i'm jane pauley. please join us when our trumpet sounds again next sunday morning. ♪ . i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation" -- pressure on israel for a cease-fire, even a humanitarian pause increases, while the conditions inside the gaza strip continue to deteriorate. israel's efforts to decimate

hamas continue, but the humanitarian situation and escalating palestinian death toll have intensified the protests around the world, as some gazans attempt to flee the hardest hit parts of the region. others struggle to stay alive in areas that are under attack and running out of resources. we'll have reports from the region and we'll speak with white house national security adviser jake sullivan and israeli president isaac herzog. house foreign affairs committee chairman mike mccaul joins us from tel aviv. bright spots for democrats following last week's off year elections. can they win on issues despite an unpopular president? virginia democratic senator mark warner joins us. it's all just ahead on "face the nation."

good morning. welcome to "face the nation." we begin the sixth week following hamas' brutal attack in which 1200 israelis died. that number has dropped from 1400, according to the israeli government, as remains are still being identified. negotiations over releasing the 200 plus hostages continue behind the scenes. publically, it's a war that includes allegations, counter allegations, and disturbing images. we'll continue to do our best to bring you only factual information and context. we want to begin our coverage with deborah patta reporting from east jerusalem. >> reporter: 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, street-to-street battles around several hospitals, including the largest al shifa, now a frontline. doctors and nurses work in torch light in a health system that is on its knees. they came to save lives, but fear that, together with their patients, they could die here. dr. abade sent out this desolate message. >> the situation is very, very bad. we are nearly sure we are alone now. no one can hear us. >> reporter: medical staff once guarantees that around the 600 patients inside can be safely

evacuated. the israeli military has kept up its drumbeat of accusations. hamas, it says, is using the hospital as an operating base, a charge the group denies. palestinians continue to flee southward, but it is a perilous journey. my son was shot dead in the chest, this man sobs. i have to leave his body behind. and when they do reach the south, even as far as rafah, the bombs continue to fall. we're not involved. we don't have fighters in our house, this man weeps. i just operate a donkey cart. this is the true cost of this war. thousands of civilians killed, sometimes with only a number to identify them. men, women, and children, now being buried in nameless mass

graves. and the israeli military says it's opened an evacuation route from the al shifa hospital. for many of the patients there in a critical condition, this is simply not possible. >> our deborah patta. marwan al ghoul filed this report. >> reporter: in gaza city there are more and more civil suffering. it's a matter of die or life in gaza city, as not enough food, not enough electricity, no fuel at all, but if i want to talk about gaza city i have to talk about al shifa hospital. this hospital contains 500 medical beds, but all occupied by injured people and sick as well. the hospital and the courtyards.

i had a call phone with dr. samir al bosh who told me smell of death is everywhere in the hospitals as there are one handed dead bodies in the hospital, but they don't know where to bury those bodies which attempted the administration of the hospital to dig mass grave to bury the bodies over there. dr. samir said that the hospital and doctors cannot apply any services to the injured people, as no fuel, no electricity and everything run out. >> mar juan al ghoul reporting from gaza.

christos christou is president of doctors without borders and joins us now from rome. i understand many of your doctors are working at al shifa hospital and said two infants died due to lack of electricity, the inability to keep incubators on, 40 premature babies that need to evacuate. will the israeli military help these children evacuate? >> so far we don't have any news about any coordinated action by creating at least with the neonatal patients. we don't have any news about evacuation. we see hundreds of patients that have underwent surgery very soon, very recently, and now they cannot just take and walk out of the hospital. next to them, we have newborn babies, premature babies that needed support, supposed to be

in incubators. no incubators doesn't work in al shifa. al shifa doesn't work. >> the prime minister of israel said there's no reason we can't just take the patients out of the hospital. what's your response to that? >> to evacuate a hospital you need time, you need weeks. it's not within 24 hours. an we say that several times in the past also, it takes a lot of organization. flex to this coordination it takes a cease-fire. we have reports that people trying to leave the hospital have been shot down. >> by who? >> accidents. snipers. and we don't know what is happening also sometimes inside the hospital in several places where they are bombed. there are air strikes in the hospital as well. >> the israeli military denies attacking the hospital complex. i know it's a large complex. but they claim that hamas, as you know, has a command center

in that hospital. i realize you are speaking about very sensitive matters, but the lives of your staff are also in danger here. how does this get resolved? >> first of all, we need to understand that the moment inside hospitals are people in need, are patients. our children, we have the acronym, the w.c.n.s.f. wounded children of nonsurviving families. several families that are there and these are patients. we need to understand that and we have to protect the hospitals. any attack in the medical care at the moment is an attack on humanity. >> israel's military is going to go at that hospital if it is indeed hamas' command center. i'm sure you understand that. you say it would take weeks to get everyone out? . is there any planning?

>> there's no planning. everyone now leaves, even the health workers, have been so overwhelmed and exhausted and they are in the position at the moment they cannot offer anything. so he yes, what seems more likely is not a proper evacuation, but a panic that we'll end up with rubls. >> allowing fuel in has been a big sticking point for israel, which worries that hamas will get the fuel. you need the fuel to keep the generators on. do you have any source of fuel to keep the electricity on, to keep these people alive? >> at the moment there's no fuel in the hospital and we run out of fuel in other hospitals and i cannot speak of all the hospitals at the moment in gaza. i know there's no electricity. we don't have connection, internet, all these are testimonies you get from our colleagues like dr. mohammad. from yesterday, we lost contact

later at night. we don't know what is happening at this moment. we know since long time that people do not have even access to drinkable water. >> it is -- i don't even have the words to respond to what you just laid out, doctor, but thank you. and we wish your doctors well. along with their patients. >> thank you, margaret. we're joined by white house national security adviser jake sullivan. welcome back to the program. the fighting seems very intense in and around gaza. doctors without borders has called on the israeli government to, quote, end its unrelenting assault on gaza's health system. does the u.s. believe that this is an accurate description of what's happening? is the u.s. telling israel not to hit hospitals? >> margaret, without getting into intelligence information, we can just look at the open source reporting that hamas is

using hospitals, as it uses many other civilian facilities, for command and control, for weapons storage, to house its fighters, and this is a violation of the laws of war. that being said, margaret, the united states does not want to see fire fights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire. we've had active consultations with the israeli defense forces on this. yesterday the israeli defense forces themselves said that they, on the record publicly, said they are looking for ways to be able to ensure the safety and security of individual patients in those hospitals, while they also try to figure out a way to deal with the fact that hamas is operating in a way that's outside the bounds of any civilized concept of how you would think about, you know, using a hospital, using human shields. it's an active conversation, but the bottom line is, we don't

want to see fire fights in hospitals. >> you don't dispute then, the israeli assertion, that hamas has a command center underneath al shifa hospital. >> i'm not going to get into a specific assertion related to a specific hospital because that would be getting into intelligence matters, but broadly speaking, we can see from open source reporting that there is a track record, a pattern, of hamas historically and in this conflict, using hospitals and other civilian facilities for these purposes. >> i want to ask you about the hostage, roughly 240 still being held by hamas. we had the opportunity to speak with congressman mike mccaul from israel where he had just met with the israeli prime minister, and he told us that israel is considering hamas' proposal that israel release palestinian women and children from prison in order to obtain the hostages held by hamas. is that something the u.s.

thinks should happen? >> margaret, i'll understand if i'm careful in how i answer this question. what is at stake is the recovery of a significant number of innocent people, including innocent americans, currently being held hostage by hamas, a murderous terrorist organization. it is the case that there are active negotiations under way between israel and qatar, who is communicating with hamas, and the united states is involved in those discussions, very much involved in those discussions, but i'm not going to get into the specifics of what's on the table, only to say we're actively working to return the safe return of every american being held hostage and every other person being held by hamas. >> there are still roughly 400 americans stuck in gaza according to the state department. will they get out? >> we are determined to ensure that they get out. many have gotten out. many are still there, as you

mentioned, not just americn citizens, but also their immediate family members, we're trying to create a circumstance where every one of them can get safe pass age out of gaza. the gate has been opened and closed, the lists have included americans some days and not other days. the bottom line today the gate is open, we are moving american citizens and their families out and hope to enbe sure that every american who wants to leave gaza is able to do so safely. >> jake, this past week a top state department official testified to congress that gaza's health ministry's estimate of 11,000 palestinian dead may be an undercount. does the white house share that assessment? >> we don't have fidelity on the numbers of casualties, fatalities, in gaza. we don't know how many are fighters and how many are innocent civilians. as i have said before and secretary blinken has said before, we do know there are

thousands of innocent civilians who have been killed in the military operations that began after october 7th, and every loss of life of an innocent person, whether it's palestinian, israeli, anyoneage. we grieve for every one of those lives. we continue to reinforce the proposition that israel has the right, indeed the responsibility, to go after hamas who continues to represent a threat to the state of israel, but it must do iso in a way consistent with the laws of the war. >> secretary blinken said too many palestinians had died to date. i want to zero in on the future you have talked about from day one, what will happen in gaza next, and you've pressed the israeli government on this point. secretary blinken has been clear that it's the west bank and gaza that need to be under unified control and the palestinian authority likely to govern that. it doesn't sound like the netanyahu government is on the

same page as the biden administration because the prime minister said something very different just yesterday. >> well, from our perspective, the way forward, the basic principles of the way forward are straightforward. this is something secretary blinken laid out publicly this past week. no reoccupation of gaza, no forcible displacement of the palestinian people. gaza can never be used as base for terrorism in the future, and gaza's territory should not be reduced. secretary blinken said ultimately we do want to hesee e reconnection, reunification of the west bank and gaza under palestinian leadership, the palestinian authority is the leadership on the west bank. it's going to be up to the palestinian people to decide their future, who governs them -- >> there haven't been elections held in ages -- >> that's right, margaret. there haven't been elections held since the early 2000s, but post-october 7th we can't go

back to the way things were on october 6th, ensuring hamas cannot represent a continuing threat to israel and hamas' spokespeople says they want to repeat october 7th again and again until israel is wiped out, they want to be in a permanent state of war with israel, on the front page of the "new york times" out of the mouth of a spokesman. we can't go back to october 6th when it comes to governance and it would be up to or should be up to the palestinian people to decide what their future governance looks like and that should involve a reconnection as secretary blinken has said of the west bank and the gaza strip. >> jake sullivan, thank you for your time. "face the nation" will be back in one minute. stay with us. ♪ when better money habits® content first started coming out, it expanded what i could do for special olympics athletes with developmental needs.

thousands of bank of america employees like scott spend countless hours volunteering to teach people how to reach their financial goals. it felt good. it felt like i could take on the whole world. we're back with senate intelligence committee chairman mark warner of the state of virginia, and the democrats were celebrating what happened in

virginia this past week with your elections. you said it was -- you told the white house what happened in virginia was the first election of the 2024 national election cycle. what do you mean by that? >> i meant that while there was a lot of focus on the wisconsin supreme court race, the ohio abortion question, virginia, a purple state, where not only abortion, gun rights, voting rights were all on the ballot in terms of democrats' positions versus the republicans', i think it sets the stage well for the president. i think one of the things that ha not gotten into the analysis -- clearly abortion was a big issue -- i also think virginia reliant on the federal government, on a lot of defense establishment, federal workers, i think the overall craziness that's come out of the house of representatives, left a message even when the republicans in virginia would try to appear moderate, they were afraid if

they got total control of the government it would be the extremist, the maga crowd to drive the bus the way that's happening at the national level and that played into the democrats taking back the house, keeping the senate and stopping some of that agenda. >> the president's own approval rating is low, so when people draw a direct line and say democrats did well here so, therefore, a year from now president biden's coasting to victory, do you agree with that? do democrats have a biden problem, given that his approval ratings are not high? >> the president's approval ratings are tough. i'm the first to acknowledge that. i think the president has repeatedly said at the end of the day this is not a choice between joe biden and a perfect alternative, particularly if the choice is between joe biden and donald trump. i think virginians, i think americans, will reject it. >> that also comes down to a question of enthusiasm and turnout, right? in tight elections. we've seen some particularly young progressives on this issue

we've been talking about, israel and gaza, be very vocal in their frustration and in tight races, states like michigan matter a lot and there are over 200,000 muslim americans in that state. do you see this divide on this issue hurting the president with democrats? >> it has a potential to, and that's why i think all of us are urging israel -- clearly israel has the right to defend itself, take out hamas, hamas is holding many palestinian people using them as shields, but we all saw those images on your show today, they're horrific what israel has to realize -- why we've been pushing for pauses, pushing to make sure that settler violence on the west bank is controlled, this is a battle for hearts an minds for israel, not just a military battle and those heartings and minds go across our country, go across the region, and if there's not more

consideration about palestinian casualties, you could see this already tragic event spill over in the violence on the west bank, coming out of lebanon and, obviously, making it harder in america to maintain our traditional support for israel. >> america's israel number one arms dealer. that's what we do. so does something need to change in terms of this potential aid package that is being debated in the senate? >> well, i think questions have been raised about how this aid will be used. i've raised some of those questions privately. we also have to pair that with humanitarian assistance and that is absolutely critical. again, seeing these horrific images, but i also think, as we think about this package, we also need to realize, i hear a lot of republicans who want to bash iran, i get it, iranians are bad guys. they seem to forget the connection between iran and russia. some of these very same folks

who want to help israel but want to walk away from ukraine, i think walking away from ukraine at this time would be a historic mistake that would pay negative repercussions, literaly for years to come. >> are you confident that package can pass? >> i'm confident if we can put all those pieces together -- i believe not only money, but we need to make policy changes on border, the devil is in the details f we get that package combined it will pass. >> we're going to take a break and come back and talk to you on the other side of you it. please stay with us, senator. we have more "face the nation." d is getting smaller because of my sight. but now, i can open up my world with vabysmo. vabysmo is the first fda-approved treatment for people with wet amd that improves vision and delivers a chance for up to 4 months between treatments.

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we'll be right back with a lot more "face the nation." stay with us.

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