that surprise you but. >> no because so much of iraq right now is controlled by iranian proxy militias, the same they are doing in the label they run in lebanon not too surprised to see that, it's painful for the blood and treasure we still in iraq for this happening right now is a painful site to see before. thanks so much, her experience to put it in the second, who will talk to you again soon. have a great saturday night. on a great saturday night. live coverage of this attack on israel, we stand with them and we will stay wit step of the way. keep it here on fox news. thanks for watching one nation. ♪

task of securing its borders and find any remaining hamas militants inside israel. today is a different day and that the response that israel will deliver against hamas will be unlike anything that we have done in the past. for the very latest out of israel, let's turn right now to foreign correspondent trey yingst. live live in ashdod. treisman, covering this all day long. you're up early for us now, trey. what can you tell us? what is the latest? griff, good evening. right now, israeli fighter jets are over the gaza strip and they are striking buildings and hamas targets. but we do not believe this is the full retaliation. this is just the beginning. as you noted, israel has called up hundreds of thousands of reserve troops. they are moving tanks to the border at this

hour and they are moving military vehicles, putting them in place next to artillery. it appears the israelis are preparing for a ground operation into gaza in the coming hours and days. will provide more clarity on that. but it comes as israel still has to bury the dead today will be a day of mourning across the jewish state. more than 300 people, according to israeli media, were killed in this cross-border attack conducted by hamas and islamic jihad when they broke through that border fence and wall. this morning, coming into these communities near the border and open firing on civilians at the same time, firing thousands of rockets into southern and central israel. i want to show you what that was like earlier tonight. right now, a massive barrage of rockets coming off of the gaza strip. this is an effort by hamas and islamic jihad to overwhelm israel rails missile defense system, the iron dome. it's just a constant barrage.

one after another. you can hear the explosions there, the iron dome picking up some of this fire, but not all of it. hamas hamas entered our community as it was the worst nightmare ever . hearing about people who have been killed from your own community and people have been kidnaped inside their house and talking to my parents who live the closest to the border with gaza and hearing from my mother that first thing in the morning, she hears that they broke the window and started breaking things inside the house. it's true my dad has a gun, but what can he do in front of ten people or coming into their homes. a true nightmare for israeli civilians. we do know dozens of israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were kidnaped by these militants and taken as prisoners of war. hamas, the group in control of gaza this evening, releasing a statement indicating they are keeping

these captives in the tunnels beneath the gaza strip where they store both weapons and rockets. griff, in that trade will certainly complicate idf efforts to go into gaza on the ground. that certainly is not going to be an easy task. let me just ask you one last question, trey. and that is, do we have any new information on the areas that were seized? some trying to be held by the hamas militants that the idf forces are trying to take back there are some areas where it's unclear who controls the territory along the gaza border, but we did get one piece of good news amid this horrific story tonight. the israelis say they rescued 11 hostages that were in one of these neighborhoods along the gaza border. there were four hamas militants inside and it was stormed by israeli special forces and soldiers who rescued all 11 of those civilians is

just one story to grasp onto here. in a day full of terror and horror for the israeli people. but again, so many families tonight unsure about where their loved ones are and whether or not they're alive. griff, in a country that will have to process what has happened in the last 24 hours as the sun will soon come up. trey yingst live for us in israel. trey, thank you very much. stay safe. and today, president biden spoke to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and pledged his support to israel after hamas's surprise terrorist attack stunned the country. for more on that, we're joined by fox news correspondent lucas tomlinson live at the white house. lucas you've had a long day as well. what can you tell us? gray nif officials say today was israel's nine over 11, one of the most horrific attacks against israel in its 75 year history. earlier, president biden spoke here at the white house and issued the following warning. let me say

this as clearly as i can. this is not a moment for any party hostile to israel to exploit these attacks, to seek advantage. the world is watching. and let there be no mistake, the united states stands with the state of israel . now, just last week, biden's national security adviser made the following claim in size. for now, because of all of that can change in the middle east region is quieter today than it has been in two decades. now, brett baer recently interviewed saudi arabia's crown prince, the de facto ruler of the country, and asked him how close saudi was to recognizing israel and establishing full diplomatic relations for the first time in history. just a few days later, he asked israel's prime minister the same question. so you think if you were to characterize it, are you close? every day we get closer, it seems it's for the

first time, real one serious. we're going to see how it goes. you know, we just got back from riyadh. i know you heard those words from the crown prince. what was your response? well, i was delighted to hear what he had to say and to borrow a phrase, i think we're getting closer to peace ever. every day that passes. now, senator tom cotton says crushing this potential peace deal was exactly why hamas launched those attacks today on israel. cotton saying in a statement, quote, this war is a transparent attempt by iran to derail the peace talks between israel and saudi arabia. the united states should provide israel, the military and diplomatic support it needs to destroy hamas and the biden administration should cease all engagement with iran. here's israel. here's senator lindsey graham earlier. it's a major intelligence failure. and we got to look at our own intelligence apparatus. how could this happen? you know, nine divided by 11 happened and former defense secretary mark

esper said the same thing earlier, griff. he said this was also an intelligence failure. griff and lucas, we saw president biden speaking today, obviously. do we have any idea for what he may be doing publicly tomorrow on this ? there's no questions. officials here at the white house will be meeting tomorrow. he will convene the national security council and there will be meetings in terms of the next time we'll hear president biden speak again. that is yet to be determined. griff all right. lucas thompson live for us from the white house. lucas, thank you. and israel is at war tonight after this morning's unprecedented surprise attack by iranian backed terrorist group hamas. the attack, which has left at least 250 israelis dead and thousands more injured, is now being labeled as a historic intelligence failure. as you just heard, senator lindsey graham saying as much comes as israeli intelligence forces were left completely blindsided as terrorists launched their assault by land, air and sea.

joining us now with reaction, vice president of the heritage foundation and former deputy national security advisor for the middle east under president trump, victoria coates. victoria, thank you. i talked to you a little earlier today. you've had time to sort of process this. and i really want to get your insight on just how significant of an intelligence failure this was. no, this good to be with you again. this is just a terrible, terrible day. and it's awful for both the united states and for israel. and i think in terms of the intelligence failure, we have to go back and look at the fact that the hamas terrorists had gone to very basic. i mean, as far as i can tell, their communicating through handwritten notes run by terror, by couriers. so if

that's how they're communicating, how we have assumed, we know how they're communicating is no longer the case. and we should have known this, though. i mean, we and the israelis should have realized that that intelligence was was drying up. so when we get past the immediate issues that were facing, that's what we have to look at and examine and see how they've gotten around our collection activities. that's such an interesting point you bring up, victoria, if that is indeed the way that they were communicating in the bigger question is really how was hamas able to pull off such a highly coordinated attack to have this ground infiltration on more than 20 targets simultaneously by land, air and

sea, while giving themselves the barrage of 3000 missiles, which is the air coverage when we the us, goes in and we cover air, we go in on land. how were they able to pull something like this off? well the only way griff, that the palestine unions or hamas could have done this was with a nation state that was giving them cover. so clearly it was the iranians who had moved in and had started to pour additional money and capacity into gaza over the last two years. otherwise this wasn't even remotely possible, because when i was in the trump administration, this wasn't something we mean. we were watching closely at. and i went down and visited the gaza border a number of different times. but this wasn't something we were even

contemplating. but clearly, this is something they've developed over the last two years. and that's because as the biden administration has allowed tehran. to sell a million barrels of oil a day to china, and they're funneling all that money into these terrorist attacks. and this is what happens. and i just i don't understand why people think this is surprising. and just lastly, in the last 20s, i've got victoria, you saw in lucas thompson's report there the national security adviser, jake sullivan, with the statement that it's been it hadn't been this quiet for two decades in the middle east. was there an intelligence failure on that behalf of the us side as well with all due respect to jake, i mean, this is ridiculous. obviously this is the most volatile the middle

east has been in a decade. so unfortunately, he was wrong. victoria coates, thank you for joining us. vice president at heritage. we appreciate your insight and staying up late with us this evening. thank you, victoria. thanks, chris. in the federal aviation administration, issuing a warning just a short time ago in response to hamas's unprecedented ground and air assaults and israel's counter offensive. the faa is now urging us airlines and pilots to use caution when flying in israeli airspace. the faa's warning mirrors an alert that was also issued by the israeli government. well, within hours of today's stunning attack on israel, us lawmakers were quick to promise aid to america's closest ally in the middle east. that though, couldn't be easier said than done with the absence of a house speaker for this essentially putting the us government at a complete standstill. the question now

is, will today's events force republicans to speed up the election of a speaker? fox news senior congressional correspondent chad pergram joins us now with more insight from washington and chad, i've been following your reporting all day. this really is a unique situation, an we haven't been in now with the legislative branch effective, fully paralyzed, with no speaker or ability to bring things to the floor in the way of a bill. yeah, this is a pretty perilous time for the congress to have a national security crisis, an international crisis at the time of not having a speaker, as you say, the congress is frozen right now. there's not a direct threat to the united states. but you've had a number of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say, hey, we need to prepare some sort of legislation, maybe send some money, send munition, send aid to israel in this fight. and the problem here is that they can't they can't until they get a speaker. you have patrick mchenry, who is the speaker pro

tem right now, the republican from north carolina. and he can basically do a couple of things, gavel the house into session, gavel it out and preside over the next election of a speaker, which we think isn't going to happen at the earliest until next wednesday or thursday. now what might happen here is because they don't have a speaker, suddenly some of the members, you know, who want to get something done say we might need to move something here. and if nothing else, the posture exposes the vulnerability of the united states. when you look at potentially another national security crisis with china or russia or north korea or something like that, they get religion really quickly and members somehow coalesce around a candidate for speaker. right now, we have steve scalise, the majority leader. we have jim jordan, the republican from ohio, the chair of the judiciary committee. the problem for mchenry is this. he could possibly advance legislation, jordan, but everything that he would do would be establishing a new precedent for how the house of

representatives operates at a time when they do not have a speaker and kind of expand the roles of the speaker pro tem, the house operates on three books of precedents. deshler's canons, hine's precedents. and you're basically writing the rule book as you go along. now, the other thing here is that we have a bit of news from the senate majority leader, chuck schumer. he is right now in china. this was a pre-planned trip to china, official business there. he was briefed at the american consulate in shanghai, he says, by cia and state department officials about what's going on. and he said, quote, he's committed to deliver whatever israel needs to get this urgent aid to them in this time of need. and the other thing that's important here in this directly is in chuck schumer's wheelhouse is that there is not a confirmed ambassador here from the senate to israel. now, jack lew, who had been the budget director, he has been nominated just last month. so that's a pretty quick

turning radius. but he is a known quantity to senators. you have had ted cruz, the republican senator from texas, on a few occasions, put holds on various biden administration nominees that have something to do with middle east. the senate, however, because the house has no role in confirmations, they could confirm jack lew lickety split. but there is no planned session right now because the senate is supposed to be out for two weeks and members are spread to the four winds, but they have something in the senate. griff called a hotline where they could go through and say all right, if all 100 senators check the box here and say they're okay with jack lew, they could confirm him as early as next week, but otherwise they might have to take some special steps or that would be held up. griff well, and as we look at it, a live shot of the capitol tonight. what you will think and expect that lawmakers will certainly begin to get more tuned in to this story. as we are hearing, by all accounts, we are in for days, if not weeks, perhaps even

months of an extended, prolonged conflict in the middle east. chad pergram, chief congressional correspondent, thank you for staying up late and joining us tonight. thank you. well the israeli security cabinet meeting this evening as they plan their counterattack against hamas. prime minister benjamin netanyahu promising israel will win in security. will be restored to its citizens. what can we expect as israel goes on the offensive? more on that ahead. stick with us. we cannot allow this situation in of gaza as a war machine to continue. and we are committed, starting from today, to change the equation.

goli, taste your goals. two three. one two, three, one. today. now since this morning, the state of israel has been at

war. our first objective is to clear out enemy forces that infiltrated and restored the security and quiet to the communities that have been attacked. the second objective, at the same time is to exact an immense price from the enemy within the gaza strip, too. the third objective is to reinforce other fronts so that nobody should mistakenly join this war. israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu, with strong words as the israeli military tries to put an end to hamas's surprise attack in his security cabinet meeting, the prime minister says his country is about to embark on a long and difficult war, but ensures israel will win this war, however, could prove very difficult as they have to root out both hamas fighters on the ground and stop the air assault into israel. we're joined now by afghanistan war veteran and the american institute of economic research. president will ruger. will, thank you for joining us. and i want to get right in to what does this

military challenge look like for israel? yeah, i mean, israel is absolutely justified in retaliating against hamas, but it is really important that they not sink to the level of hamas right. that means that they need to practice appropriate battlefield discrimination in terms of civilians and combatants as well as considering kind of what we call, you know, the law of war, proportional equity. in that response. but it's going to be very challenging, particularly if it results in the kind of urban warfare we've seen in places, you know, if you think about what had happened before, when the israelis had gone into gaza or for the united states like in iraq. so it's very difficult. it's a real challenge. and one thing that needs to be said, of course, is that intelligence is critical. well, when it comes to making sure that they can successful hit the hamas targets, that they need to. and unfortunately, we've seen this

intelligence failure, and that means it's going to be, you know, hard to imagine that, you know, there's not going to be some challenges in going forward and making sure they do what is necessary for israel to secure itself. absolutely. and our viewers were just seeing some live shots this morning as the sun is coming up in gaza. some smoke billowing, presumably from you see it there in these buildings. the israeli air force is were striking targets overnight. trey yingst, our correspondent, israel filling us in on that. but you raise a really fascinating point. will and i remember having been in mosul in 2016 when the iraqi special forces were trying to root isis out. it's very complex combat. it's in very dense areas. and the civilian population is where isis was hiding. and we know that is a tactic of hamas to hide among the population. and presumably now some of the israeli civilians are in these

tunnels, which israel traditionally attacked hamas because they would have launched these rockets. but now in this case, you can't strike a target particular only if there's any concern or possibility that there are israeli civilians in there. so how do they do it effectively and how do they do it quickly, which is what the moment appears to be calling for? yeah, again, it's not going to be easy. and, you know, obviously israel is going to be very careful to try to make sure that anyone one being used as a as a human shield isn't targeted, particularly these hostages. that makes this, like i said, that intelligence even more critical, as well as the kind of due care which could mean that that you will see, you know, the need for strikes, you know, by land. and that will prevent you know, that will allow for, again, more careful targeting. but, you know, again, israel is going to have to make sure that this retaliatory strike is something

that can, you know, really signal. i think, to hamas that they're not going to be pushed around here. and, you know, they need to make sure that it doesn't backfire on them as well. right. so, you know, i think the world is very support of israel at this moment. and they don't want to lose that if they if they overreact again, you have to kind of have a goldilocks solution. right. get it just right. not so much that it actually incurs a backlash in kind of global opinion, but but also enough to make sure that they do it as necessary for their own security needs. and, you know, we heard from the idf spokesperson a little earlier this evening on social media talking about the attack . here's what he said. take a listen. is hamas, who is responsible for the violence, is each and every israeli killed and each and every palestinian killed. its blood on hamas's hands. and they are responsible for everything that is happening. and that will happen in the coming days and weeks as this war unfolds. he

also said will, in that statement that the unprecedented level of violence against israeli citizens would be met with an unprecedented response from israel. all i want to ask you is, as they try and figure out the response in gaza against hamas last question here for you. are you concerned it could ultimately be a multi front war that israel gets into if hezbollah and the northern part of israel gets involved? yeah, again, we have to step back a little bit. despite the real challenges that we saw today on the israeli side, the fact is, is that israel is quite strong military and certainly stronger than its opponents. and so while we worry about israel and the cost, the terrible cost that has been suffered by israeli citizens, israel itself is not in an existential threat right? it has more than enough capability, b, to protect itself against just, you know, and to guarantee its existence.

the question is, though, is it can it provide security to the extent to which it needs to be peaceful and to and to go about its its, you know, everyday life the way it had been up until today in terms of inside these cities. and we may not know the answer to that question for days or weeks to come. will ruger, thank you for taking time and staying up with us tonight. thank you. as israel begins to strike back against hamas, violent and unprecedented attack, the pentagon is vowing to stand by its allies. we have more on that ahead something unexpected has arrived from experian. a debit card. the all-new experian smart money™ debit card and digital checking account. it finds payments that could raise your credit scores without adding debt. it's no ordinary debit card... it's the smart debit card... only from experian. and that is worth celebrating. build credit without the debt.

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. and save@trilogy.com. the pentagon is vowing to support the israeli military in its defense against hamas. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu declaring war on the palestinian militants as the death toll climbs after saturday's attack, defense secretary lloyd austin saying, quote, over the coming days, the department of defense will work to ensure that israel has

what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism. joining us now, retired us army lieutenant colonel daniel davis. he's a senior fellow at defense priorities and host of daniel davis deep dive. colonel davis, thank you for joining us tonight. what is the pentagon? walk me through what they'll be meeting on tomorrow and in the coming days in terms of how they will support israel. you know, i really think that this is more a statement of psychological and emotional support because, look, we already give about $3.8 billion every year to israel to help them defend themselves. and they are definitely well equipped. they are well trained. and you know, don't know that they actually need anything to conduct this operation. they have plenty of ammunition. they have the weapons that they need. so i don't know that there's really a lot that they're going to need. but i think it's just, you know, a really visible sign at the highest levels of the department of defense and the president, you know, to say that we are completely behind

israel at this time. colonel, we're looking at live pictures in gaza. it's just after 630 in the morning there, and we see smoke billowing from a building, presumably from israeli airstrikes overnight, which we knew were occurring. walk me through who will there be any perhaps coordination, because our military and israeli military work very closely together. they drill together. they share intelligence together. will they perhaps play a role in helping israel get this approach, this response correct ? i'm sure that we'll provide any kind of intelligence support that is needed. we certainly have some assets that, you know, may be a little bit above what israel has. and, of course, israel has historically had really good intelligence support, which is one of the big embarrassments for the israeli regime right now because they were taken by such surprise. and there were many signs, actually even as

recently as september, that something big was coming. and they seem been completely caught off guard. so that's a big embarrassment. but, you know, i'm very confident that israel is going to get their house in order. very quickly. they're going to make whatever changes are necessary and anything that we can do to help. i'm sure it's going to be coming from the united states. but i have confidence that israel will be able to handle its security very well. colonel, you and i have spent the better part of the last couple of years in washington at the touchscreen talking about the military movements and the battle space in ukraine . now, this is a unique one. and you talk about this really catching the israeli military off guard. walk me through how hamas is able to pull off a highly coordinated, multi-front land assault by land, air and sea on 20 plus targets while launching the highest number of rockets. i think they've ever launched, which really took the iron dome by surprise, as it

did. yeah, i think we're up to last heard was 5000 rockets have been fired in just this very short period of time. and in september, actually, you had hamas was openly conducting field exercises where they literally and physically rehearsed a lot of these operations that they're doing. the israelis were aware of it, but somehow they they just thought it was posturing. guess i'm not really sure what they were thinking at that time, but there were signs that this was coming. and in fact, the israelis had discovered a bunch of ammunition and bombs that were in some some jeans or packages of jeans. and so they shut down the exports coming out of there. but they didn't take any more action off of it because i think that they thought it was just going to be something small scale. and that just shows that the that how far hamas has come in their ability to mask what they're doing, but to continue to get the resources that they need through all the blockades. and that was that's i think one of the bigger questions how do they amass so much force and

weapons and rockets without the israelis knowing about it? that's the big question. and colonel, my last question for you is, when you talk about the support and resources, hamas is getting, it is no secret that it comes from iran who also supports hezbollah. how concerned are you that this turns into a multi-front war for israel and hezbollah gets involved? well, that's what's absolutely vital, both for israel and the united states, that this remains contained in the gaza strip. we cannot have this any chance of it escalating beyond those borders to include either you know, into lebanon or god forbid, anything into iran as well, because that would be in no one's interest. we need to keep this contained for everyone's sake. and i think that's a key issue for both washington and israel. it sure is for the entire globe. lieutenant colonel danny davis, thank you for joining us tonight. always good to see you, griff. good to see you. all right. iran's

support for hamas is having some speculate that it's trying to prevent the finalizing of a us brokered saudi israeli deal. the deal would require the us to defend saudi arabia in exchange for saudis to normalize relations with israel. iran's top military advisor says they'll keep backing hamas until, quote, palestine and jerusalem are liberated. fox news white house correspondent kevin corke joining us now with more details. what can you tell us, kevin? yeah very interesting, griff. as you know, and following this storyline, it changes very little year to year. and once again in this circumstance, the familiar power alliances have obviously been once again solidified. and now, speaking of the top military advisor to iran's supreme leader says tehran supports the attacks by hamas against israel and will continue to back the islamist fighters, quote, until the liberation of palestine and jerusalem. now those remarks by the former commander of the country's revolutionary guards

will only add to the suspicion that tehran played a direct role in supporting its ally, hamas, in the well-planned attacks. that assault from gaza coming just four days after the supreme leader posted on social media that the, quote, usurper regime is coming to an end before adding that the anti-occupation movement among palestinian youth was more energetic than ever. now the offensive also comes and this is important you said this amid a highly sensitive diplomatic moment, griff, with saudi arabia hinting that maybe they could normalize relations with israel. now, that would obviously be an alliance that would unsettle tehran. now, israeli officials have been predicting since august, in fact, that we could possibly see an attack from either hamas or hezbollah or perhaps even both. amid the increasing skirmishes along the border between israel and lebanon are predictions, unfortunately, that have now come true. still, the question remains tonight

and will for several days, moving forward, just how much, if at all, did tehran have to do with these attacks and how in turn that might affect the response both in israel and abroad? griff, i suspect we'll hear a lot more about that. kevin corke live for us in washington. kevin, thank you. well, the unprecedented rocket attacks putting israel's iron dome to the ultimate test. how did it hold up and how concerning is it that hamas was able to inflict such carnage on israel? we'll ask an expert at next.

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look pretty good, too, don't i . israel's iron dome being put to the test as rockets rained down on israeli towns. at least 300 people are dead while dozens have been taken hostage by hamas militants. in a surprise attack. how concerning is it that hamas is able to inflict such carnage? let's now bring in rebecca heinrichs, senior fellow at the hudson institute. rebecca, this really

was a test unlike any it's ever faced with the iron dome with so many missiles more than it could handle being launched into israel. what do you make and what will the israeli military officials be saying today as they assess that the test that the iron dome went through? well the iron. the iron dome missile defense system is not designed to intercept every single missile headed its way. it's an incredibly amazing and capable missile defense system, but it's designed to only intercept the missiles that are headed toward people, populations, and it lets the other ones go. that's what's amazing about the system. but but it's not going to even get it's not going to be 100% even for the missiles that it seeks to intercept, especially when you have hamas trying to overwhelm and oversaturate the system. the idf said that there was about 2200 rockets fired at israel. that is a lot of rockets to

handle for the iron dome weapon system. and obviously the sun just coming up over there in gaza and in israel. and they will have to begin figuring out what changed edges. do they make how do they stop, if any, more rockets from coming, assuming that hamas has more to fire? right well, i mean, the idea here is you try to intercept the ones you can and then that enables israel to obviously protect its own people, but then also come up with the kind of specific response it wants to have. when you think about it, a missile defense system like iron dome has actually been incredibly good for the palestinian people because it's enabled israel to act with restraint. but now when you have the system being oversaturated and overwhelmed and you have the israelis really it's a multi faceted attack against the israeli people and the response is going to be overwhelm from the israeli military. we should expect it to suppress finally

and go on the offensive to get the rest of where these launchers are. remember all of this is coming from iran. that's who supplies hamas with all of these rockets. right. you're looking live now at 6:48 a.m. in gaza. so smoke billowing from a building, presumably struck by israeli airstrike overnight as israel begins to retaliate and as they sort of unpack also the intelligence failure of being caught off guard, being blindsided on this. rebecca they'll be looking at of course, the iron dome challenge. but there will be other things that they have to get right. well, that's exactly right. this is the piece that i am just incredibly concerned about and anxious to hear what comes out of this. what is the intelligence failure? because when you think about it, the israelis are world renowned at counterintelligence and understanding what the adversary is doing. they infiltrate terrorist cells to figure out what they're doing.

they they're very famously good at assassination and preempting attacks. and so clearly, there was a gap. something went wrong. they missed something. so it really was a security failure. i mean, this was a, again, multi faceted. you had the missiles coming over the rockets, but then you had these trucks coming in and infiltrating inside the israeli cities. and so it was an intelligence failure. certainly it was an incredibly, you know, large gap in the security architecture on the part of the israelis. and devastating. and certainly they will fix this and address it when they figure out what went wrong. rebecca heinrichs, thank you very much for staying up late tonight. and you raise a good point. there's going to be a lot of lessons learned from that. thank you. coming up, we explore the reasons leading up to the surprise attack by hamas. this comes as israel continues to face both political and religious unrest . more on that just ahead

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how hamas is unprecedented attack on israel comes at a time when the country faces political division and growing violence in the west bank. for the past several months, israelis have protested as prime minister benjamin netanyahu plans to change the country's judicial system. joining us now, jonathan schanzer, the senior vice president for research at foundation for defense of

democracies. jonathan, why now? that is the question many are wondering tonight, particularly given what we've seen happening in the country. why do you think hamas chose this moment? yeah, think it's a good question. i'd offer, i think, maybe three different answers. one would be that there was significant division among israelis. we've been watching protests on the streets as the country has been more divided over a potential judicial overhaul that has really shown divisions that we've never seen in israel up until now. and i think that may have been a cue to hamas that they might try to exploit that. that's one plausible explanation. on the other that i think is also very plausible here is that hamas had been exporting violence to the west bank. we'd seen a lot of action over there. it took israel's eye off the ball. in fact, israelis were fairly convinced that hamas didn't even want to wage war at any soon out of the gaza strip,

that they were tired of the wars that they were fighting and that the west bank was their new target. and that is one other possibility. the last thing i'll just note here is that iran may be putting hamas up to this as a prelude to a wider conflagration. a lot of people suggesting that jonathan schanzer, we've run out of time at the end of the hour. thank you for staying up for us tonight. pleasure. this comes as we are hearing from the israeli army warning gaza residents near the border to leave their homes, anticipating that there will be further violence happening in the gaza strip. we will be covering it all here live on fox news. we leave you tonight, though, with a shot from new york. the empire state building lit up in the blue and white. the colors of israel. one of america's closest news alert. i'm

kevin corke in washington. israel's war