Welcome, it is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. Obviously, many of you are going to be on the road as you're listening to this. Be safe with your family over Thanksgiving, and there is some good news. There is a ceasefire that has been announced. Israel has approved a ceasefire with Hamas. We're being told that 50 hostages are set to be released.

Senator, this is obviously a significant movement. They're saying it would be a five-day ceasefire.

Tell us everything that you know. Well, the Israeli cabinet announced this yesterday, and it is a deal that they have negotiated with

Hamas, that Hamas has committed to releasing 50 hostages, women and children, Israelis that they

captured. And that's reason to celebrate. I have to tell you, I have sat down with multiple

family members of hostages who were taken in Israel, and it is truly horrific.

Over 200 hostages were taken, and every one of them right now is praying that their loved ones, that their wives, their mothers, their daughters, their children are among the 50 that are set to be released.

That is a big deal.

Now, the Israeli War Cabinet debated for five hours about whether to do this, and the reason

they debated for five hours is any time that you are negotiating in exchange for hostages,

you are giving up significant things.

And there are serious downsides to this deal, but the Israeli government has decided it's in their interest to make this deal.

The downsides are as follows, number one, in exchange for the 50 hostages being

released, Israel has apparently committed to releasing 150 Palestinians that are in jail. And according to

terms of the agreement, the Palestinians being released are also women and children.

Now, on the face of it, Israel doesn't take hostages, so these are not civilians that were taken as hostages,

but rather they are criminals who were arrested for committing crimes and presumably crimes directly related to terrorism. And so even though they are described

as children, we have not, as of yet, seen the list of the 150 Palestinians to be released.

And Hamas with regularity uses teenagers, uses 16, 17-year-olds to commit acts of terrorism. So it is entirely possible that among those 150 being released are a number of people who have been terrorists and who upon being released will return to being terrorist fighting with Hamas. We don't know that for sure, but that is a very likely risk.

In addition, under the terms of the agreement, Israel is engaging in a four-day pause in fighting in Gaza.

And so it is stopping. Israel has been making major advances in Gaza working to eliminate

Hamas. The four-day pause is going to give Hamas time to restock, time to rebuild, time to get

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