israel has promised to simply destroy hamas. >> yeah, abigail turned 4 today, remaining a hostage. there was public discontent with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu before the october 7th attacks, the failure to foresee those attacks and the response to them. it stirred some resentment as well. what's his standing right now, do you think, among israelis some 49 days into this conflict? >> his standing is catastrophic.

it's basically down into single-digits. a number of polls were released today. they all show that the israeli people i would say are sick of him. he's the longest serving israeli prime minister, and he returned to power after a year out of power, just under a year ago, it was december, and he immediately put into place basically a plan to ensure his unfettered power forever. it was a plan to completely crush the israeli judiciary and all governmental, you know, barriers and gate keepers. and that engendered huge, unprecedented protests so that when this war hit, he was already a hugely unpopular prime minister, and since october 7th, his popularity has just plummeted because the government has failed to provide basic emergency services, has failed

to communicate with the israeli people, and he, you know, i think he's in trouble. >> something we're going to be watching very carefully as these important days unfold, noga, always wonderful to have you on the program. thank you so much. and we mentioned any moment now within the next couple of minutes we could be hearing from president biden. let's go to white house correspondent aaron gilchrist. what are we expecting? >> reporter: the president is expected to speak in the next couple of minutes from nantucket where he is for the thanksgiving holiday with his family. we know that the president has been kept apprised of the situation, the release happening in gaza throughout the day today. his national security team, as it has been for the last almost 50 days now keeping him updated on an almost daily basis, if not daily, as to what was happening in terms of the development of this release deal, but also obviously today on the actual release as it was happening, and

so we know the white house has told us that the president didn't want to get ahead of activities on the ground, and so as the deal was really being finalized and the israeli government was voting on this deal a couple of days ago, the president didn't want to speak before there was certainty that the israelis had agreed to the deal, signed off on it in total and that hamas had also agreed to the deal through the egyptians and qataris that they'd been working through this entire process. and so that gets us to today when we've now seen these hostages having been released, the president watching and getting updates on that now that the -- the first round of release has been completed. we do expect to hear from the president about that, and potentially some detail, chris, about his involvement, about the u.s. involvement in brokering this deal. obviously this is only 13 people. the larger deal is only about 50 or so people potentially, and there are many more hostages being held, so the biden administration is still continuing to work with allies

in the region to deal with the reality of getting out more hostages. and then also the president has said that the humanitarian aid piece of this, getting help to palestinians who are stuck in the middle of all this so that they are able to continue to live and thrive in the palestinian territories, which of course the president has said should be the case when this is all done, that palestinians have their own state, and they're able to live along side israelis in peace. so even as this first hostage release happens and this war draws to a conclude at whatever point it does, the president has signaled that his administration will continue to work to make sure there's some peace in that region of the world. >> we want to show some pictures of what's happening south of where i am here in manhattan, in washington square park there is what looks to be a sizable group of protesters who are supporting the palestinian cause. it's something we have seen repeatedly in big cities all

across the united states. i don't know if you had a chance to hear just before you, aaron, noga tarpulsky was saying how bad the approval rating is for benjamin netanyahu, she said in single-digits, not like that for president biden, but he has taken a hit on foreign affairs, and particularly we're seeing his support among young people drop precipitously. you cannot step away from the political implications of this. what are you hearing from folks you're talking to at the white house about the politics of this and the need to get americans released? >> the white house is very much aware of the demonstrations that have been happening in different parts of the country and all around the world. the biden campaign is also aware of these things as well as the polls that have been coming out in the last several days as it relates to how people feel about the president's handling of foreign policy issues in general, and in particular, the

israel-hamas war. and of course knowing that those approval numbers are low, the white house has said it sees the numbers, but it also feels as though it is doing the right thing, that the president has engaged to support the israelis through this war with hamas and also that the administration, the president has been working very hard to make sure that the israelis are working to follow international law and that there is an effort to make sure that the palestinians are receiving the help they need at this point as well. the president very early on in this process coming out and saying there was going to be $100 million set aside for humanitarian aid in gaza for the palestinian people and encouraging other countries to do the same. and then also in the last several weeks in particular, the president through the administration, through the folks who work for him has been reaching out to communities all across the country to arab american communities, to muslim communities, to public communities in particular, trying to make sure that their voices are heard. the administration has said, and

that there are mechanisms put in place to ensure the safety of jewish people in this country from anti-semitic activities that had been happening, and also to ensure the safety of folks who are of the muslim faith to try to combat islamophobia as it's been happening around the country. so the white house has really, i think, positioned itself to say that it's hearing all the things that are happening, and it's trying its best to work on obviously the situation as it's unfolding in the middle east, but also to communicate out to people here in the united states about what the administration is doing to try to make the situation there and here bet er. >> aaron gilchrist, thank you so much from the white house. the president expected to speak any moment. i want to turn to emily horn, a former special assistant to president biden and former spokesperson at the national security council in the biden administration. i want to pick up where i left

off with aaron because on one hand, this administration, any administration would want to say, we are making decisions based on what's in the best interests of our national security and what is in the best interests of these hostages, americans who are being held by hamas. on the other hand, this is also an administration and a president who believe to the very core of their being that the likely republican nominee, donald trump is a danger to national security, is a danger to the future of democracy and this country, so he cannot ignore the politics that has resulted from his actions in israel. what is he short time from now? >> sure. thanks, chris, for having me. a couple of things, anytime we are dealing with a complex foreign policy crisis of this nature where you have a terrorist actor who's perpetrated a massive human rights violation, the worst massacre of jews since the

holocaust. you have a hostage situation, you have the danger of a spillover into the broader region and this becoming a regional conflict. you have a panplea of nonstate actors and you have neighbors who have equities, and hostages are other countries like thailand, indonesia, nepal, this is as complex as foreign policy gets. one of the things you're going to hear the president and more broadly the campaign making clear is that you need an expert in foreign policy to deal with these kinds of crises. you need a leader who values alliances and understands the importance of continuing talks even with friend who you may have more complex relationships with. this deal, i don't think could have happened to get the hostages out today without president biden's leadership. importantly, not just his leadership and that of his team, but their deep relationships with partners in qatar, in egypt, with their deep

relationships with prime minister netanyahu and israeli officials, this is diplomacy as high stakes as it gets. as complicated as it has been to get to this point, what you're seeing today are extraordinary images coming from gaza and israel and egypt is the result of pain staking hard work behind the scenes that is producing results. it's still early days, and nobody is going to be taking a victory lap today, not when there is so much work to do, not just to get more hostages home safely but to try to mend this conflict, to try to keep our eye on the horizon of what a peaceful two-state solution could look like, to get back to a conversation about normalizing israel's relationships with neighbors. we're so focused on the crisis of the moment of getting our people home safely. today is a really encouraging first step, and encouraging proof of concept that we can see results, that diplomacy can be

effective. >> i want people to know what we're looking at on our screen, which is pictures from the west bank. we believe these are pictures of some of the prisoners released from israeli prisons as part of this deal coming back to the west bank. our david noriega had reported that's what we're seeing. you can see the applause and flags waving there. on the other hand, as you rightfully point out, you still have more than 100 hostages who are still being held. this is an extraordinarily complex situation. the fact, emily, that we did not see any americans released, the fact that as we just reported 4 1/2 hours ago, hamas was supposed to have released the list of names of people who are going to be released tomorrow but has not yet, does hamas see an advantage in holding back americans, thinking it will delay an early end to the pause, what do you make of the fact that neither did we see an

american release today, including that 3-year-old who turned 4 today, abigail, and don't know if there will be any americans on the list tomorrow. >> well, look, as a parent and as an american, i certainly want to see americans coming home. i want to see more children coming home. we all do. i think that's a very human and understandable response. that said, it is not surprising that we did not see americans in this first tranche. we always knew that was going to be a possibility, and i think we have to remember the terrain in which these hostages are being held is extraordinarily complex, it's urban terrain in gaza. there are tunnels snaked under the city, and people are being hidden in a wide variety of locations, and it's possible that hamas doesn't know where some of the hostages are right now. there are a number of terrorist groups active in gaza, and it's entirely possible that there are some hostages being held by actors other than hamas at this point, so as we're continuing to

test this proof of concept, and we've seen encouraging signs with the initial release of the first tranche of hostages, i think one of the things that you're going to hear the president on down pressing our interlocutors on is do we know where everyone is? do we have the capability of accounting for every hostage? how do we get people home as quickly as possible, and importantly, how can we get those who might be in need of medical care or other forms of support home quickly. it's an encouraging sign that you're seeing women and children come out in the first tranche, but nobody is going to be praising any terrorist actor for doing the simple, basic, humane thing in a situation like this. we need more people out. we need them soon, and we need hamas to demonstrate that it has the capability of following through on the commitments it's making through the diplomatic channel. >> emily horn on a day when 13 folks who were held in unimaginable circumstances are now free, have been in touch

with families and getting the care they need. so many yet to come. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. that's going to do it for us this hour. joining us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. our special coverage continues with richard blewy right after this short break. wy right after this short break (ella) fashion moves fast. (jen) so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon.

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. good afternoon, i'm richard lui live from msnbc headquarters. here in new york city, it's