Hello from CNN, I'm Joe Beck.

With the five things you need to know for Thursday, August 1st.

We start with some news just in as we were recording this episode.

The US and Russia are carrying out a massive

prisoner swap including a number of Americans. That's according to sources

familiar with the situation who say Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich and US Marine veteran Paul

Wielen are expected to be part of the swap. Both men were arrested on espionage

charges which they strongly denied and the US government has described them as wrongfully detained.

Wielen had been serving a 16-year sentence

after being detained back in 2018,

while Gerskevich was found guilty just last last month but was arrested more than a year ago.

A senior administration official says the parties have agreed to a prisoner transfer

and that prisoners are expected to be in US custody soon.

We'll have more on this developing story in our 12P episode of five things.

While the assassination of Hamas's political leader is causing a stir in the Middle East, Israel now says it's eliminated the group's

military chief last month.

Mohammed Dafe was leading Hamas's military wing and he's believed to be the architect of the October 7th attacks. his military says they killed him in an air strike on July 13th, but that they received

new intelligence in recent hours that led to them confirming it.

Health officials in Gaza said at the time,

that strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi Displacement camp,

half of whom were women and children. Meanwhile, thousands of whom, were women and children.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in Iran's capital

...