i'll switch my vote. i'm not my feet in the sand, drag my feet, i'm going to go with the person who has the momentum of the conference which is positive. i hope we actually have a president who looks not just to support israel but also looks how do i protect americans at home. and our southern borders are -- and we see people from around the world, don't know what their values are or beliefs are, making sure we have refocus on the border. we keep america safe. >> harris: number 1.7 million got-aways in the country. >> shocking. >> emily: on november 17th we learn whether the budget will cover the government again, this all points towards the instability, weakness, they better get it together today. >> harris: i love that. get it together tochltd emily said it. thank you for watching. coverage continues, here is "america reports."

>> now there's holocaust number one and holocaust number two. mind blowing, unbelievable that it happened in 2023 in israel. >> everyone doing everything they can. >> sandra: the state department is confirming the deaths of at least 22 u.s. citizens in israel. the news coming as we await a

white house press briefing, set to begin any moment now, a live look inside the white house. national security council spokesman john kirby will be joining karine jean-pierre as pressure is building for president biden to rescue those americans held captive by hamas at this hour. hello, welcome. sandra smith in new york. >> john: i'm john roberts in washington and this is "america reports." it is now 8:00 p.m. in israel, and here is what we know right now. more than 150 hostages are being held in gaza, among them, some 20 americans. israel warning gaza of a potential ground offensive imminently. >> sandra: and the first batch of u.s. weapons we can report is in the hands of the israelis, as a u.s. aircraft carrier has arrived at israel's shores, sending a stark message to those in the region. >> john: fox team coverage across the global in the next two hours and the breaking news of the war in israel. let's go straight to our trey

yingst live on the ground in the southern part of the country. what's the latest where you are? >> good afternoon, we have returned from a small community that sits just over the border with gaza. up until about 12 hours ago, there were firefights and this area between israeli soldiers and hamas militants. one of the first places that they stormed on saturday morning when the terrorists executed more than 1200 people. i do want to show you what the scene was like. we were live there last hour on fox. take a look. guys, i need to warn our viewers what we are about to show you is the aftermath of the massacre against israelis on saturday morning. we are just over the border from gaza on saturday morning. hamas militants stormed this area, i need to warn you before i show you the scene it is very graphic, so at home with children, please do not have

them look at this. but this is what israel is facing right now and it's very important we show you this. i'm going to have my cameraman come in here, you can see the floors are stained with blood, it was saturday morning around 7:00 a.m. when militants stormed this village, you can see the weapons they brought with them, extra ammunition, bullet holes in the side of the house and knives on the floor. this was the scene. this community over the border with gaza is littered with bodies. it is completely destroyed. it looks like some of the buildings were hit with rpgs, explosives, and beds covered in blood. ok, so i just want to describe what it's like here. we arrived here with the army a few hours ago and on the road in we went past the area where the music festival was, where 260 innocent israelis were mowed

down. you could smell the stench of death in the air on the drive and as we got closer to this area, where so many families were slaughtered in their homes. it became obvious that we didn't even have a full grasp of what took place here. when you turn into the area, the army has taken back over control of this entire area. there are no longer militants here, but they say just 12 hours ago they were in gun battles in the area. a large pile of bodies stacked up outside, the bodies of militants they have collected. around the back of this house down the street a little bit we saw about eight bodies in body bags of the local residents who were here, some may be militants, they still have to work to identify the bodies. some are hard to identify. i want to just tell you what the commanding officer told me, he saw many of the families slaughtered in their beds and in their bomb shelters after hamas

militants broke through the door. he told us that there were people who were decapitated here. people with their hands tied behind their backs and shot, executed. and you saw from inside that house, it is the most horrific thing i have ever seen. what was so eerie in the homes, you could see what the people were doing when the hamas militants stormed in and executed them. they were eating breakfast, food was on tables. you saw kids' toys on the floor. it was a saturday morning when this happened and this is just one of many locations where these mass executions took place against civilians and the commander there who recovered many of the bodies with his soldiers, he told us that people had hands tied behind their backs, they were shot executed and some people beheaded. it was a horrific scene, hell on

earth, but it is important that we do not look away. because that is the reason that israel now is in this war. it's part of the reason that you are about to see the most extensive ground operation in the middle east in quite some time. john, back to you. >> john: trey, if i might ask you a personal question, i noticed in your live report last hour in "outnumbered" describing the scene there, you got quite emotional. you have seen this stuff around the world, done such terrific reporting in israel, ukraine as well and throughout the middle east. but it looked like that scene really got to you. >> yeah, it was the -- it was the kids' toys, like they were just playing in their house on a saturday morning and these terrorists came in and executed them. and there were still bodies all over this area. it has not been totally worked

through. on a personal level, it is truly -- this is the worst thing that i have ever seen and i've covered many stories and the world. we were in many active war zones where civilians had been executed and it's not to compare the two, it's just the brutality that was inflicted on the civilian population here is hard to grasp, it's hard to wrap your mind around how humans could do this to other humans, how men with machine guns could walk into a home and see a 5-year-old child and execute them. you walk in those houses and they look like our houses. there are photos on the fridge of kids playing sports, they are drinking fanta and sprite like you would on a saturday afternoon if you were sitting with your family outside having a picnic. they are just like us. these people that live here in southern israel and they were executed in their homes, and i just would encourage you, anyone

at home if you are watching this and you -- you are wondering how this feels for the israeli people, i would just tell you to look around your own home and imagine if militants, terrorists stormed in and fired on your entire family and killed them. that's how these people feel, those that survived, some as we know have been taken into gaza in the tunnel system underneath the gaza strip. 22 u.s. citizens were killed in this. and we still don't have a full picture of what took place because the military cannot get to all these areas. while we were there, we could hear outgoing artillery, rockets off the gaza strip, this is an active war zone and to get a full picture may take days, if not weeks. and israel is preparing to enter gaza in response to this brutal assault against their country. it is not a question of if, but rather when. john. >> john: so many things that we come across in these situations,

once you see them, trey, you can't unsee them. keep up the great work, we will talk to you soon. thank you. >> sandra: we are with you, trey, and thank you for your continued reporting on the ground. u.s. sending a message of deterrence, warning others to stay out of the battle with hamas. a second carrier is being deployed to the region. u.s.s. gerald ford, the newest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the navy. it carries up to 5,000 sailors and 90 aircraft and is longer than three football fields. chief national security correspondent jennifer griffin knows a lot about that, live at the pentagon with the latest. >> moments ago at nato headquarters in brussels, the new joint chiefs chairman said the u.s. is not seeing indications of adversaries like

iran yet planning to get involved in the conflict between hamas and israel. the reason the u.s. sent the u.s.s. ford carrier strike group to the mediterranean is to deter iran and hezbollah from joining hamas's attacks against israel. >> for anyone thinking about trying to take advantage of the agony in israel, to try to widen this conflict or to try to spill more blood, we have just one word. don't. >> secretary austin has offered u.s. personnel to help rescue israeli and american hostages and added the defense department can rapidly deploy others to the region if necessary. >> when i spoke to minister golan on sunday, i offered our assistance, special operators, help from the intelligence community in planning and developing intelligence. >> u.s. military liaisons were

already on the ground in israel and attached to the u.s. embassy before hamas invaded. "special operations personnel were already on the ground in israel as part of their jobs at the embassy or bilateral training agreements between u.s. and israeli operations." this footage of a direct weapons shipments from the u.s. arriving in southern israel last night. president biden promised additional assistance, including ammunition and interceptors for the iron dome. they said it's not because israel is running out of ammunition but because the u.s. is trying to deter a broader conflict from happening. boeing has accelerated the delivery of 1,000 smart bombs to israel after the hamas attacks. back to you, sandra. >> sandra: thank you so much. if you could stay with us, because one obvious question so many are asking right now, and i know you can add a lot to this,

is how did hamas breach what is known to be one of the most sophisticated security systems on the planet, and the "washington post" did a deep dive on that asking how hamas breached israel's iron wall. we put together some graphics so we can tell the story here a bit better for the audience. about 40 miles long. this is the iron wall along the gaza strip. it's 40 miles long, barricaded and completed in 2021. it's made up of 140,000 tons of iron and steel. this fence was breached at 29 different points on saturday. you are looking at these red entrance -- some of the main areas they were able to breach the sophisticated security system, ok. so we went on to dig in deeper, to really discover what that wall is made of. this is israel's perimeter fence and the access restricted area,

observation tower. inside the observation tower it has all kinds of sensors, and cameras, designed to detect any sort of security breach. hundreds of cameras, radar, sensors, the observation tower, obviously this has played a central role in what we saw unfold saturday morning. they have sand barriers that make up the wall as well to monitor threats and slow down any intruders who do get past that early risk zone. israel included an underground concrete barrier, a huge part of this sophisticated security wall that was erected. moving a little bit deeper on what happened and how hamas was able to breach this perimeter and this restricted area. now you are looking at the fact the rockets obviously came in, but first the para gliders and the drones that came in and took out this observation tower. this is the fence where all the sensors are. those were taken out, and then

they were able to move in. looking a little bit clearer at what happened there, the explosives along the fence. obviously this was a huge part of their entire effort. the drones dropped explosives on the observation tower, this is the observation tower was taken out, that wiped out coms and their weapon systems. next launched 3,000 rockets into the country, reaching as far as tel aviv and jerusalem, the hangliders flew across the border and then explosives to blow up sections of the fence, and then the men on the motor bikes came in, drove through the gaps they were able to create at the perimeter. after that, you are looking now, able to widen the gap. bulldozers, enough space for the vehicles to drive through, and

saying the attack would have required absolute weeks, jennifer of planning. when you look at the sophistication included in that wall, in the 40-mile barrier, it took massive planning on their part. >> weeks, i would say probably months if not longer. the kind of training that would occur and i doubt only in the gaza strip. simultaneously command and control, communication, the explosives to breach simultaneously at those points. i'm going to go out on a limb. not something that i have -- that any official has told me, but i would look at whether there was also some sort of cyber attack on that wall that made israel blind in those moments. sandra. >> sandra: thanks for your reporting on all that. we'll have more on this coming up. john. >> john: i saw one report that suggested it was in the planning stages for a couple years almost. we have breaking news from

across the street on capitol hill, republicans have chosen house majority leader steve scalise as their nominee for house speaker. now he's not speaker yet, they still have to go to a vote in the house. chad pergram live on capitol hill has got the latest for us on this. chad. >> john, they are still behind closed doors but it appears that steve scalise has won in the conference the vote there was 113-99. now as you say, they still have to go to the house floor. you need about 217 votes to win on the floor, that's a pretty good delta between the number of votes he was able to secure in the conference, the bar is lower there versus winning on the house floor and max miller, a republican from ohio, he indicated, he said there is about 30 people he thinks would continue to support jim jordan, max miller is from ohio, jim jordan from ohio, he said he will continue to support jim jordan on the floor. whether or not they can rectify that later this afternoon or tonight, they might go to the floor this afternoon and maybe try to push this on the floor.

sometimes they try to grow the vote organically, but republicans have told us they don't want to go to the floor unless they have the votes nailed down but they said they need to have a speaker because of the crisis in the middle east, the house continues to be paralyzed. >> john: chad pergram, we'll see if we get a vote later today. add that to everything else we are covering. president biden confirming u.s. citizens are among the hostages held by hamas. one family believes he could be one of those abducted americans and they are asking the biden administration to do all it can to help him get home safely. joining us now is sagie's father jonathan. thank you for being with us at this difficult time. i can't imagine as a father myself of two boys what you are going through. do you have any information at all what is the latest as you

know it? >> first, thanks for your concern about the fate of our missing people. we are talking as you mentioned before about in the parkway of 150 israelis taken into captivity or assumed in captivity, these are little children from eight months old to elderly people, 88 years old. and from our area alone, several dozen hostages were taken. as far as information, from the moment we lost contact with segie and other members, mid morning on saturday, a few hours after the assault began by hundreds of terrorists, we have absolutely no idea of what their fate is, what condition they might be in, and that's the situation that many, many

hundreds of israeli families find themselves in right now. >> john: we have talked to the parents of, or the relatives, loved ones of some other americans who are living in israel who have gone missing. they say that they have seen video of their loved ones posted on telegram, but you have not seen any evidence of what might have happened to sagui? >> i've been told that there are a number of videos posted by the hamas terrorists and looters that came later on, murders, excuses that were conducted, and torture of innocent civilians. there is no -- there are no such posts of sagui. >> john: we saw trey reporting from, a scene of utter carnage.

what was life like saturday, other people said things were pretty good, that they knew people in gaza and while there was obviously rocket fire that would come across from gaza on occasion, that life was pretty tolerable. >> i think tolerable is probably in the eyes of the beholder. all the kibbutz, and barrie, these were created between 1946 and the mid 1950s and they were created as a human barrier, specifically by the israeli government, to separate between hostile forces in the gaza strip and the main body of israel. and as such we -- it's part of

life in our area as kind of the pioneering zionist spirit that we take into account there is always going to be some risk and with the hamas takeover, unilateral takeover of the gaza strip in 2005, if i recall correctly, that took a terrible turn for the worse and we have had to undergo many, many rounds of escalation of violence involving rockets, mortars, terror attack tunnels coming very close to our homes, and it's an accepted part of life where farmer, school teachers,s we are proud, independent communal farms. no one expected nor were we prepared for this kind of surprise, well-timed, well-executed, i'm sorry it is,

mass attack on these civilian communities. this surprised the entire country, and to be clear, there are, i would estimate, about 15 to 20 communities like these, in close proximity to the border, that are gone. while the terrorists were -- terrorists and the looters were in our communities, butchering our people and taking them into captivity, they systematically destroyed infrastructure, the buildings themselves, and including my house, which has been burned to the ground. the surviving members of our kibbutz on last friday evening, about 400 people, again from infants to elderly, 400 people on our kibbutz, saturday morning at noon there were 160. the rest were either killed by the terrorists or like my son,

are missing, or confirmed in captivity. and there quite honestly is nowhere to go back to for any of us right now. that extent of destruction, something between a 20 or 19th or 20th century and a medieval blood letting. the savagery is beyond words. again, entirely civilian communities. >> john: we just -- you said this surprised israel, it shocked the world as well. it's just difficult to wrap your head around what happened and our prayers are with you that your son comes home safely. jonathan, thank you for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> john: sandra. >> sandra: john, our thoughts and deepest sympathies with the countless families affected by the atrocities in israel. fox corporation has made a $1 million donation to the united jewish appeal as it mo mobilizes for urgent relief.

if you would like to support the israel emergency funds, you can donate at ugafedny dot okay or scanning the qr code seen there on your screen. and we will head back to capitol hill now on the breaking news, republicans have chosen house majority leader steve scalise as nominee for house speaker. what do we have this hour, chad. >> good afternoon. what we have done here, secret ballot taken by house republicans and they picked him to be their official nominee on the floor. we have had a lot of house republicans say they are willing to support whoever wins in the conference. this is the intermediate step here. you have to win on the floor to become speaker. he got 113 votes in the conference, they need to get to 217 on the floor. winning candidate would get outright majority of all members casting ballots for member by name. earlier ken buck the republican from colorado said he was

disappointed with some answers there, he might vote present. max miller, a republican from ohio supports jim jordan, a lot of times members coalesce around fellow members from their state and says this is not over. he says i'm still throwing my support behind jim jordan for speaker. a republican from tennessee, he indicated a few minutes ago that steve scalise indicated he would not put the house into session or not call a vote with at least an hour's notice. the house cannot come in until 3:00 and guess who is in charge of that. that's the majority leader, steve scalise. he controls the house floor and so you could see a scenario maybe he thinks he has the votes, he thinks he can win, maybe force the issue on the floor, and he would put the house into session and called the vote. like in football you know your side has committed a penalty and they did not call it and before they throw the challenge flag they want to snap the ball, could be similar there. but they want to be confident they have the votes to win on the floor and that's a much

higher bar and a razor thin margin for republicans to win, sandra. >> john: 99 -- do you think they'll get it to the floor this afternoon? >> just the urgency of trying to move and might not be this afternoon, this might take, you know, a few hours. i kind of had thought it might be something that they do this evening. maybe in the overnight hours. they might want to take some time to let this kind of sit out there, but you know, this is like house guests and fish. longer you let it sit out there you might not have the wind at your back, and why i made the football analogy. if you think you have the votes on your side you go. the danger for steve scalise is maybe if they have a vote on the floor and they come in really low below that bar, that's a problem. they wanted to avoid this scenario where back in january they voted and voted and voted round after round after round

after round for kevin mccarthy until they finally elected kevin mccarthy the speaker. some think they told me it has to go that route to get a speak are but don't want to sit in the stasis and not doing anything. and underlying all of this is the crisis in the middle east. longer they don't vote, they cannot move a resolution to condemn hamas, or reload the iron dome, a bipartisan bill there, cost about $2 billion, and just looks bad on the global stage at a time of crisis to not have a speaker, john and sandra. >> sandra: if you see any lawmakers walking by, we are looking for fresh reaction to all of this. so, feel free to jump in. as far as what happens next, what can you tell the viewers, what are we looking for in the next few minutes, next few hours? >> the key here is whether or not somebody sends the signal

they are going to go to the floor. the house is out until 3:00, nothing will happen until 3:00 eastern time. but 3:30, 4:00, force a floor vote, people would put in nomination, steve scalise, the democrats would put into nomination hakeem jeffries, the democrat from new york, maybe other people put in nomination. we heard some rattlings about former president trump, and jim jordan, you don't have to be a member of the house to be elected speaker of the house and then they would go through the roll call manually, calling the names of each member alphabetically and see if they get to the magic number, is 217, but algebra involved in this. 433 members of the house, what we have now, the magic number is 217 if everybody votes for somebody by name. but you have other candidates who are getting names, getting votes there, then you have a problem. and that number, you know, might

only get to 212 or 213, guys. >> john: chad pergram with the latest there. if you manage a grab a lawmaker on the way out of the meeting, send up a flare. byron york, they have chosen a nominee, byron, but do they -- does scalise have the votes to get it without going to another 15 votes? >> well, you know, that is -- that is the question, chad was saying that republicans really, really want to avoid a replay of what happened in january in which the party was in disapray going through 15 ballots to choose speaker. it appears they could be headed toward something like that right now. if you look at the vote that sca scalise won, 113-99, that does not add up to 217 and that's if

everybody who didn't vote for scalise immediately votes for scalise. so, chad was outlining a scenario, there might be some votes for a few other candidates including jim jordan, maybe even kevin mccarthy, and you don't get to 217 meaning in the full house you go to 1, 2, 3, 4, ballots. >> sandra: some updates here from the hill, rep kevin hern, republican from oklahoma, says he expects a floor vote for speaker as soon as 3:00 today for house speaker after this nomination of scalise. he also said he's announcing a run for majority leader. byron, as far as the next speaker and what they will be tasked with attempting to unify a fractured conference with a slim majority. anticipation what that would look like. >> well, the majority is -- it is what it is.

they are going to have to be almost unanimous to pass anything on a partisan basis without democratic help. now when kevin mccarthy was ousted he portrayed the opposition of matt gaetz, the representative who led the move against mccarthy, he portrayed their motivation as personal. and if that's the case, then you are not going to have that with the new speaker, and it might be a lot easier with kind of a resting down of personal grievances for the republicans to actually act in a unified way after all the democrats did that under nancy pelosi with a tiny majority as well. but it's still gonna be a difficult road every time they have a piece of controversial legislation. >> john: all right. byron, we'll see if we get a vote this afternoon or as chad was suggesting, maybe later in the evening or even the wee hours of tomorrow morning. thanks, byron. >> all right, thank you, folks.

>> sandra: thanks for jumping on with us, now florida republican congressman mike waltz with us. thank you and you are on camera. appreciate that. what can you tell us about what's happening right now and what's going to happen this afternoon? >> well, here is what i can tell you is that we have a nominee, the majority of the republican conference has voted. it was 113 votes for scalise, 99 for jordan. eight voted for others, and then three voted present. so, by my math, 214. look, the question is -- two-fold. one, i supported jim jordan, i thought he could pull the conference together. he stated to the conference that he was behind mccarthy, he will get behind scalise, but importantly, and i think this is where he's at, jim jordan is absolutely right, what's the plan before we go to the floor. we also had a motion to change

the rules that we settle all of this internally and we don't go to the floor until we have 217. where everybody stands up behind closed doors and commits, that rule was defeated. so, now it is up to -- now it is up to representative scalise, our speaker nominee, to talk to those 99 that voted for jordan and get assurance they'll come over to him and avoid what we had in january. because at the end of the day and you know, as a veteran, this is near and dear to my heart, we have people dying out there amongst our allies, and we have americans in harm's way. we have to get our act together, we have to come together, and we have to demonstrate to russia, china, north korea, global terrorists, and especially iran, that we are strong, that we are united, i believe they smell weakness in this white house and

we can't be showing weakness in the house of representatives. >> john: we should mention congressman we are in a two-minute warning for the white house briefing. typically they do housekeeping at the top, we are expecting john kirby will brief this afternoon. one of the big issues is how much aid we are going to give to israel, how much aid we are going to give to ukraine, etc., etc. the white house is preparing a supplemental budget request for money that would include funds for israel, ukraine, taiwan, and the u.s. southern border. should those things in your mind be lumped together? >> i expect they are going to lump in disaster in there as well and try to conflate the issue. i think the american people deserve transparency, independent debates and those should not be lumped together. those are distinct issues, john.

but at the end of the day we have a sense of urgency. what we need to hear -- what we did not hear from the administration briefers this morning was the term hostages or americans taken hostage and what we are going to do. we have heard the fairytale that iran was not backing this horrific attack on israel, so we have a lot of unpacking to do because i think we have an administration that's in la la land or just has an ideological narrative they are trying to push. we are not buying it. >> sandra: just again alerting our viewers that we are waiting the white house briefing. obviously we will listen for many reasons with john kirby also joining karine jean-pierre, the press connect. as the a.p. notes crossing the wires a lot of republicans are going to want to prevent, spectacle of a messy house floor

fight like the grueling january bral when mccarthy was speaker, quotes your colleague from florida, people are not comfortable going to the floor with the majority and having the rest of the world watch the fight. we want it behind closed doors. what can you preview, not knowing when it's going to happen, are the conversations happening right now behind closed doors ahead of this? >> sandra, i 100% agree with representative camick. we supported a formal change of the rules mandated we do it behind closed doors. to go to the house floor now is a roll of the dice on what people who didn't vote for steve scalise are going to do and we have to -- i agree -- >> sandra: i have to jump in here, head straight to the white house. karine jean-pierre at the podium, listen. >> national security adviser jake sullivan, dr. liz cheryl

randall, domestic policy adviser and the senior adviser to the president for public engagement. this roundtable discussion will focus on the biden-harris administration unwavering support for israel following the hamas terrorist attacks and the implementation of president joe biden's national strategy to counter anti-semitism released in may. today and every day we are here to reaffirm the united states will continue to have israel's back and with that, admiral john kirby is here from the national security council to take any of your questions on the situation in israel. >> good afternoon, everybody. as karine noted, sadly the numbers of americans killed, murdered, has climbed and we

have a better, a little better sense today of how many more americans are unaccounted for or missing. we know that a number of those americans are being held hostage right now by hamas. i think we all need to steel ourselves for the distinct possibility these numbers will keep increasing and we may in fact find out that more americans are part of the hostage pool. so as karine said, our message to all these families affected, we are grieving with you, with you, we are sorrowful with you, worrying with you and do everything we can, particularly for those who don't know where a loved one is find out where they are and to get them home with you where they belong. and that includes of course being willing to assist in advice or counsel when it comes to hostage recovery efforts.

israelis have a robust hostage recovery capability of their own. sadly they have had to perfect that capability but we have a lot of know how too and we are offering to share that with the israeli defense forces. at the same time, sharing additional defense-related support. i think you saw the israeli military announced today with some imagery the first traunch of u.s. military assistance arriving in israel. that will continue. we also as i think the president alluded to yesterday were able to replenish some of the iron dome missiles, we had them in israel, we transferred ownership to the defense forces. so more aid, more assistance in the coming days. and u.s.s. gerald ford and

strike group are there arrived yesterday, for deterrent purposes to make it clear for an actor, terrorist, group, nation state, anybody who thinks with hostile intent that we will take our national security interests seriously. and note the u.s.s. dwight d. eisenhower, aircraft carrier and her strike group will be departing on a prescheduled, long scheduled deployment to the area of responsibility, start in the coming week or so. they will be coming initially across the atlantic and into the mediterranean where they will be available if needed. no decisions has been made. i've seen some press reporting out there that we have made some kind of final decision that a second carrier is going to be placed in the eastern med. no operational decisions like that have been made but she will be heading in that direction, her ships with her and available asset if needed. bottom line is as i said, we are sending a loud and clear message, the united states is

ready to take action should any actor hostile to israel try to escalate or widen this war and i think jake said that pretty well yesterday. and we will talk to our israeli partners to ensure they have what they need to defend their coupon country and people. almost an hourly conversation we are having with our counterparts. i know many of you have been asking about or expressing interest in the idea of safe passage in gaza for civilians. we are actively discussing this with our israeli and our egyptian counterparts. we support safe passage for civilians. civilians are not to blame for what hamas has done. they didn't do anything wrong and we continue to support safe passage. i can't tell you a specific route or corridor, i want to make it clear we are actively working on this with our egyptian and israeli counterparts. civilians are protected under the laws of armed conflict, and they should be given every opportunity to avoid the fighting.

if i could switch to ukraine quickly, today the secretary of defense announced at the ukraine defense contact group meeting in europe the united states is announcing a new aid package, includes air defense munitions, ammunition for u.s.-provided artillery, unmanned aerial systems, to help ukraine protect their people against russian and iranian drone strikes and anti-armor capabilities and more than 16,000 rounds of arms and ammunition. we believe it's imperative, winter is a -- approaching, they claw back territory from the russians on the ground. the package is another important signal of continued commitment to supporting the ukrainian people and utilizes funding

authorities congress authorized for ukraine during a prior fiscal year under the presidential draw down authority. we will provide ukraine with the weapons and equipment they need, but it is absolutely critical at that congress keep its commitment to the people of ukraine by providing additional funding. we are inactive conversations with members of congress about additional funding for ukraine and for israel, and it's critical that we believe congress sends a clear message to putin, sends a clear message to the israeli people, that the united states continues to have their back. and with that, i'll take some questions. >> john, the 22 americans unfortunately that have been killed, were all those americans killed believed to be killed by hamas, were all killed in israeli territory or do we know, do you know how many americans have been killed inside gaza? >> i'm afraid i don't. we know the number is accurate

as of right now. but this individual circumstances are not exactly clear. >> the group 22, it was an israel -- >> i don't have the details on every single one. you could certainly consult the state department. they might have a higher touch, they are in touch, i know they are trying to be in touch with the families. >> quickly, all signs suggest that israel will begin possible ground invasion relatively soon. i know you talked about safe passage. has the u.s. done anything to dissuade israel from moving ahead with the ground offensive? and if it does move ahead, has the president or administration officials correctly asked israel to show strength in how it goes about such an operation? >> we are going to let the israelis talk about their military operations, particularly in the future tense. we don't even talk about our operations in the future tense, so i don't want to get ahead of

where things are. and i certainly am not going to talk about israeli military planning. so i will let them take that. you heard the president talk yesterday the idea of you are asking about restraint, i mean, nobody wants to see any more innocent life lost, none. nobody. no matter who you are. if you are an innocent civilian, you didn't cause this, you didn't ask for this and shouldn't be having to fear for your life. nobody wants to see that happen, and i think it's important to remind that especially on the palestinian said, hamas is directly endangering their lives. headquartering themselves in hospitals and schools, residential buildings, using the palestinian people as human shields. they didn't ask for that either. hamas does not speak for the majority for the palestinian people. unlike the united states, unlike israel as the president said

yesterday, who have respect for the rule of law and the law of armed conflict, and respect for human life. hamas has none, none at all. so again, we'll let the israelis speak for the military operations. our focus squarely, and early hours, and they are early hours, make sure the israelis have what they need. >> clarify the numbers here. karine, you said 17 americans remain missing. yesterday you had said 20. make sure we are operating off the same thing. >> there is 17 missing, and 22 that are dead. >> and is there anything you can share with us about anything you know about the condition of the hostages, and also has there been any kind of communication with hamas, either directly or with our allies or partners about securing their release? is there any kind of receptiveness even to talk about this issue? >> so let me take the second one first.

obviously we are in discussions not only with the israelis about what hostage recovery could look like, but with other allies and partners in the region and some countries like qatar have open lines of communication with hamas, so of course we are casting the net wide as you would expect we would. we want to get these, all the hostages back with their families, particularly the american hostages, no question about that. now, where they are and in what condition, no. sadly we don't know. and that makes efforts very, very difficult, again in these early hours. we don't know if they are all in one group or broken in several groups, don't know if they are moved and what frequency and what locations. all of those questions we are working hard to answer. >> casting a wide net, has any communication been made with hamas? >> i'm going to leave the answer the way i gave it to you. i think just like in any other case when we are talking about getting americans home overseas, that have been held hostage or

wrongfully detained, the less you say publicly the better. >> and two on this region and one on another. in this atmosphere, i know some have questions about -- first on the humanitarian corridor, is it accurate that the egyptians have rejected calls to allow for one? >> i think you have to talk to the egyptian authorities on that. >> do talks continue? >> we believe safe passage is important and we want to see safe passage, it's a safe passage corridor opened up. we also believe it's important humanitarian assistance have a way to get to the palestinian people. and jake mentioned yesterday, we are inactive discussions with the israelis and the egyptians about that. >> there is of course this ongoing intelligence assessment and now political debate over iran, what it knew, what it may have done to support hamas in all of this. even if there's no direct evidence linking iran to this specific attack right now, does the u.s. believe iran needs to

pay some kind of a price or some kind of retribution for having supported hamas all along up to this point? >> the question almost -- i'm not picking on you ed, but implies we are just now waking up to the fact they have been supporting hamas and hezbollah and other networks. hamas is one of the most sanctioned terrorist networks on the planet, and iran, goodness, since the beginning of this administration, sanctioned some 400 plus entities with more than 40 different sets of sanction regimes. 30 of those just this past year alone. we have increased our military presence in the gulf region because of their attacks on maritime shipping, we have added additional sanctions because of their support to russia and the fact they are still providing drones and technology to mr. putin so he can kill innocent ukrainians and added military capability from the naval perspective in the eastern med.

nobody has turned a blind eye to the iranian destabilizing behavior. now, i think what you are trying to get at, what jake said yesterday still holds. we recognize there is broad complicity by iranians, because of the long standing support to hamas. hamas would not have been able to function at all had it not been propping up by the iranian regime but we have not seen any specific evidence that tells us they were involved in the planning or involved in the resourcing and the training that went into this very complex set of attacks over the weekend. >> one other, mention an issue in this hemisphere outlets in the room curious about -- several days now of protests in guatemala that have essentially locked down parts of the country amid the presidential transition. curious if you can give us a sense of how the u.s. is monitoring that and any message for protestors who hold up some

parts of society that have blocked gasoline and food shipments to parts -- >> certainly not going to involve ourselves in internal guatemalan politics. we believe in free and fair elections, we believe in democratic voices and certainly believe in the right of peaceful protests. people should have the right to protest, as long as they do it peacefully and a way that don't do others harm. >> john, you mentioned wanted to avoid actors in the region taking advantage of this. can you give us a sense of who you think might take advantage of this since you are worried about it? >> i think there's unfortunately long list of actors in the region that are hostile to israel, hezbollah is one of them, and you know, we have been watching with concern some of the rockets attacks that have come across the northern border of israel from lebanon, which obviously were coming from hezbollah, so we are clearly

concerned about that. >> concerned about iran as well? >> we are always concerned about iran. and iran's hostility to israel does not need reaffirmation by us, it's out there plain to see. >> you mentioned humanitarian corridor, but more staying on top of the humanitarian issue, what can be done and what is the u.s. doing to prevent a humanitarian crisis in gaza with the situation with power, water, food. >> as i said, we believe humanitarian assistance is important for the palestinian people that live in gaza and we are going to continue to pursue options to make sure that they get that humanitarian assistance. >> is the u.s. in conversation with the palestinian authority or the palestinian community here in the u.s.? >> we have been routinely in communication with the palestinian authority. i don't have, or i don't -- there's not meetings or discussions, you know, in recent hours that i can speak to, but

we have long maintained an open line of communication with them. >> how about does the u.s. also condemn perhaps potential war crimes israelis are committing in gaza, against gazans? >> our focus is making sure israel has what it needs to defend against the attacks. >> reported incursion into northern israel, reports from the idf, do you have any new information to share on that, reports of paragliders initially. >> we have taken a quick look at them. we are not in position to corroborate the validity of them. what i talked about with jeff, rocket attacks we know have occurred. >> and ask you separately about the hostages. presumably 22 dead, at least 17 held hostage, not only the number -- >> 17 are missing. >> excuse me, excuse me. >> and the number will

fluctuate. it could rise, or down, 17 today. >> understood. about those who remain hostages right now, has the president ruled out sending any american forces into gaza at any time to help secure their release to get them out safely. >> we have not made policy options or decisions with respect to hostage recovery. we have not made decisions about hostage recovery at this time. we just don't also have enough information, peter, to be able to make decisions like that, but you heard jake yesterday say, and the president has said we'll do everything we can anywhere around the world to make sure that americans held hostage have a path home and to be safe with their families. so we are keeping -- to the question, casting the wide net and keeping the options wide open as we get more information. we don't have enough granulaity

to fine tune the options. >> has the president spoken about those unaccounted or those dead? >> the state department has been in touch with many -- most of families we know have been killed. i don't know if they have talked to all of them, i have no conversations to speak to. >> what's the level of concern that american troops who are stationed in the middle east might be a target of iran or some proxy forces and are there steps being taken to secure military installations? >> well, sadly -- our troops in the middle east are well familiar with the ebb and flow of security concerns for protection. it's just parse and parcel being deployed there and never not a concern for commanders in the region when it comes to force protection because some other event somewhere else could have repercussions. the measures change all the

time, certainly are adapted to the situation and the defense department would -- will and of course will be able to speak to what they are doing. >> have you seeing any evidence of potential domestic threats that people might be inspired by these attacks to do harm here in the u.s. to synagogues or -- >> i know of no specific threats here domestically based -- like a spillover effect what's happening between israel and hamas. i know of no specific threats here to speak to. but, you heard the president talk about this yesterday, we are not going to assume anything. because of the rise of anti-semitism around the world and certainly here at home, it makes perfect prudent sense we take the kind of action we have taken with local and state authorities to increase our intelligence posture, domestic intelligence posture and make sure we are properly prepared to deter and disrupt any potential violent threat to the jewish community here at home and i think you will hear the

president talk about this more today. >> john, this was a massive intelligence failure. who bears responsibility for that? >> you know something, jacqui, there is going to come a time when it's appropriate for us to take a look back, retrospectively and see what the intel picture showed us or didn't show us, whether there's any gaps that need to be closed. there is a time for that and expect our israeli counterparts will do the same thing. now is not the time. >> can you speak to the reports that israel was warned by egypt? >> i can't. >> call from foreign affairs made the allegation this morning saying that was something that members were told on the foreign affairs committee, so has that been discussed at all, is that something you are looking into? >> i can't speak to the specific intelligence matters. again, there will be a time to look back at this as we always do and we will. right now we are sharpening the intelligence gathering and cooperation and sharing with

israel as we should, since they are involved inactive operations and making sure they get the tools they need. >> can you define what the direct link is when you guys talk about iran not being involved, no direct link. what do you consider to be a direct link? >> what i'm referring to there is any -- any evidence that we have that they were knowledgeable of and aware of these particular attacks. now of course as jake said yesterday, you know, they were obviously have been broadly aware of hamas's hostility to israel, and to some of the broad planning that hamas would do. we have not seen anything that tells us they knew specifically date, time, method, that they were -- that they were witting to this. we have not seen anything that tells us they specifically cut

checks to support this set of attacks, or that they were involved in the training and obviously this required quite a bit of training by these terrorists, or that they were involved in any directing of the operation. so again, i promise i'm not trying to monopolize the time here, but it's not -- we are not one and done here either. we are going to continue to look at the intelligence stream and see if it leads us to a different conclusion. all i can do is be honest with you about the conclusions we are coming to today and have not seen that. >> i kind of answered my follow-up. >> oh, good. >> the position of the administration at this stage - iran was not involved. it was in the planning for a year and how can we say iran was not behind it? >> that's what we think. >> the position that -- >> wha