good morning, 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm josé diaz-balart. we are following breaking developments from the middle east. nbc news has learned there will be a truce extension between israel and hamas. the pause in fighting was due to end later today. we'll talk to a spokesperson for the israeli defense forces about what's expected to happen next. the news comes as we wait another hostage release expected any minute now after three days of emotional reunions. israel's prime minister saying negotiations are continuing. the head of the red crescent said 200 aid trucks are expected to enter gaza today. we'll talk to a u.n. official about what her teams on the ground are seeing. and breaking overnight, police in vermont say they have arrested a man they believe shot and wounded three u.s. college students of palestinian descent.

♪♪ we begin with the breaking news in the israel-hamas war. senior arab official with direct knowledge of negotiations confirms to nbc news there will be a truce extension. a u.s. official says the biden administration is actively working to exhe pause. details still being finalized, and the deal could still collapse. we're also expecting a fourth wave of hostages to be released by hamas today. so far 58 hostages including foreign nationals have been released. israel has freed 117 palestinians from its jails over the last three days. for the released hostages, family reunifications are taking place at israeli hospitals including this one, with 13-year-old hila who was kidnapped from her kibbutz along with her 9-year-old friend. her mother still among the hostages, and here's emily being reunited with her father shortly

after the october 7th attack, he initially thought emily had been killed in the massacre. and this is israeli american abigail idan who turned 4 in captivity. now back in the arms of family. her parents were murdered in front of her during the attack. she is the first american hostage to be set free. president biden addressed her release. >> what she endured is unthinkable. abigail was among 13 hostages released today from gaza under the broke skperd sustained, though intensive u.s. diplomacy. she's now safely in israel. >> but if there is no extension to this pause, an israeli spokesman said this morning, israel will resume its military campaign immediately. joining us now is nbc's raf sanchez in tel aviv and monica alba at the white the house. raf, where do things stand at

this hour? >> jose, in just the last couple of minute, the israeli prime minister's office is saying it has begun reaching out to the families of hostages who are expected to be freed tonight. now, that is a good sign that tonight's hostage release is going ahead, and it is a positive sign that this cease fire agreement may well be extended, as we're hearing from that senior arab official. the egyptian government, which has been involved along with qatar in brokering this agreement says they expect 11 israeli hostages to be freed tonight in exchange for 33 palestinian prisoners. that is fewer than we have seen on the previous three nights, but it is progress, and of course it will be a moment of extraordinary joy for the families of those 11 hostages, if they do emerge out of gaza tonight, things are running a little later than they have been previously. as we've seen, jose, throughout

this four-day cease fire, there have been stops. there have been starts. there have been moments when it looked like this was going to collapse. that senior arab official saying the plan right now is for it to be extended under that preagreed formula, one additional day of cease fire in exchange for ten additional hostages. jose. >> and raf, these last four days but specifically the last three, even with the pauses and the danger that this fragile agreement could fall apart any second, it didn't, and raf, the cease fire temporary did, in fact, hold. >> it did hold, and jose, over the last four days we have not seen any major fighting between israeli forces and hamas, palestinian, islamic, jihad inside of gaza. that has been a surprise to some who thought that these israeli troops are in such close proximity to these palestinian militants, in some cases just

hundreds of yards away from each other inside of gaza city. it felt like the inevitable friction might lead to fighting, and it hasn't. one of the major sources of tension, and one of the major threats to the cease fire has been that displaced palestinian civilians, who are now in the south of gaza have wanted to go north. they wanted to see if their homes are still standing. they want to get their belongings, which they weren't able to get when they initially fled, and they have been blocked by israeli forces. we know at least two palestinians were killed by israeli troops after the cease fire began. that was in confrontations as crowds were gathering, trying to go north. we've asked israel's military about it. they say that they are looking into it. but the cease fire has held. we haven't seen rocket fire. israel has upheld its part of the bargain to keep the skies over gaza clear. neither drones nor israeli war planes flying overhead at

specific hours during the day and the hope we're hearing from this senior arab official, from qatar is that the cease fire continues to hold and this plan to extend can move ahead. jose. >> and monica, meanwhile, what are we hearing from the white house about the efforts to extend this pause, the president has been so personally involved so far. >> yes, jose, exactly. working the phones nonstop during his thanksgiving holiday trip in nantucket. he's back here at the white house now where he has also been following every development here, and the u.s. is actively working to try to make sure that this extension can take place. i'm told by a u.s. official that nothing is completely nailed down yet, but that is the expectation, and that is a goal that president biden and prime minister netanyahu shared, and we know that in their phone conversation yesterday, the two discussed this possibility, and the u.s. knows that israel is open, of course, to this extension in the hopes that more hostages can be released. and that is the key question

here. in terms of what may happen in the next couple of hours and who may be on that list. it's unclear at this point whether americans will be released today or whether that might happen in the future and how that might happen. we learned from the white house earlier today that the hope would be two additional women perhaps in the next group, if not today, perhaps tomorrow or in the coming days if that's a possibility, that is something that they had been eyeing but that they didn't have any kind of confirmation about happening with any certainty. we did see the president, as you played there, speaking about the release of that 4-year-old girl, the dual american and israeli citizen, abigail idan and the president spoke with some of her family members yesterday to just express his gat gratitude, to continue to push for the release of more hostages. the president said he will not

rest until that happens. the white house has been very cautious in what they want to say from here, as the situation remains fluid. they don't want to get ahead of anything since we have seen these hiccups, slight delays. things can be derailed for a moment and then back on track. they don't want to do anything that could potentially affect that. they're going to let this play out before we get any other kind of confirmation about who may be released today, who may be on that list, whether it includes any americans or not, and what role the u.s. continues to play in all of this has been critical because they have been a key factor and player at the table in these negotiations, but they certainly don't want to get out in front of them to ensure that more hostages can be released after being held by hamas for more than 50 days now. >> meanwhile, what do we know about the reunions on the palestinian side? >> yeah, jose, we have seen 90 plus palestinians released from jails in east jerusalem, in the occupied west bank over the last

three days. there have been scenes of celebration there. but the israeli government led by far right national security minister has been doing everything it can to prevent these reunions, palestinian prisoners with their families from turning into palestinian political moments, so israeli police in east slim have been -- jerusalem have been going to the homes of these prisoners, they have been forcing the media out. they have been preventing crowds from gathering, in the occupied west bank we've seen israeli forces firing tear gas to try to prevent these celebrations from happening. it hasn't stopped them inside of city centers like in ramallah. we have seen crowds gathering to celebrate these prisoners being released, and jose, it's worth noting that palestinian prisoners play a major, major role in palestinian society.

you'll hear palestinian politicians both from hamas but also from its more secular rival fattah. they often begin their speeches sending their greetings, their well wishes to prisoners. some of these prisoners requester convicted of serious crimes, stabbing civilians, stabbing police officers. others were in administrative detention, which means they were being held without charge, and they had never been convicted. jose. >> raf sanchez and monica alba, thank you both so very much. and joining us now is an independent journalist based in jerusalem. also with us is former congresswoman jane harmon, chair of the commission on the national defense strategy and former ranking member of the house intelligence community. noga, it's great seeing you. what's the reaction been in jerusalem and throughout israel to the release of the hostages and to this pause that is today in its fourth day, but could possibly be extended? >> it's been a complex reaction

to be honest. initially, there was jubilation, friday night, the first night, because all of a sudden it felt real, right? i think it was 13 israeli hostages who no one really knew ahead of that if they were alive or dead were seen walking on their own two feet, fairly healthy, released. and so the feeling was kpul kpal tenant. there have been a number of hiccups. there are significant hiccups, and the israelis are starting to focus on the fact that 190 hostages are still in gaza and that there's no clear path forward. in other words, israel and hamas are discussing now the extension of this truce and the exchange of hostages of prisoners for another day or two, but that would mean another 10 to 20 israeli hostages released, and

170 would still remain there in the best case. so i would say it's mixed feelings and mostly an enormous amount of tension. >> congresswoman, white house national security council spokesperson john kirby was asked whether president biden and prime minister netanyahu were on the same page in trying to extend the pause. listen to what he had to say. >> yes, they are. they both have agreed that an extension of the pause and an extension of the hostage releases, that's good for israel. it's good for the region. they both agree on that. >> so if there is, congresswoman, an extension of this pause, where do you think things go from there? >> well, that's the hard question, and there is no answer to that question unfortunately, even though many certainly including me and you, jose, have been asking about the day after, meaning the day after some hostage recovery effort, what

the day after will look like. let me make a few suggestions. one is that there will be ample time to look back ward and assess all the mistakes made. there was a massive intelligence failure and a massive government failure by israel, and the israeli people will have to call their government to account for that. then going forward in the military response, one will have to assess that and whether everything was done in the best possible way. now, where we are is some good news, some number of people but a very small number of hostages have been released. some number of palestinian prisoner have said released. there is a worry about the jubilation on the -- you know, in the palestinian street and whether that will end up causing more radicalization. finally, here's my suggestion just to get to this, i think

that the arab neighborhood has and should exercise a huge amount of leverage here. we understand that president biden -- and i commend him enormously for this -- has been negotiating with the qataris and others in doha for the release of these hostages. i would hope that the qataris who have great sway with hamas, the hamas political leadership lives there, and they have special ties with iran, which has been fueling this from the other side that the qataris and the neighborhood would step up and say, enough. we want a region in peace. we will intervene with hamas. we will cause the hamas leadership to hold back, and we will find a formula for governance, not just in gaza, but in the west bank that hopefully the people there will embrace. there need to be new elections in the palestinian authority. i think everyone has called for that. there haven't been elections

innie -- in years. it's up to the people who live there to determine who their leaders are. i hope that the leadership both places will embrace this formula of two states for two peoples. that is u.s. policy, and it's the right policy going forward. >> and as we are watching different images coming forward, there we see a bus being -- this was of course not live by the way, this is just one of the instances in which hostages have been released, and they are entering into egypt, some were actually taken directly in hospital from the border to israeli hospitals, and noga, i just want to bring back what the congresswoman was talking about about accountability, about how october 7th changed so many things. do you think that there is a mood in israel for government accountability for what happened then, and then also how the

negotiations are being carried through. >> i think there's definitely an appetite among israeli citizens for accountability from their government. you see that in the rock bottom pulse of the prime minister and his government, but government does not seem to have any appetite for that sort of accountability, and there are constant frictions, i would say, not just related to these negotiations with hamas where the israeli government, for example, prime minister netanyahu said one thing, he publicly promised israelis that the red cross would have access to those israeli hostages remaining in gaza after the end of this truce, and that turned out to be something closer to his wish than an actual clause in the deal. so there's constant friction. there's constant unhappiness. i do want to point something out that relates in a way to what the congresswoman was saying. one thing that has not changed

since october 7th is that the authors, the people who conceived and carried out the attack against israelis, that murdered a thousand 200 israeli citizens, they are still ruling the roost. in fact, not just they're still ruling gaza, they are calling the shots for this entire deal so israelis are stuck in a situation that when i said complicated before, i mean it. in other words, there's jubilation that the hostages are being released, but there's a sinking realization that the hamas leadership structure in gaza is intact, that qatar continues to support hamas. in fact, the qatari mediation is kind of burnished both qatar and hamas and the gaza-based leader is alive and kicking and calling the shots. so that is also on the table for the israelis. >> and iran continues to be the

prime supporter of all of these groups. jane, you want to say something? >> yes, if i could just pile on intense agreement with that last comment. i neglected to say but i hope it was clear that hamas, a terror organization, must be condemned for what happened on october 7th, but noga is right maybe in hindsight calling this a war is a mistake. it could have been called a counterterrorism operation, which is what the u.s. did after 9/11 after we went after al qaeda, an intelligence surprise, not a good thing. but my point is that by somehow giving hamas equivalence, we have given them political status that they don't deserve, and the qataris can and should do more and so should the neighborhood to rein them in at this point.

>> thank you both so much for being with us this morning. appreciate it. up next we'll get an update on the much needed aid flowing into gaza during these last three days of calm. is it anywhere near enough? we're back in 60 seconds. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ée diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ta customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. he hits his mark —center stage—and is crushed by a baby grand piano. you're replacing me? customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (smelling) ew. gotta get rid of this. ♪tell me why♪ because it stinks. ♪have you tried downy rinse and refresh♪ it helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. it worked guys! ♪yeahhhh♪ downy rinse and refresh. students...

students of any age, from anywhere. using our technology to power different ways of learning. so when minds grow, opportunities follow. ♪ 20 past the hour. as desperately needed aid finally arrives inside gaza as part of the deal between israel and hamas, displaced civilians scrambled to see what was left of their lives before the war began. sky news' alex crawford has more. >> reporter: as soon as the truce came into force, the trucks began rolling. this is what they've been crying out for inside gaza. critical aid, food, medicine, and fuel finally being delivered during the agreed lull. and hundreds took to the road to try to reach stranded children,

parents, friends, still trapped in the north. they hesitated at the israeli check point dividing south from north, so many have been displaced without taking anything with them. they're anxious to see if they have homes to return to. then shots rang out. they waved white flags but the firing went on. witnesses told us israeli snipers fired directly into the crowd, wounding several. the israeli military said they'd warned the north was off limits. this was their response. more panic, more mayhem, and more blood spilled. with one man appealing in hebrew, arabic and english for peace. >> stop kill our children, our women, we are best people.

we want peace. we deserve life like all the nations. >> and joining us now, julia tu ma, the director of communications for the u.n. relief and works agency for palestinian refugees. thank you for being with us this morning. i know you were just in gaza right before the temporary pause began. how would you describe the humanitarian crisis right now? and we're getting word right now, by the way, that hamas is apparently agreeing to that truce extension, so that's one more development that shows that there's a possibility, maybe even a probability that this truce could be extended. who knows, a couple more days. >> yeah, if these reports are confirmed, i also got similar reports myself just before going

on this live with you. then it is a huge relief for the people on the ground who were only talking about, that they are absolutely exhausted after 50 plus days of bombardment and air strikes and displacement and loss and grief and uncertainty. so any extension to the pause that's been taking place is very much welcome. >> just wondering, i mean, the israeli government says that 2,000 trucks have entered the gaza strip since the beginning of the war. we do know for a fact that hundreds have been coming in during these four days. what does that aid look like, and how is that aid getting to people? >> yeah, 2,000 may sound a lot, but let's put things in proportion. we have certainly seen an increase during the pause. we've seen an increase in the number of trucks coming in.

however, for five-plus weeks, we've only seen a trickle of trucks coming in, and if you'll recall, for the first two weeks of the war, there has not been any humanitarian convoys, any trucks coming in for two very, very long weeks. in fact, the first two weeks because of the siege, the situation got very, very bad very, very quickly. so we do hope that this window that we've seen with the increase in the number of trucks continues. we also do hope that supplies start coming into the gaza strip also to support the private sector because all the shops, the pharmacy, the markets were closed when we were there. there were just a few bakeries open, a few vegetable stores and that was it. so without the private sector, without the market, the humanitarian assistance cannot do it alone. >> by the way, i'm just hearing right now that qatar is also

announcing that a pause extension has been reached. so far we have different confirmation from different groups about that pause that may be extended. just wondering what specific supplies do you think, juliet, are critically needed now going forward? >> i've met people in one of our shelters in the south of the gaza strip where we are hosting currently 30,000 people, very, very overcrowded. by the way, under the agency where i work, we are hosting 1 million people across the gaza strip so these are people who were forced to flee their homes sometimes overnight, sometimes with nothing on them. they have lost everything and they need everything, so we're talking about the basics, we're talking about food, about clean water, about soap and hygiene material, about matrices and

blankets, it's getting very, very cold in gaza. so it's a whole bunch of assistance. this is why the continuation of the delivery of much needed assistance is absolutely critical, and very, very important that there is fuel coming into gaza as we have seen in the past few days. fuel is critical for a very simple reason because without fuel there is no human operation in gaza. so we do hope that this trend continues and it increases. >> and julia, i mean, just the numbers you were just saying, you're hosting 1 million people inside gaza. that's virtually half of the population in that area. and how do you, juliette guarantee and work towards that fuel and food and those mattresses that are so desperately needed and so much

more ends up indeed getting to the people and not under the organization of hamas. >> we have teams on the ground directly implements assistance and programs. we have teams on the ground, u.n., united nations, vetted and screened united nations team, thousands of them who are on the front lines who are in the shelters. they received assistance itself when it's come -- when it comes via egypt, they put it on united nations trucks and they take it to united nations shelters, and there they distribute it to people in need. >> juliette touma, i thank you very much for being with us. zb thank you. we're going to go to qatar, a nation helping to negotiate that extended pause in fighting between israel and hamas. just in the last minute publicly announcing they had indeed

reached some agreement to extend this pause. we'll also talk to a retired fbi agent who knows a lot about hamas and hostage negotiations. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on news. msnbc. who knew the subway series could get even better?

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33 past the hour, moments ago qatar's foreign ministry who's been moderating the negotiations confirmed that an

agreement has been reached on the extension of the truce. the white house also just confirming that a deal has been reached. joining us now from doha is nbc's keir simmons. what do we know about this agreement? >> reporter: we know a little bit from different sources as you kind of alluded to there, jose. there's been a cascade of announcements just in the past ten minutes. we heard from hamas saying that it had agreed to extend the truce, then the qataris announcing in their words that a truce would be extended by two days, and then as you just said, a white house official telling nbc news just in the past few minutes, our colleagues there in d.c. that the truce has been extended. so what we hear from the qataris, of course the qataris who have mediated these talks in the past weeks, what we hear from them, it will be a two-day extension. we did hear from the qatari prime minister, nbc news

overnight saying that there were negotiations that were looking at trying to reach more hostages and that then when more hostages have been reached by hamas, remember that the reporting is that hamas doesn't have all of the hostages, you know, it doesn't have all of the hostages in his captivity. when those hostages were reached, then there would be this agreement, and the qatari prime minister was talking about ten more hostages for 30 palestinian prisoners each day for the next two days. keep in mind, of course, we haven't yet seen the release of the hostages and prisoners today. that is a little bit delayed, not as much as it was on saturday. so we're just still getting details of this, jose, but it's been apparent all day that despite some hurdles, they were heading towards an agreement, the israelis and hamas both suggesting publicly that they would want that. we haven't heard from the israelis yet confirming that this truce is going to be

extended. >> and keir, just doing, you know, basic math, if this pause is extended for two days and if indeed there can be 10 to 20 hostages released from gaza towards israel, that would make it 20, 40, et cetera, but there are still you know, much more than 100 hostages odds of hamas' control according to them and dozens of others still in hamas hands. >> that's right, and not just in hamas's hands, according to hamas, but in the hands of others like islamic jihad. i think that the expectation is more than ten today, so that would be more than ten today, ten the next day, ten the next day. that would be 30 hostages and they are releasing three palestinian prisoners for each israeli hostage, so that would

be, you know, 90, in the region of 90 or more palestinian prisoners. but jose, diplomats that i've been speaking to over the past days as this truce has solidified and despite fragile moments, moments of great tension continued, they have been talking about the idea that hamas would try and release more people if possible. i do think it's a little bit chaotic in terms of, you know, where the hostages are and which hostage hamas is able to release, and i think that's the kind of reporting that we've heard from family members who have spoken to loved ones who have come out that things are not, you know, not regimented, not fully organized in terms of their experience of being a hostage. my point is i think in the days ahead there may be ten a day, there may be more than that, and we'll have to wait and see. again, we're just learning of this now.

the details aren't clear yet. >> keir simmons in doha for us, thank you so very much. appreciate it. up next, continuing our breaking details in the last hour, about the man suspected of shooting three college students of palestinian descent in vermont over the weekend. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. n. g this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon.

we are following more

breaking news, the suspect arrested in saturday night's shooting was arraigned on three counts in a vermont courtroom. he pleaded not guilty. and we are expecting an update from police at the top of the next hour. nbc's george solis joins us from burlington, vermont. george, good morning. what are authorities telling you is going on? >> reporter: yeah, jose, apart from pleads not guilty, he's also being held without bail, bail hearing will be set at a later time. we got our hands on the court documents sort of detailing some of the investigation and what led to his eventual capture. pretty harrowing details. according to the court documents, the atf once they had the probable probable cause to search his home, they found him in his apartment to which he replied i've been waiting for him. he was asked to identify himself. he did mention there might be another weapon in the house. authorities asking if there were other guns and refusing to speak

up. in the end after that search warrant was executed they found a 380 ruger, a 22 rifle and a shotgun, again, this is all according to the court documents. as far as the three college students, we know two of them are u.s. citizens, one is a legal resident. according to these documents, one of them sustained a bullet wound to the spine, and it's my understanding that we were actually able to -- our colleagues overseas were able to speak with hisham awartani, his mother who opened up about the injuries his son faces and his lengthy road to recovery. >> hisham the prognosis, is it's very likely he won't be able to walk again. he has something called an incomplete spinal injury. i feel -- i feel empty inside. just this knowledge that there was something that happened to my son that i can't -- i mean, he's my baby. there was no reason for this man to approach them. there's no reason for him to try and kill them, i mean,

essentially, it's a miracle they're all alive. >> reporter: plenty to go through to see what else authorities learned about this individual. again, as you mentioned, the mayor and the police are expecting to hold a news conference at noon. again, the family members and many in this community are hoping that this investigation does indeed turn into that hate crime investigation for the shooting of these three college students. jose. >> george solis in burlington, thank you so much. appreciate it. up next, both hamas, israel, the united states is also suggesting they're open to extending the pause in fighting, and appears as though it is a- what needs to happen to make that a reality. you're watching josé diaz-balart reports on msnbc. you're watchiét reports on msnbc iphone in any condition into a new iphone 15 pro with titanium and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. only on verizon. when you're ready to begin treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia,

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46 past the hour, we county to follow the latest developments from the middle east where we wait for another round of israeli hostages to be released from gaza, this in exchange for palestinian prisoners. this as qatar's foreign ministry said the pause in fighting that paved the way for the hostage and prisoner releases will be extended for another two days, white house confirming that minutes ago. with us now israeli defense forces spokesperson lieutenant colonel peter lerner. thank you very much for being with us today. can you confirm that on the

israeli side there is an agreement to extend this pause for two days? >> no, jose, we're waiting for an announcement if this is indeed the case. of course the idf will receive its instructions from the government and continue to hold its fire and maintain the defensive posture. we are currently organizing and preparing for hostage release for today like we have in the last three days, and i would say that this is another situation where israel is once again sitting in front of televisions holding its breath in anticipation to see our hostages come home. this is the situation we are currently in, and it is a very challenging and very extreme period throughout the few days that we have the experience over the last -- since the war broke out. >> we're coming up on 6:47 p.m. your time, the hostages, at least today's hostages have not been let go yet as of now. when do you expect this to

happen? >> so it isn't over until it's over, jose. this is the problem. hamas have their own way of conducting themselves, and we are watching very cautiously and carefully. we want to bring the hostages home. we want to bring every last one of them home, and this is why we are in this pause, this operational pause in order to enable that. our war effort has two goals, to bring the hostages home on one hand and to dismanhattan and will -- dismantle hamas on the other. this is part of the framework of the operational pause and those are the conditions that we expect the hostages to be released. >> but if you do the math and you say let's say that these extensions go for another 48 hours, the math shows that in that period of time, you're not

going to be able to get -- or you will probably not get the totality of the men, women, and children. there are newborns almost being held by hamas. it seems as though no math shows that as a possibility, so just wondering what do you do going forward? >> jose, this is exactly the situation, the framework dictates exactly what we expect ten hostages per day for a day of holding our fire. the idf is currently in preparations to mobilize, to reengage hamas because we understand exactly create a new reality of security and safety. so we are i would say very thankful for all the support of president biden and are listening attentively to what the president is expecting from us to continue humanitarian aid. the president is saying we have

to bring home the hostages and that is what we are currently involved in. making sure the hostages come home safe and sound. this is our primary concern at this stage. but indeed, we are preparing ourselves for future mobilization. >> lieutenant colonel, yesterday, the 4-year-old israeli american girl was released. she turned four in the hands of the people who killed her mother and then killed her father in front of her. she ran to a neighbor's house before she was taken hostage. this was a 3-year-old girl at the time. president biden said what she went through was unthinkable. what are your thoughts, lieutenant colonel, on negotiating with the people responsible for this and so many other atrocities? >> unfathomable is the experience that israel has been enduring since the 7th of october. a reality that we never

expected. a reality where us as the idf failed the people of southern israel. a reality that we can never let happen again. the task at hand is what we are focusing on currently. bringing the hostages home safe and sound and doing that either with diplomacy or with idf forces and changing the paradigm so that it can never, ever be a reality of israelis in the south or wherever they are ever again. so, indeed, it is a huge challenge what you're describing but the idf is boots on the ground, focused very much on achieving its goal of bringing ever last one of the hostages home and making sure hamas never wields the power of death, the sword of death, and that they can never use it against our people ever again.

>> lieutenant colonel, thank you very much for being with us. really appreciate your time. >> thank you. good day. >> as we await the release of more hostages, we'll talk to a retired fbi agent about hostage negotiation. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msnbc. iaz-balart reports onsn mbc lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. delicious too. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who's winning? we are, my friend. we are.

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the white house told nbc news an agreement has been reached to extend for two more days. joining us now, retired agent who trained in israel and has firsthand knowledge about hamas. carl, thank you for being with us this morning. what goes into negotiations to make something like this extension of the pause possible? >> yeah, good morning, jose. this is an incredibly difficult process. typically because there's no trust between hamas and the israelis. they're not talking to each other directly and so for that reason, they need a third party intermediary. that role has been mainly filled by the government of qatar. so all those conversations are having to go through qatar to relay the messages back and forth. that greatly complicate things and slows the process down.

>> i want to focus your attention on the hostages. what's the level of preparation that goes into these high stakes exchanges and the moment they've been living through, just unimaginable abuse and trauma. what goes into the process of having them transferred, et cetera, and finally released? >> yeah, so these people have been through unimaginable horror. it would be like something out of a hollywood movie, what these people have seen. it's going to be a little bit of a different process for each person because of the different kinds of people. we have seen those heartwarming images of the child, abigail. you wonder, is she know her parents were killed? did she see that? it's going to be to have a delicate process. reaching the deal is just the first step of the negotiation. the hardest part is the implementation of that negotiation deal has been

reached. so in this case, the red cross is being used to facilitate the transfer and as we're seeing today, this could go off the rails at any moment. this is a v delicate process. every moment, it's just day by day kind of holding the breath to see if this is going to be implemented because all it takes is for one person, one hamas fighter to decide he's going to shoot a guo sothing to derail the process. so it's extremely delicate. i'm heartened to see there's a frameworkutur negotiations and leases the next couple of days. >> so what is it you are most worried or concerned about? >> what worries me is that you have somebody that decides ewan laterally they're going to try to derail the negotiations and the deal. maybe you have somebody who's upset in gaza that the family

has been killed then decides to take some unilateral action to start shooting at the israelis. it wouldn't take much for this truce to come to an end and for the shooting to resume. that's going to be the toughest part. can hamas control all of its people because there are other parties involved including the palestinians and jihad. >> carl, thank you very much for being with us this morning. really appreciate your time. that wraps up the hour for me. you can always reach me on social media at jd balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news now. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the hostage rescues and war are at a critical moment with the white house and hamas officials saying a deal has been reached to extend the truce by two more days, raising new hopes for families of hostages fearing