she will speak to president biden's top middle east advisor, brett mcgurk. that starts right now. >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," israel and hamas, with crucial support from the u.s. and qatar, agreeing to a phased release of 50 hostages in exchange for a pause in the war and 150 palestinians held in israeli jails. that pause in hostilities a critical demand by the white house to permit the delivery of more fuel and other humanitarian aid. >> really now the ball is in hamas' court. if hamas has any care or concern for continuing a pause in the hostilities and any sense of responsibility, it will continue to release hostages and this pause can continue. >> the agreement calls for more hostages to be released depending on whether the pause in fighting holds. the first hostages expected to come out tomorrow. there will be ten women and children believed to include american 3-year-old aigail, a day before her 4th birthday. with me one of the key negotiators for the u.s. >>> a live report from rome where pope francis met with families of some of the i

now president biden's senior middle east advisor brett mcgurk will be traveling to the region to focus on efforts to release them. they came in their thousands chanting "now, now." israelis demanding the immediate release of the nearly 240 loved ones abducted by hamas on october 7th. a reminder, when it comes to pain, there are no winners. after more than five weeks of war. in gaza city, fierce street to street battles around several hospitals, including the largest, al shifa, now a front line. hollow-eyed doctors and nurses work in torchlight in a health system that is on its knees. no medicine, no beds. this little boy struggling to breathe. treated on the floor where he lay. our colleague, cbs producer marwan al ghoul, in gaza spoke to a doctor inside al shifa hospital. >> who told me the smell of death is everywhere in the hospitals. they don't know where to bury those brothers. the administrations of the hospital attempted to dig mass graves. >> reporter: the doctors here pledge to save lives but fear nobody will make it out alive. already at least three babies relying on incubato

there's no guarantee that any of this is going to succeed, but brett mcgurk is going to travel thereo try. this all comes out as this administration is trying to weigh its support with israel, and its growing concerns about how israel is carrying out this war in particular. there are concerns, officials tell me, that is reeling is not doing enough to try to minimize civilian casualties. there are officials that don't believe that israel cares that the israeli government cares, that public opinion is turning against them and it all comes as conversations, i am told, between israeli officials and u.s. officials are getting increasingly testy and at the same time we are told that there's no change in the strategy that the administration will stand with israel and it will continue to give them the support it needs. he's given things like pauses and humanitarian aid. >> such great reporting. and, jeh, it gets me to my next point because you heard prime minister netanyahu's defiance when i pressed him on this, that there are protests all around the world calling for a cease-fire and an end

she will speak to president biden's top middle east advisor, brett mcgurk.ight now on "andrea mitchell reports," israel and hamas, with crucial support from the u.s. and qatar, agreeing to a phased release of 50 hostages in exchange for a pause in

. >> reporter: brett mcgurk was part of the u.s. team that helped broker the deal alongside qatar and egypt. president biden saying he won't stop until all american hostages are freed. >> we structured this deal in a way that incentivizes the release of all hostages. >> reporter: israeli american galiam mizrahi has heard her cousins and mother could be among the first group released. >> we're lucky, god willing, but it has to be everyone, at the end of the day. >> reporter: the agreement also allows for 300 to 400 trucks of aid per day to enter gaza, including fuel, to ease the humanitarian crisis. israeli citizens had 24 hours to appeal the release of those palestinian prisoners being exchanged for the hostages. we know one appeal was already rejected by the israeli supreme court, keeping the deal on track, at least for now. >> thank you, alice. >>> in union city, volunteers are writing letters of peace and unity to bay area israeli and palestinian families impacted. the effort is under way at veterans park. they're asking members

was uh has been um said revealed in the news here and there, but last week uh when you had the brett mcgurk which is the uh the white house's middle east envoy uh he said the news said that uh he was notified of uh israel's decision uh of these um i guess international forces to be deployed after uh the war, does that mean that uh israel what does that mean if israel is content to have a national forces there um and again umdan has rejected that obviously the palestinians are not going to accept foreign occupation in another form, all these international forces that they are talking about, i think we can go back to 1983 or 1982 in lebanon when for so-called peacekeeping, international peacekeeping forces were installed there, they were essentially there to protect the interest of the zionist occupation forces. "the palestinians have struggled very valiantly against enormous odds, and what they have achieved is absolutely astounding, and in no way are the are they going to allow any international forces to occupy their territory, it is their decision, nobody can impose it upon them, i mean,

those hostages were kidnapped by hamas, and now president biden's senior middle east adviser, brett mcgurkwill be traveling to the region this week to focus on efforts to release them. they came in their thousands, chanting "now, now." israelis demanding the immediate release of the nearly 240 loved ones abducted by hamas on october 7th. a reminder when it comes to pain, there are no winners. after more than five weeks of war. in gaza city, fierce street-to-street battles around several hospitals, including the largest, al shifa, now a front line. hollow-eyed doctors and nurses work in torchlight in a health system that is on its knees. no medicine, no beds. this little boy struggling to breathe, treated on the floor where he lay. our colleague, cbs producer marwan al ghoul spoke to a doctor inside al shifa hospital. >> who told me that smell of death everywhere in the hospitals. they don't know where to bury those bodies. the administrations of the hospital attempted to dig mass grave. >> reporter: the doctors here pledged to save lives but fear nobody will make it out alive. already at l

and that came to points where we saw brett mcgurk, you know, president biden's top official for the middle east, here on the ground multiple times, in qatar multiple times, which has been where officials have been mediating between israel and hamas. at one point a little over a week ago he was on the ground in israel and as they were leaving a meeting prime minister benjamin netanyahu grabbed his arm and said he really needed to get a deal done. he was facing an immense amount of pressure from the family members, the loved ones of the hostages here in tel aviv and jerusalem, all over israel, to bring their loved ones home. they didn't care how. they just wanted them to get home. now we will start to see some of that. of course, a lot of these families are waiting to learn more about whether or not their loved ones will be included in this initial group of 50. clarissa ward is here in tel aviv where the families of the hostages have been gathering in what has informally and tragically been known as hostage square. a meeting group for a lot of these families. i know earlier you said that som

but also some of this other top officials, including national security advisor jake sullivan, brett mcgurkcia director bill burns intimately involved. some of the phone calls, we are told were so sensitive at the time that we didn't get a readout of the calls in real time. i think we are beginning to see a better picture of why all along, all throughout this process, officials have been so emphatic that they really just were not even willing to get their hopes up because they did think that things could break down at any moment. >> it gives you the sense of how many peoples were involved, even on the u.s. side, before you get to the multiple countries here. thank you so much. >>> so many families are holding their collective breath right now to see if their loved ones are among those who will be released, especially families of the youngest victims here, the 30 plus children believed kidnapped and held hostage by hamas. among them is a 3-year-old, the youngest american hostage. her great aunt and cousin spoke to cnn this morning. >> we talk about it. it's easy to understand what a 3-year-o

officials including brett mcgurk who is deeply involved not only here in israel and also in qatar since all of the talks have been happening. at one point the feeling behind needing to get a deal done was so intense that the prime minister grabbed mcgurk by the arm and said he needed to get a deal done. and that happened over a week or so ago. what happened before then and since then were a lot of moments where officials felt like they had gotten really close only to then have the outlines of an agreement fall apart. there was a point after israel took over the al-shifa hospital that hamas kind of went dark on the talks, these discussions that were going back and forth with officials in qatar. but then things seemed to get back on track. so that is what we're expecting to happen. there is a lot of intensive work behind the kreens. clarissa ward is also here on the ground in tel aviv. she's here where families of the hostages who were so desperately waiting on word of their family members have been gathering what is known as hostage square. i imagine there is a lot of hope but also anxie

a deputy of the national security advisor coordinator for middle east affairs, brett mcgurk, along with an attorney for the national security council as well, engaged on starting to work on this process of getting hostages released. for more than 40 days, almost daily, if not daily, there were constant phone calls between the qataris and these officials within the biden administration to work on the details of a deal to get hostages released, including the secretary of state, antony blinken a part of the process, having gone to the middle east several times over the last few weeks. we know that at a point after those two americans were initially released, several weeks after this all started, that was sort of proof that this could work, that there was a process that would allow for the release of hostages, the safe release of hostages. at that point, the israelis appointed the head of their intelligence agency to really start working in ernest on the details of a deal to get hostages released. the director of the cia was brought in to work with his counterpart in israel to make this hap

another fellow we worked with extensively who has been at the center is brett mcgurk, the white houseare going on 100 times a day. part of the problem is -- one reason for the pause is, it's not like you can just go knock on the door of the hamas office in gaza and say, can you just give me a list of the hostages? they don't necessarily know where everybody is. they are being bombed day at night. there's been reports that islamic jihad, for example, has some hostages, that maybe war warlords or criminals have hostages. even the people you are negotiating with on the ground are not necessarily able to give you the kind the information you need to make a deal, which is more the reason that the deal is a qualified success so far. it's a great first step as david said. >> extremely tenuous. ben, i think we all understand what this means for the families of the hostages who are watching this unfold. talk to us about palestinians in gaza who are in desperate need of that aid, that could be headed their way, who are in need of the minor reprieve from the fighting. what will this deal mean fo

nbc news has learned that president biden's top middle east adviser, brett mcgurk is scheduled to travelident biden say has been key in the hostage negotiations. we'll stay on that. a quick break for us. we'll be right back. k for us we'll be right back. can this be treated? stop typing. start talking to a specialized urologist. because it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve in the erection, caused by a formation of scar tissue. and an estimated 1 in 10 men may have it. but pd can be treated even without surgery. say goodbye to searching online. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today. -dad, what's with your toenail? and build a treatment plan with you. -oh, that...? i'm not sure... -it's a nail fungus infection. -...that's gross! -it's nothing, really... -it's contagious. you can even spread it to other people. -mom, come here! -don't worry about it. it'll go away on its own! -no, it won't go away on its own. it's an infection. you need a prescription. nail fungus is

you have obviously blinken, sullivan, bill burns, brett mcgurk, everybody fans out across the middleg success, keeping this process moving forward. but talk about the ongoing frustration that the biden administration has with netanyahu, the ongoing frustration about biden's hope -- president biden's hope that we can see an extension of this cease-fire, and if biden does resume again, when fighting does resume again, the israelis taking much more targeted approach. talk about the frustration the biden administration has right now about the fact that they still have fears there may be more casualties ahead if the israelis don't focus their attacks more carefully. >> first as you mentioned, all of the officials fanning out throughout the region, the president himself spending the weekend on phones this past holiday weekend. he spent the day in nantucket. it looked like the hostags wouldn't be exchanged that day. he got on the phone with qatar and israel and got that issue resolved. he has been talking to prime minister benjamin netanyahu throughout this crisis and certainly skplesed to