this morning, nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian. nielle, where are you and what's the latest on the ground right now? >> yeah. good afternoon to you, ali. we're in a place called beitunia in the west bank. and behind me is the drop off location where the palestinian prisoners will be dropped off by bus. ofer prison, which is where many of people here are held, is behind that white van. you can't you can't really see it. i'm going to turn around the camera. these are the family members of the prisoners who have been waiting here all afternoon. they'll be waiting all evening to be reunited with the prisoners who are going to be released. 90 in all, 69 women and 21 children, most of them from the west bank. and they are the first batch of prisoners released in exchange for the first three hostages. now, it's unclear how many of them were detained in what's called administrative detention, which is a law that dates back to 1945. before israel was even created. it was it was used under the british mandate of palestine. and prisoners are h

nbc's danielle hamamdjian in beitunia in the west bank. danielle, what's the situation where you are? >> well, we're still waiting for the prisoners to be dropped off by bus. we've moved a little bit from our previous location because we saw some preparation for some rock throwing. put it that way, they were starting to break up some pieces of stone and rock. so we've moved down here. there's a big presence of medics here because i think they're getting ready. they're expecting perhaps a confrontation between the young men here in the community and idf soldiers. but it is for now, quiet, although a bit chaotic and noisy. i was asking some of the people here why they came. and they said, and i quote to you, we're here to stand with our country. and they'll tell you that they have known other men, young men over the years who were arrested, whether it was because of a social media post, because it was throwing rocks, which is the number one alleged offense for incarceration of children, i should point out, according to save the children, the

nbc's daniele hamamdjian has the latest from tel aviv. well, one can only imagine what it was like waking up this morning for the parents of these three hostages, not only knowing that they were alive, something they didn't know for 470 days, but to finally be able to hold them and over to gaza for the first time in a very long time. the skies over the gaza strip are clear and quiet. no sound of israeli drones or jets. how long will this last? nobody really knows. but for now, the focus is to take it an hour at a time, a day at a time. those hostages were released and reunited with their families, and very emotional pictures beamed around the world. the medical staff here knew how to prepare, given that they've been through this before, back in november 2023. but they didn't know exactly what to expect and what we saw, certainly at a distance and on the surface, is that these women were doing relatively well on their feet. smiling. of course, there will be further tests done. there are psychological implications here. after so much time i

daniele hamamdjian, nbc news, tel aviv. back here in california, the state is getting a passing grade on how well it prioritizes climate change. the group, called california environmental voters, released its environmental scorecard. today. it basically grades state governments on their actions to comb climate change and help the environment based on actions. in 2024, california got a b, an 84% to be exact. we got an 86% in 2023. major wins for the state include climate bills that put caps on oil wells and building electrification. as concerning as the massive weather shifts and the hot temperatures have been in 100 years, unless we radically change course, we are going to look back and say that these weather patterns in the 2020s were unusually benign and the temperatures were unusually cool. and so these are going to be the good old days unless we change course. something that we've been covering here. jeff and his team, california environmental voters, knocked california down because of cuts to the climate budget and how

joining me now from tel aviv is nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian. daniele, good afternoon to you. in israel, we know the cease fire is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. your time. that's 1:30 a.m. tonight. our time in eastern time. we expect the first round of hostages to be released. the timing and the details remain unclear. what do you know about what's. what's going to happen in the next 14 or 15 hours? >> well, according to the israeli government, the hostages will not be released before 4 p.m. local time here, 10 a.m. eastern. >> but this is all very fluid, ali. and it's always changing by the hour. but for now, that is the schedule that they have on paper. we will see on day one tomorrow. three hostages released. we understand that they are women. it's unclear if they are female soldiers or civilians. what we do know is that for every hostage, civilian released, 30 palestinian prisoners will be released. if it's a soldier alive, 50 palestinian prisoners will be released. and so that is the ratio that we are looking at for the next six weeks. who are t

joining us now from tel aviv is nbc's daniele hamamdjian. we know about these discussions? >> well. >> they were always scheduled to start next week. according to the terms of the deal, we still have more than four weeks to go until the end of the first deal, and by then we should see the release of all living children. hostages were women, children and the elderly. there's so much still to be worked out when it comes to phase two. we should see the full withdrawal of israeli forces. we should see the release of all living hostages, including the male captives, in exchange for some high profile palestinian prisoners. the great unknown here, jose, is the day after plan which needs the approval and the support of both hamas and israel. keep in mind that there is some loud voices within benjamin netanyahu's fragile coalition government. who wants the fighting to resume at the end of the first phase, even if it means sacrificing the lives of a few more hostages? >> and danielle, i know you traveled to the occupied west bank today after president

joining us now live from israel nbc news correspondent daniele hamamdjian. >> daniele, good morning tost bring us up to date on the latest. >> well, just in the past ten minutes we have started to see social media posts circulating, showing the red cross on its way to pick up those three hostages. were not expecting to hear any official comment from the red cross. they've said they will not be commenting on operations, but things seem to be going according to schedule, which i can tell you. in the past week, nothing has gone according to schedule. things have been changing every hour. it's been so fluid. but israeli officials have said that the israeli hostages would not be released before 4 p.m. local time. it is just now past 4 p.m. local time and we are seeing now, according to social media, the red cross on its way to pick up those three hostages. it's a moment so many thought would just never come. after 15 months. it was supposed to start at six 830 local time here this morning. but israeli officials said that they had not received the name of those three hostages that michael ju

joining us now, nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian. a welcome suggestion from president trump? >> well, the. palestinians have. >> a painful. >> history of. >> forced displacement. and you will ask. >> any of them. >> and they'll likely. >> say something along the lines. of that rather die on. >> palestinian soil. >> than be. >> forced to leave it. >> they'd rather. die in. gaza than. >> be forced to leave it. the idea was flatly rejected by egypt and jordan, by the arab league. that said, it was. tantamount to ethnic cleansing. >> the only. >> support. >> really public support. >> so far is by the far right. ministers here. in israel. >> i mean, when you. >> look at those pictures. >> the ability to return home is not something. >> you usually. >> associate with palestinians. >> and we saw. >> them over the weekend. >> in the. tens of. >> thousands waiting to return. >> they had sold. >> the tents that they were sleeping in in the south. >> and. >> they were. >> waiting with their bags. with whatever had survived. >> 16 months. and th

joining me now from hostage square in tel aviv is nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian has been a busy and long day in tel aviv. a great deal of jubilation earlier, the red cross says the hostage exchange was a success. however, there is a wrinkle that you and i were talking about when this was happening this morning. israel says hamas has broken a promise, saying that they were supposed to release civilians first and then soldiers. israel says there's a woman named arbel yahud. she's 29 years old. israel says she's a civilian. palestinian islamic jihad says they're holding her, says she's a soldier. what's the issue here? >> well, the issue is that israel is accusing hamas of breaching the terms of the deal. therefore, the hundreds of thousands of displaced who were supposed to be going back to northern gaza today are still waiting at the intersection of the netzarim corridor and salahadin in gaza. the netzarim corridor runs east to west, splitting gaza in half. the salah al-din highway is the main highway, the main road in gaza, running north to south. and so you've g

joining me now from hostage square in tel aviv is nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjianing. what's happening now for you? it was pretty noisy where you were earlier. it was right as that helicopter was landing and those hostages were were getting off at the hospital north of where you were in petah tikva. tell me what the situation has been, both where you are and in the west bank, because i know you're keeping in touch with folks there to see how that's going on. >> yeah. well, good evening to you from tel. >> aviv, ali. >> it's pretty quiet behind me. >> as. >> you can see, but we're expecting quite a big gathering tonight, as has been the case every saturday night for 477 days now. you mentioned the four soldiers in that very choreographed handover. they waved to the crowd on stage in gaza city, smiling, hand it over to the red cross, who then hand it over to israeli forces. they are now being medically assessed. they've been reunited with their families, but certainly at a distance they look well. these were women who were part of the surveillance unit at the nahal o

and joining us now from jerusalem is nbc's daniele hamamdjian. man who was just released by israel as part of the hostage deal. what did you learn from her? >> good evening. >> from jerusalem, jose. >> well. >> after. >> 13 months. >> and. >> 20 days. >> she had a lot to say. >> her name is janine amaral. she's 23 years old, and she was an agricultural engineering student. her dream is to open a plant shop. it was an emotional reunion on sunday night. you can see the pictures there as they were released from prison and dropped off by bus. the families were waiting for hours. the last time the family saw her was on december 3rd, 2023. the idf barged in in the middle of the night with guns pointing at her and took her away. israel says she is a terrorist. you put that question to her and she shrugs her shoulders and she says she has absolutely no idea why. we spoke to her lawyer, who says he was never given any evidence. she was never charged, never tried. and that is called administrative detention. and that was the case for so many of the detainee

. >> joining us now from jerusalem is nbc's daniele hamamdjian. vening ali. >> who else. >> will be released. >> alongside her? well, we have. >> karina. >> ari, daniella. gilboa. naama levy and lili alba. >> all four, we are told by. >> hamas political official in doha. >> are alive. >> this has been confirmed. >> to us in. the past hour. >> all four, of course, were. female soldiers at the surveillance unit at. >> the nahal. >> oz military base. >> now, it's also. >> been confirmed. >> to us that in. >> exchange for. those female soldiers and remember that israeli officials had been saying all along leading up to the ceasefire deal that they knew. >> they. >> would have to pay a heavy price for those female soldiers. and that price is the release of prisoners serving life sentences. >> in all. >> we're going to see 200 palestinian prisoners released. >> tomorrow, among them. >> 80 serving long sentences. >> and 120. >> serving life sentences. and as we understand it. >> they. >> will not be released into the west bank. >> they will. >> be release

joining us now live from israel is nbc news correspondent daniele hamamdjian. danielle, what can you tell us about what happened this morning? why there was a delay. and then what do we know about the hostages that are set to be released? >> yeah. good morning to you. it's a moment so many thought would just never come. but here we are. and the cease fire is in effect now. but as you mentioned, it was supposed to happen earlier this morning at 830 local time. it did not, because israeli authorities say that they were not given by hamas, the name of the three hostages to be released today. and as part of the agreement, as part of the terms, they are meant to be given those names 24 hours before the release of the hostages. hamas replied that they were, quote, technical field operations issues, whether that means that they had issues relaying, communicating the names of the hostages, we don't know. but what we do know that three hours went by and the cease fire was in effect. but during those three hours, according. to the civil defense, three at least 19 people m

daniele hamamdjian, nbc news, tel aviv. >> danielle, thank you for that. and florida governor ron desantis just picked his attorney general to fill marco rubio's coveted senate seat. let me bring in nbc senior politics, national politics reporter matt dixon. what do we know about ashley moody? it's not a name that's probably familiar to many of our viewers. >> chris. well, the top line is she said she's going to be a vote for the america first agenda. so she's going to washington to be a trump vote. >> and that was a key messaging today when they rolled her out. she's been attorney general here in florida since 2018. she won her first race in her second reelection race overwhelmingly. she was very popular here. >> and during her time as attorney general, she's really sort of been ron desantis legal sort of attack dog. >> the offices are technically separate, unlike the federal government. >> the attorney general here in florida is elected, but she has taken on the federal government and the biden administration on things like immigration, things like the c

joining me now is nbc's daniele hamamdjian in tel aviv. daniele, good to see you. brand new reporting about arbel. yehuda, the hostage that israel wants released. you and i talked a bit about this yesterday. do we know what her status is, who's holding her and what's supposed to happen next? >> well, the understanding. >> is that islamic jihad is holding her. and in the past few minutes, an informed source with islamic jihad has confirmed to nbc news that 29 year old arbel yahud is alive. she is in good condition and she will be released before next saturday, the third round of hostages for prisoner swap. this would be a midweek hostage release, which is not part of the terms of the deal. and the deputy head of islamic jihad is also quoted as telling al jazeera in the past few hours that in exchange for yahud, 30 palestinian prisoners would be released. as you know, there was confusion as to the status of the her status. islamic jihad had argued that she was in fact a soldier, not a civilian, and that they should be getting 50 palestinian prisoners in exchange for

daniele hamamdjian, nbc news, tel aviv. closer to home, the south bay working to provide some relief for the homeless. city of san jose and valley water leaders are at cherry avenue right now. together, they're breaking ground for the city's newest housing project. they're building an interim housing site for 136 homeless. it's near sanchez drive, 85 and almaden expressway. san jose's mayor says this housing project will help those living nearby. the first homeless neighbors to be offered housing at this site will be folks already encamped in the surrounding area. after offering housing to everyone in the area multiple times, we will decommission those encampments, clean up the area and install a water resource protection zone. it's been a big goal of san jose mayor matt mahan. he says this year, the city will open an additional 1000 interim housing units for the homeless. and i have to say, it's hard not to think about the homeless, especially with these really cold temperatures that we've been having overnight. absolutely

. >> joining us now, nbc's daniele hamamdjian from tel aviv. s, joel rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state, president of washington strategy and democratic strategist at democracy partners. so, danielle, what's the sense there on the ground? i mean, this release, it was so necessary, so needed for three people. but there are so many more that need to get out. >> that's right. 30 people, more than 30 people in the next hostage for prisoner exchange is expected to happen this coming saturday for women we understand will be released among them, according to israeli media, will be female idf soldiers. >> now going back to what president trump said of whether or not he thinks this is going to hold, you might know something that we don't. all i can tell you is what the un said today, that it has been a good 48 hours, that things have gone relatively smoothly, and that there's been significant progress in getting aid into the gaza strip. and just to give you an idea, in the past several months, the daily average count of trucks going in wit

nbc's daniele hamamdjian is reporting from tel aviv's hostage square. also with us, nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander and aaron david miller is a former arab-israeli negotiator and senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. daniele. the announcement of this deal was met with jubilation and some cautious optimism as well, depending on whether you're in gaza or israel. but the truce is still not official. so what do we know about the hold up? >> of the story? well, you're right, it's absolutely fragile. this truce and what we know well, what one israeli official said was that there were a number of issues. among them were the identities, the names of the palestinians to be released. now, of course, in exchange for the hostages who will be returning to israel, israel will be releasing a number of palestinian prisoners, hundreds of them, and some of them are high profile palestinian convicts, murderers, people israel describes as having blood on their hands. so according to israelis, that was one of the issues. now,

joining us now, daniele hamamdjian in tel aviv. what do we know about what's in this potential deal? and frankly, what's different this time around? >> reporter: there are a number of things that are different, hamas is increasingly isolated. israel struck a deal with hezbollah which means there's a cease fire there. iran is weakened. the assad regime has been toppled. and so hamafinds itself in a situation where it's looking at the deal on the table and thinking is it going to get better or worse under a trump administration. and it's likely thinking this is probably as good as it's going to get. and so that's why we're seeing this impetus in the sense of urgency now. all sides have indicated that there's been significant progress. we're not there yet. but there has been progress according to two u.s. officials who are very close to the negotiations, the first hostages could be released within 48 hours of a deal being announced. this evening, there was a briefing by a senior israeli official to military correspondents, here in isr

nbc's daniele hamamdjian is in tel aviv for us. ore are we learning about phase two of this deal and what's left of phase one? yeah, well. >> there's. >> still about. >> four more weeks to go until. >> the end of phase. >> one, and by then we. >> should see. >> all living hostages. all living. forgive me. children, women and elderly released. >> so much. >> still needs. >> to be. >> worked out when. >> it comes. >> to. >> phase two. this is. >> still very. >> vague by then. or the. >> plan for phase. >> two would. >> see the full. >> withdrawal of israeli. >> forces. the release of all living hostages. including the male captives. >> in exchange. >> for some high. >> profile palestinian prisoners. >> the great. >> unknown. >> here. >> anna, is the day after. >> plan one that needs. >> the support. >> and approval. >> of both sides. hamas and israel. but there are some loud voices. >> within benjamin. >> netanyahu's fragile coalition. government who want the fighting to resume at the end of the first phase, even if it means sacrifici

. >> let's bring in nbc's daniele hamamdjian, who is in tel aviv's hostage square. think, as richard just pointed out, there are many israelis who wanted this to end, who want to see the return of the hostages, who want to see the families who have lost loved ones to be able to have the remains of their loved ones brought back. but i wonder what you're seeing and what you're hearing on the ground there from people who are out at almost 10:00 at night there in tel aviv. >> yeah, well, this is hostage square, which has been ground zero really, for the family members of the hostages. and you can see behind me photographs of the hostages. bring them home. now, that's the slogan that you can see all over the city of tel aviv. and there are tents in the back. it was set up in the early days for the family members, and they have been there ever since. but i have to say it is fairly empty here tonight. i mean, one woman came up to us and said, i ran here as soon as i heard, but where is everybody? and the answer is, is that there is no, as richard said, there's it's too ear

. >> joining us now, nbc's daniele hamamdjian from tel aviv, ambassador alon pinkas, former israeli consul general in new york. miri eisin, senior fellow at reichman university's international institute for counterterrorism and former israeli government spokesperson and a retired fbi colonel. and major john spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at west point's modern war institute and a retired army officer. so, danielle, what's the latest on this latest hurdle? >> well, the israeli government hasn't clarified or provided any clarification on what exactly this issue is. but a senior israeli government official tells me that among the new demands made by hamas, the issue of the prisoners, the palestinian prisoners, and as you've mentioned, there will be many palestinians released in exchange for the hostages. it's in the hundreds, possibly way over 1000. there will be women and children who've been arrested in the past year. i should point out, jose, that since october 7th, thousands of palestinians in the west bank have been arrested, many of them held in what's called administrative det

nbc's daniele hamamdjian is reporting from tel aviv. and i understand we have some new information on just how many people have returned to northern gaza so far. the pictures we've been seeing, the video, it's extraordinary. >> it is. extraordinary for. >> people who will remind you that they have a. >> painful history of forced displacement. >> we were talking about thousands. >> tens. >> of thousands going back today. the latest official. number by the. >> government in gaza. >> suggests that 300,000. >> people displaced returned. >> to northern. gaza today. they've been waiting since. >> saturday at. >> the intersection. of what's. >> called the netzarim border. >> and because, of course, there. was a hiccup in the negotiations in the deal, they had to wait until this morning, but finally. >> they were. >> allowed to go back. >> young people. >> old people carrying nothing and. >> carrying everything. >> which. >> to be frank. >> is not much to begin with. and many will. >> ask, well. >> what are they going back to? in some cases. >>

let's bring in nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian. she's on the ground in tel aviv's hostage square. can you give us a sense of what the celebrations have been like, what the reaction has been like there tonight? yeah. good evening lester. in fact, a woman just came up to us saying she heard the news and she ran here, but she said, where is everybody? why aren't there celebrations? it is quite subdued here. and frankly speaking, the family members of some of the hostages have chosen to stay home. as one person told me at another protest nearby, she said to me, you know, it is disbelief. it is literal disbelief until they see the hostages come back home. so there will be no celebrations. this is hostage square, where obviously you can see the pictures of the hostage, the slogan bring them home now are all over the city of tel aviv. behind me you will see as well some of the tents. the tents were set up for the family members of the hostages in the early days, and they've been there ever since. and over the past 15 months there have bee

israel, little celebration, in tel aviv square where families of hostages usually gather, nbc's daniele hamamdjians there. >> reporter: there are only a few people gathered tonight in hostage square. one family member telling me they want to see all the hostages back before they can celebrate. >> reporter: jimmy miller's cousin and her children, a 10-month-old baby and 4-year-old boy, were kidnapped. >> i will believe to everything when i will see it in my eyes, that it's happening. i will believe it only in the second i see. >> reporter: this latest conflict began on october 7th, when hamas massacred more than 1,200 people in israel and took more than 250 hostages, among them 12 americans. only three are thought to be still alive. two are on the list for phase one release. lester recently spoke to the family of the americans including the sister of 20-year-old edan alexander, who's not on the list. >> so it's been like a year that like my best friend i was growing up with has just been like gone from my life. i'm sorry. >> no, it's okay. >> it's been very difficult. >> reporter: in gaza tonight,

we have daniele hamamdjian in tel aviv with the latest. daniele, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, peter. in less than 24 hours, the skies over gaza will be clear and quiet. no israeli drones or israeli fighter jets. this morning, the qatari government in the cease-fire talks confirming that the cease-fire will begin 8:30 a.m. local time on sunday after the israeli governnt formally approved the cease-fire deal late last night. the first phase of the deal will last six weeks and see a total of 33 hostages released. we're talking women, children, the elderly and sick and wounded. on day one, tomorrow, we expect the return of three hostages. all of them women. the rest will be released on a weekly basis and during this period, we will see the gradual withdrawal of israeli forces from the densely populated areas as well as a surge in desperately needed humanitarian aid in the gaza strip. since the announcement of the cease-fire on wednesday night, the israeli air strikes intensified killing at least 120 people and killing more than 30 c

let's go now to daniele hamamdjian who is in tel aviv. last-minute hurdles to get to this point. >> reporter: good morning, frances. that's right. well, now it's a question of formalities before things get going on the ground. and the security cabinet vote is expected to take place today. in fact, ministers have already started to arrive in jerusalem at the legislature. and so that is step number one now. the next step after that is the government vote, which, according to israeli media should take place tomorrow in person. that's how it would normally happen. in the last few minutes, the minister of interior affairs is asking that this be done over the phone so we can expedite things to get the cease-fire in place, implemented as quickly as possible so that there are no more delays so it can happen on sunday morning. we'll be updating you on that to see if that in fact is going to happen. once the government votes, frances, there will be a list of palestinian prisoners made public. those prisoners will be released in exchange for those h

daniele hamamdjian is in hostage square. ges, because they were soldiers, it's 50 palestinians. so there's 200 palestinians who have been released into ramallah in the west bank. are all of them people who will stay there or are some of them people where the condition is they're going to have to go off to a third country. >> you know. >> depending on the. sentence they were. >> serving, some of them will. >> end up living in exile. possibly egypt, qatar or turkey. 114 out of the 200 have been dropped off in ramallah. 70 of them are expected to go to a third country. >> again. as i say. >> possibly egypt. for now. >> what's unclear to me. >> as you see, we're in. >> tel aviv, where hostages square. what's unclear to me is, you know, what kind of. scenes we're going to see in ramallah. >> and i've got just so you know, danielle, i've got pictures of ramallah right now, actually, we're looking at that right now. so carry on with what you're saying. but i'm just telling our audience we've got now, these are pictures of the palest

nbc's daniele hamamdjian is live in tel aviv this morning with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, peter. this is day seven of the cease fire, and you're right, four more hostages are now back in israel. until the in the past few hours, we saw a large presence of hamas fighters gathered at gaza city, clearly a show of force, claiming they have killed 20,000 hamas operatives in the past 15 months. the four hostages, all four female soldiers were brought on a stage wearing what appeared to be military uniforms. they appeared well. they waved to the crowds, at times ev smiling. and then they were handed over to the red cross, followed by israeli forces. there was no sense of chaos from the images coming out. it all looked, in fact, quite choreographed, a surreal emotional moment for the people gathered here at hostage square in tel aviv. the four women, peter are daniella gilboa, naama levy, karina ariev and liri albag. nbc news was the only international media at the home today. our colleague raf sanchez was there. he says that they were watch

nbc's daniele hamamdjian has more now from jerusalem. yeah. >> good afternoon. >> good evening. >> from jerusalem. >> and we've. just heard from the political branch of hamas in doha. and this this is what. they have published, the names of the four female. >> soldiers to be. >> released tomorrow. they are karina. >> ariel. >> daniella. gilboa. >> naama levi and lira. >> alba. >> who were. >> all four. >> female soldiers, as i've said. but they were part of the. >> surveillance unit at. >> nahal oz base. >> what we have also been. confirmed told by hamas. >> is that in. >> exchange for these. >> four women. >> israel will release. >> a total of 200 prisoners. this has been confirmed. >> to us. >> just in the past five minutes, and. >> 80 of. >> those. >> 200 are serving long sentences, 120 are serving life. >> sentences. >> and therefore. >> they will. >> not be, as we understand it, released. >> into the west. >> bank like. >> we saw. >> last weekend. instead, they will be sent to a third country. it's unclear which one just yet, whether

nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian is in israel. nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander is in washington, also with us, former presidential adviser on the middle east and former ambassador marc ginsberg and former deputy assistant secretary of state joel rubin. >> thank you all for being here. >> daniele, what more do we know about this delay with the israeli cabinet vote and what it means for this agreement? >> well, what it means for this agreement is that if there's a delay in this vote, then the sunday, january 19th cease fire might have to be delayed as well. because don't forget, there is a process that has to take place here in israel. once the cabinet approves it, then israeli citizens have to be given a chance to appeal the release of certain palestinian prisoners at the supreme court. that takes about 48 hours. so this still has to be factored in after if and when this vote goes ahead within cabinet. this is hostage square. and as you can see, there aren't that many people here. but the forum for the relativ

daniele hamamdjian, thank you very much. ayman mohyeldin and aaron david miller are still with me.hat we get far enough into this deal. and it's very much a big if. to get to the reconstruction phase of gaza. that's phase three. and the who is in charge of gaza, after all is said and done. ayman, you and i were talking about this during the break. is there a leader i know the pa wants to be in charge of gaza? is there a leader that is out there that could unite the palestinian people, both in the west bank and in gaza? >> there isn't one right now that comes to mind. that would have the kind of credibility that is immediately needed, right? there's always there's always a few names that are bounced around. some are in israeli prisons, some that are not in the palestinian authority, in the west bank, technocrats and people of that type. but in order to have any kind of mechanism that would allow a leader like that to emerge, you are going to have to have some kind of political process or democratic election. we're very far away from that right now. given how badly decimated gaza is,

so let's bring in nbc news international correspondent danielle hamamdjian live from tel aviv danielleind me for what they hope will be a bigger crowd in the next few hours and in the next few days. >> and people are crossing their fingers that this will go ahead. >> but i have to say that the news today, that the votes that were supposed to take place in the morning has now been delayed, has been met with disappointment, but not surprise. i was here yesterday and in fact, we started off our evening in front of the defense ministry where people were protesting. they were emotional. they were sad. they were angry. there was no celebratory mood here. they're angry because they know that this deal was put on the table back in may. but i asked one woman what she thought about the deal and she says, i don't believe it. and she didn't say it out of shock. she said it out of sheer disbelief. that is the sheer distrust in this government. they don't believe that they will go ahead with it. they don't believe until they see the hostages come back to israel. they do not believe that this deal is