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 -- >> what we think -- again, we

have not seen any evidence, specific evidence that iran was directly involved with these specific sets of attacks. that doesn't mean -- yeah, look we are going to keep looking at it. the book is not closed on it. we are going to keep looking at that. but that's just where we are right now. >> go ahead. >> iran thing, but just briefly was it iran -- >> i said evita. >> what did iran know, where did they know it, where is the white house, and when they knew it about this attack? >> i think i would give you the same answer i gave jacqui. >> china, the foreign minister is coming to d.c. soon, wondering if you can preview what's on the agenda, who he's meeting with and what the prospects are for a xi-biden meeting and whether it might be in november at apec. >> we'll have more than to say as we get closer to it. i don't have details now or

announce or speak to between president biden and president xi. >> john, i'm here. >> yesterday i saw a heart-wrenching stories of testimonies of israeli families who lost their loved ones, similar to the one that made you tear up on tv. one of them is the story of hahin catsman. his sister appeared to the israeli government, a peace activist, asking the israeli government not to kill in his name. is this a message you carry, we have 11 u.n. workers killed, four journalists and 1,100 civilians. how can you make sure these people are not collateral damage? >> i kind of addressed this before, happy to revisit quickly. we don't want to see any more innocent civilian life taken or lost. none. i mean -- the numbers should be 0 of innocent civilians killed

or harmed right now. sadly, that's not the case. and i can't stand here and wouldn't stand here before you and try to predict that in a war, which is still raging, and may rage for some time that there won't be additional civilian casualties. i wish i could promise you that's not going to be the case but i can't. we don't want to see any more but i can't promise that. all i can do is repeat what the president said, that this is what differentiates modern democracies like israel and united states from hamas. hamas is deliberately, the whole purpose of the initial attacks on saturday were to kill, to murder, to butcher, to slaughter. they weren't trying to occupy territory. they were trying to kill. and they are the ones placing the palestinians at greater risk by headquartering themselves in hospitals and schools.

>> thanks a lot. john, is the white house putting forward a funding package to congress that puts together funding for israel with funding for the border, funding for taiwan, and funding for ukraine? >> we are inactive conversations with congress with additional funding that we know we need specifically for israel and for ukraine. i'm not prepared to detail those conversations for you right now or tell you what the parameters are going to be, frankly the parameters have not been arrived at or decided upon but we are inactive discussions about additional funding. we need it, as i said in my opening statement. >> could you give a little bit of an update on what the administration is doing to find out more about the americans who are being held hostage and whatever you are able to discuss about what those efforts look like? >> tough, tough to get more detail. we are obviously talking to the

israelis about what they might know, they are on the ground and they have unfortunately had to deal with this sort of sen r i o before. so they have been tremendously forthcoming with the information that they have, but understanding that the information that even they have right now isn't all that specific. i mean, we just don't have a lot of granularity where the people are or what condition they might be in or whether they are being moved. so i truly wish i had more that i could provide because there's a lot of families out there really, really worried and the families frankly, too, for all their grief and sorrow, and the anguish they are going through, some of them have been helpful in terms of helping us understand where their loved ones were when they were abducted, some of them may have even seen it. so like it's -- it's a conversation that we are having with family members as well. >> thank you so much. i have a question on the role tech platforms are playing right

now. e.u. has specifically asked elon musk and others to crack down on misgiving information related to the attacks on israel. has the administration had this kind of engagement, is it making the same kind of demands? >> i'm not aware of such discussions with tech companies about that. >> thank you so much. the u.s. has been warning since saturday that hostile parties should not be escalating the conflict at this time. what evidence do you have of the message being heeded? >> it's not the thing they phone in and say ok, got it. we have not seen to date, we have not seen another actor intentionally try to widen the conflict. all we can do is by what we are seeing and not seeing. it's important we send that signal with the arrival of the carrier strike group and the rhetoric of course coming out from our administration, we'll keep doing that. >> and what variables and what

time frame would the u.s. look to consider when making a decision about deploying additional assets to the region. >> i think it's going to depend how things are going in the region. again, we don't want to see this conflict widen any more than it already has. israel's focus rightly on hamas opening up additional fronts for them, obviously, would be just a horrible scenario. we don't want to see that happen. >> congressman waller said on tv that they are expecting announcement in 24 hours about an airlift of u.s. citizens. can you tell us anything about that? >> i don't have any details on that. i would tell you, peter, that we are in -- state department is inactive touch with american citizens in israel, many of them as you know are dual nationals, to try to make sure that a, we have the connection, and b, that we know if they have any concerns like in the case that

they want to leave, so we are -- we are inactive conversations with americans on the ground there and we want to make sure -- right now there are still commercial carriers, not all, some, flying in and out of bengerian every day. there are viable ground routes if you wanted to leave safely out of israel, that is also an option to you. but neither of those options may necessarily be feasible or affordable to certain americans and so we are exploring actively a range of other options to assist if americans want to leave, i'm just not at liberty now to go into more detail about that. >> can you identify, do you know how many of the 22 americans who have died and the 17 unaccounted for, how many are dual citizens versus just pure, you know, only american? >> the state department might be able to give you that. i don't have that data handy.

but so many american citizens in israel are dual passport holders. >> do the israelis -- would we defer to the israelis in terms of deciding what actions to take if they are mostly their citizens. >> dual national with an american passport is an american, and we will take seriously our responsibilities to get any wrongfully detained or hostage, american hostage home to their families where they belong. they are americans. >> john, you talked about the eisenhower i believe prescheduled deployment to potentially be out there in case positioned. what about reports of the u.s.s. george washington and the h.m.s. prince of wales. are they also being red i had? >> i don't know of any plans for them to be readied. i would refer you to the defense department to speak to other units. again, i want to remind the eisenhower is preparing for a

long scheduled deployment to the region, and i don't have any operational decisions to speak to. i just thought it was important to put that into some context, i saw some reporting that seemed it was a definite decision she was going to join the ford. that could happen, i don't know. but she will be deploying into the mediterranean and available asset as well as her escort vessels. >> another follow-up here. it seems like you really have been trying to project the message that you want to contain this, you want to make sure that state and nonstate actors get the message that you want to keep this contained. so, how does it help that effort when you have statements like senator graham on capitol hill saying hezbollah and the north attacks israel in strength, we should tell the ayatollah we will destroy the i'll refineries and your oil infrastructure. how worried are you about

statements like that. >> i will let members of congress decide what they think should be done or not done. the president is the commandser in chief, and a strong supporter of israel, has been his entire life in public service. we have to answer for the policy decisions that we make and we are comfortable doing that. >> humanitarian quarter, i know you said there was conversations ongoing. could you provide some more detail. what would the u.s. involvement in that be. are we talking encouraging conversations with israel and egypt, would we have direct involvement in creating humanitarian corridor here for the 2 million plus people to leave. they have no option at this point. >> we want to see that they have an option. and israel and egypt are the two

most significant players when it comes to trying to get that corridor open. so, i think you can understand, at least i hope you do, i would not want to get into too much of the diplomacy here and the conversations that we are having, but we are having active conversations about trying to allow for that safe passage. so again, these civilians did nothing wrong and we want to make sure they have a way out. >> the prime minister and benjamin netanyahu have a conversation about this this morning, why ed? >> as i said in my first answer, i'm not going to get into too much of the diplomacy here. >> and some of the aid you said want to provide to the gaza strip -- medications, what kind of aid would the u.s. -- >> normal kind of humanitarian assistance we provide normallily. we are the biggest contributor to humanitarian assistance to the palestinian people particularly in gaza and we want to see the assistance continue. so it's food, water, medical supplies, medicine, i mean --

it's the whole thing of humanitarian assistance. these people are victims, too. they didn't ask hamas to do this. >> is there an increase in the amount of aid that's going? >> i don't have any new announcements to make in terms of increases. we are the greatest contributor of humanitarian assistance. we are obviously proud of that. they want to see the humanitarian assistance be able to continue. >> i want to ask you about oil and the money it's bringing in. the amount of oil brought in by iran, 85% to china and more oil above the price cap from russia, giving the president any pause on changing his energy policies for fossil fuels here in the u.s.? >> let me back up a little bit. it's important to remember that iran gets most of its oil revenue off the black market, and evading sanctions, which they do, it's costly to them, in

fact, our evidence is that they really only receive a fraction of the market value of the oil that they sell because they have to sell it on the black market. we will always, as we do in any case typically revisit sanctions regimes to see if they need to be changed or adjusted, specifically with respect to iranian oil. the president, since beginning of the administration has been concerned about making sure we have a viable global market for oil, working hard to keep the prices of gasoline down here in the united states. part of that is making sure you remove some of the volatility in the global supply and demand. i don't have any announcements or decisions to make today with respect to any changes to the domestic oil production. >> isn't it a national security issue when you have countries that are profiting off of oil and the increased price of oil, that don't like israel, that don't like america? >> we don't want, for instance,

russia to be able to get a windfall in profits from the oil market so that they can then turn that around and apply that to weapons in ukraine. we don't want to see iran be able to do much of the same, which is why we are putting as much pressure on them as we are. >> why not increase oil production here? >> i don't have any announcements -- >> thanks. just to follow up on brian's question, i know contours and congressional package are taking shape, can you give us a timeline and how quickly the u.s. will exhaust before congressional action -- >> we have existing appropriations to support israel in the near term, and i got asked last time what is near term or what's a bit mean. i can't give you a date certain on the calendar because a lot is going to depend on the expenditure rate and replenishment need and what the ability to do is it.

in the near term we have appropriations and authorities for both, ukraine and israel. but you don't want to be trying to bake in long-term support when you are at the end of the rope, and in ukraine on the ukraine funding, we are coming near to the end of the rope. we announced $200 million, and we'll keep that aid going as long as we can. but it's not going to be indefinite. so, are we moving with a sense, yes, no date on the calendar. >> follow up on that for a second. the lack of a speaker in the house of representatives i'll venture to say has probably not had any impact on the situation at the moment. are there, though, coming to be immediate needs for israel if republicans get their act together on the hill. >> i don't need to tell you, sav saving savings one -- civics

101, it's critical moving things forward. so the sooner there is a speaker of the house the more comfortable in terms of supporting israel and ukraine. right now, you are right, because of existing appropriations and existing authorities, we have been ok but it will not last forever. >> immediate needs at all do you see? >> in the immediate term right now, we can continue to support with the authorities and appropriations we have, with ukraine. but we are running out of runway. >> two questions. given the situation in the middle east, will the white house lean on the senate to move some of these military promotions more quickly and one by one if necessary? and then second, more generally, given hamas has killed 22 americans and 17 are still in hostage, i know you said the goal here is not to widen the conflict, but why has the united states only assumed a

supplemental role thus far? >> on your first question, what's going on in israel right now just underscores how important it is that our military has the leadership they need in place. and it's not just the ones in the jobs now that are being held up, it's the jobs they are supposed to go to. right now the incoming fifth fleet commander, the three star navy admiral in charge of the naval forces in the gulf region is not confirmed for that job, so the guy in the job is still doing it. so these rotations matter and they do have an impact on the military's ability to fleet up and to improve the leadership capability across the force so it is having an impact and it would anyway. but i think now that you've got these moves in israel and you

have the need to provide additional military resources from the navy and the eastern med, all i think just highlights how dynamic the security environment is around the world and how much more critical that the leadership of the military be able to address that through the normal promotion process and the normal assignment process. i would take issue with your comment about a supplemental role. i'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but -- >> to assess, offer advice and counsel. >> that's right, we are, and we are going to have the conversations with the israelis. if you are talking about the hostage recovery efforts we'll have those conversations. but as jake said yesterday, we'll do what we need to do for our citizens who are being held hostage. we will do what we need to do, we'll do what is possible to do, but i think as you heard in my answer to mary, we just don't have a whole lot of fingertip feel. it's hard to come up with a policy option when you are not really sure where they are, how many they are, whether they are

being moved. so, we are working this very hard hour by hour, but i'm not going to stand up here and lie to you and say we have it all figured out. >> thanks, john, karine, thank you, john. appreciative for the administration's support in words and in deed, and a few quick questions. follow up on the reports that hamas is calling for mobilization friday, october 13th. any specific proactive measures that american jews should take in your opinion. >> here at home? >> here at home. >> well, first of all, i mean -- you've heard the president talk about this, we understand the anxious -- the anxiety, the concern certainly here in the united states as anti-semitism, unfortunately, rears its head but also we know that the jewish community is almost like a family. it's big but it's small, and

everybody knows somebody, and we know there's so many americans in the jewish community here who are worried about friends and family members that are there, we share that worry with them. we want them to know that we know that there's fear and that we are going to do everything we can to reduce that level of fear, that they should be able to worship and recreate and work in peace and safety on every street in the united states of america and that's why we are working so closely with state and local authorities to be able to identify potential threats and disrupt the threats before we happen. but mostly we want the jewish community over there and certainly here to know we are with them. >> one more question. in the event that israel strikes iran -- >> i won't get into hypothetical situations or policy options from that. >> sandra: we are going to take

a brief break from the briefing there, and get back to john kirby in a moment. for the meantime, antony blinken secretary of state is speaking we believe at joint base andrews. listen. >> at the same time, anticipate further needs, further requests. we have been working with congress on this and look forward to making sure israel has what it needs. second, reiterating, reaffirming the very strong message that president biden has delivered to any country or any party that might try to take advantage of this situation, and that message is don't. the president has deployed as you know the world's largest aircraft carrier group to the region to make very clear our intent to deter anyone contemplating further aggression against israel. finally, very focused on our own people, our own citizens. we lost 22 americans, that number could still go up and

probably will. at the same time, we have a number of americans who remain unaccounted. we are working very closely with the government of israel to determine their whereabouts and if they have been taken hostage by hamas to work to secure their release. all of these things are on the agenda over the next dare or so with israel but the main point is this. we stand with israel, we'll continue to do so. thank you. >> mr. secretary, yesterday jake sullivan said u.s. officials were talking to the israelis about getting civilians safe passage through gaza into egypt. today john kirby said they are still talking to the officials about this. what is the hold-up, what's the obstacle to get civilians safe passage out of gaza? >> john, we are talking about and talking to israel about that, egypt about that, it's an ongoing conversation. i can't get into the details. some of this is needless to say

and understandably complicated but make sure to the best of our ability and make sure that civilians are not harmed. israel has to take steps to defend itself, make sure that any ongoing threat is dealt with, and i believe it has to make sure that going forward what happened doesn't happen again. >> is the issue more on the israeli side or egypt side? >> i'm not going to get into the details but ongoing. >> in conversations between the u.s. and israel, has the u.s. advocated strengths in terms of possible ground -- in gaza -- [indiscernible] >> i'm not getting into the operational details what israel may or may not do. i think you heard the president speak to this in his very strong and forceful comments and what separates israel, the united states and other democracies

when it comes to incredibly difficult situations like this is our respect for international law. and as appropriate the laws of war. we do everything we can to make sure in these situations we avoid civilian casualties. that is in direct contrast with hamas which uses people as human shields. it actually seeks to put palestinian civilians in situations where they could be harmed. this is very much part of their game plan. so, we know that israel will take all of the precautions that it can just as we would and again, that's what separates us from hamas and terrorist groups that engage in the most heinous kind of activities. >> thank you. we'll have a chance to talk later. thank you. >> sandra: you've been listening

to secretary of state antony blinken, he will now depart for israel. he says we are determined to provide all israel needs in this fight and john, this coming on the heels of listening to john kirby update from the white house a short time ago confirming 22 americans dead, 17 unaccounted for, the first time the administration acknowledged americans are indeed being held hostage by hamas. >> john: and one of the big questions is what to do about it. because it's almost certain that any americans who are held with 150 or so captives that hamas took on saturday are probably ensconced in the rabbit tunnels in gaza that hamas has been building over the decades. i don't know if they will try to negotiate it down, but it loses

a bargaining chip. a sticky wicket. >> sandra: israel defense spokesperson is standing by. he's going to be joining us in just a moment. but first we are going to take our viewers back to the touch screen for a moment to really give some more details on the ongoing threat right now that is coming from the north looking obviously at the border of israel here. lebanon, obviously is a focus, syria is a focus, it was 3:51 a.m. eastern time this morning that an anti-tank missile was launched from lebanon toward a military post adjacent to the community -- and thousands we are told to the northern border. we'll get him to weigh in on that. shelled a border town of duhara,

the area where the missile attack came from, about right here on the border, east of that town that was hit on the border. so that was the situation early this morning. really quickly, just taking you through some more of what we are watching as far as geographic location, this sort of broadens it out, gives you perspective on syria's location on this map here. take the viewers to the next one to give you a better idea of the air attacks north of the gaza strip, south of tel aviv. these were the rocket strikes early saturday morning as this was beginning to unfold. the next screen, the land attacks, gaza strip, tel aviv, here are the land attacks we detailed, the breach of that major security wall, the iron wall as it is called along the gaza strip. just gives you a really clear concise angle as to how hamas was able to breach and enter the

country. sea attacks to the north of the gaza strip. a clear picture of how it unfolded. take the viewers to the last screen, john. we continue to tell the stories of the individual communities, tiny towns, small communities that have been hit so badly. looking at kfar aza, located less than a quarter mile from the gaza border here, detailed on the screen. according to i-24 news, hamas terrorists invaded early saturday morning, at least 40 babies there, some beheaded, they describe it as a massacre in that town. a survivor of the attack said we saw our little piece of paradise, little piece of heaven was totally burnt, burnt with blood everywhere. atrocities in the towns, and

barry, workers found 100 bodies in this tiny farming community there. you've been hearing trey yingst report on the ground, about 10% of the population of the town. a long hostage standoff with gunmen, and an israeli weapons organization, weapons everywhere, grenades, rpgs, cleared hundreds of bodies there. and there are so many stories like them. >> john: and jonathan, i want to ask you, lieutenant colonel, about something that triggered in the north in the last couple hours. apparently every air raid siren and alarm went off, it was believed there was an ill

filtration from lebanon. the question was asked at the white house briefing, i saw some reports that suggested it was a false alarm. what do you know? >> yes, thank you for having me and hello. so, the situation on the northern front is of many moving parts and constant threat of hezbollah activity. you reported very accurately and i commend you on your visuals, they are better than what we have been presenting, and the situation there were anti-tank missiles as you reported yesterday and the situation is very, very tense. we have hezbollah deployed along the border. they have in the past used uavs and drones and others, and it's a threat that we are familiar with and the thought and the alarm was that there was an aerial incursion into israel. after a short time, after the alarm sounded and we ordered israeli civilians into shelters,

in fear of such an assault, an aerial assault, we investigated it and it became apparent there was some kind of malfunction or miscommunication in the system. we have been able to confirm that there was no aerial incursion and no incursion on the ground. i think this event goes to prove how high alert the system is, how ready and tense everything is along the border. these are live combat areas where there is friction with enemy forces and that is probably why this alarm tripped off many, many sensors and millions of israelis scrambled for their bomb shelters because of the alarm that went off. >> sandra: thank you very much for joining us. if i could sort of take our viewers back to the map since we have you, if you could give us a further update, we were reporting about 4:00 eastern time this morning that anti-tank missile that came in from lebanon that resulted with

israel deploying tens of thousands to the border here to the northern border with the israelis shelling the lebanese border town just east of that community, can you give us a better idea what is happening along the northern border, the military build-up happening and the sort of threat that you are preparing for? >> yes, we'll use yours and zoom out a second and look at the big picture. the other side of the border the biggest and powerful iranian proxy in the world, hezbollah, in terms of fire power, more than 130,000 rockets, missiles, anti-tank missiles, infantry soldiers, uavs, gliders, artillery and much, much more. so, that's the enemy on the other side.

it is fully funded and controlled almost totally by iran, by the revolutionary guard, and what they are doing over the last days ever since hamas launched their bloody assault on southern israel, what hezbollah are doing in the north, they are pressure ling and the anti-tank missile is one we repelled. >> john: good to catch up with you again. we hope to speak to you tomorrow. thank you for your time. white house confirming 17 americans are unaccounted for in israel and acknowledging the very first time hamas has taken a number of americans hostage. their whereabouts up until now had been unknown. but now confirmed that they are likely in hamas hands. here is where things stand right now.

the state department confirming at least 22 americans were killed in hamas attacks. the white house working with partners in the region to create safe passage for civilians out of gaza. the last operational power plant has shut down after running out of diesel, leaving only local generators to power the area. on the ground in israel with mike tobin, a frightening moment seconds ago he had to retreat to a bomb shelter. what's going on where you are right now, mike? >> mike: well, the rocket fire really has increased over the last hour. you just mentioned retreating into the bomb shelter. we are at a checkpoint on the northeast side of the gaza strip, no stranger to the rocket fire and this would make four bombardments in the last hour. frankly, the first thing we see is the iron dome interceptors launch. it takes a little while for the rockets to make it from the gaza

strip to this area. they are intercepting a quarter mile behind us with the tremendous blast each time. now, earlier in the day he were at ashkelon, a town north of the gaza strip. they had been subject to the palestinian rocket fire. one rocket attack or impact, more rockets came in, and the israelis took us into the shelters. >> this is a location of the latest rocket strike inside of israel. here is a piece of what's left over, apparently, from the rocket that hit. this is the point of impact, a stone landscaping wall, if you will, and if you look in here real close, you can see a bit of the rocket, i can't pull it now because it's buried into the ground but still hot from the explosion and the rocket hit here, the force of the blast went this way, blasted through the fencing and there's a house there that broke out all the glass. we have reports of a couple injuries because of the rocket, it appears right now the injuries are really just of the force of the broken glass that went through the next house over

and the individual was hurt -- whoa whoa whoa whoa. and you can hear off in the distance some of impacts made from the rockets and a drill that sadly, people in israel repeat over and over again. and up and down the gaza strip, tens of thousands of israeli soldiers, infantry, armor, armored personnel carriers, the big canons are ready. they have been softening the battlefield all day and night and something we have not heard before in the background, looks likes these guys -- let's zoom in. we have had reports of an infiltrator, what i was just about to talk with you about is the fact there has been machine gunfire here on the israeli side of the border and that's because there's one confirmed report of an infiltrator who got into the sderot area here, and

intercepted and killed with a tank, and now these guys are looking off into the brush to see if they can see anything. we have heard additional machine gunfire with the reports it's possibly another infiltrator here in the sderot area. john. >> john: mike, stay safe. sandra. >> sandra: our reporter roundtable is following from every angle. peter doocy at the white house, jennifer griffin at the pentagon, eric is in new york city and trey yingst in southern israel. he's been on the ground from the beginning of this. trey, you've covered wars all over the world including previous conflicts in israel. what stands out to you in the first four days of this? >> john, sandra, good afternoon to you. what stands out to me is how unexpected this was. it was a saturday morning, and no one was prepared for what was about to take place. a massacre of civilians and unimaginable scale. more than 1200 people total, some of those are soldiers, but

the vast majority are civilians who were slaughtered in their homes. we saw that today in the town of be' rei, we got a full understanding of the numbers we knew. 10% slaughtered, more than 100 at the hands of hamas. >> you can see the blood-stained patio of the home, people were resting at the time, early in the morning on saturday when hamas militants stormed into their homes, slaughtering women and children. soldiers here tell us they found bodies decapitated, people with hands tied behind their back, and then executed. the kitchen floors were stained with blood. mothers holding their small children, bodies decapitated, horrific, horrific scenes in southern israel. what really stood out to me was the soldier describing to us when they first came in and saw these things, he said there was

a mother guarding her child and they had been both executed. and it just gives you a sense of how these militants, these terrorists showed no mercy whether they entered into these communities along the border. people were having breakfast, some were still in bed. they were resting, it was a saturday and it did not matter. they didn't care. they came in and killed as many people as possible. outside that town they are still collecting the bodies of hamas militants. you can hear people are chanting, there is a level of -- i hesitate to call it readiness, but it is readiness. this country knows what comes next and the civilian population, even those not serving in the military are doing everything they can to support the troops here along the border. thousands of them. we saw next to this position here, people came from a private restaurant and they brought grills and they were making hamburgers for the soldiers, anything they could do to support this effort. john, sandra. >> john: resilience among the israeli people is remarkable. go to the white house and peter

doocy, came up again in the briefing, comes up every day and that is why isn't the white house talking more about iran's potential involvement here in this attack and john kirby again said today well, we know that iran funds hamas and does all of this but no direct connection. i mean if you are an accessory to the crime, you are just as guilty as the person who committed the crime. why aren't they framing it that way? >> because there's a hesitancy to go there out of fear the united states will get drawn into a broader middle east conflict and the same thing we hear from them about the $6 billion that was unfrozen. they say that specific account with that specific $6 billion did not pay for this attack because the attack planned long before that money was unfrozen. but the same breath they say of course we know iran funds terror

operations, terror groups like hamas, like hezbollah. something that's interesting, while i was walking out here, talking to a senior official. it sounds like they are keeping a close eye on president biden's schedule because the split screen was a little jarring earlier today. you watch the live feeds coming out of israel, coming out of gaza, there are explosions, people in danger. and the same time president biden is standing in the rose garden talking about junk fees. of course junk fees, something that nobody likes. but it's nothing compared to ongoing terror campaigns in the middle east. he is scheduled to travel to philadelphia on friday to talk about bidenomics and the benefits to the climate and to union jobs. you get a sense from talking to folks here that if things really heat up even more in israel and gaza, there is a possibility that they will look at the schedule, sounds like they are always looking at the schedule, but until they have direct

information linking -- and to use the cliche term, a smoking gun. until they have a smoking gun despite all the reporting that iran is responsible for helping plan, finance, coordinate this weekend's attack, they are not going to go there. >> john: i'm not sure how much more things could heat up, peter, in israel. there was a british airways flight about to land at the airport coming in from london, because of a threat on the ground it turned around and went back to britain and british airways shut down the rest of the flight schedule to israel. >> sandra: we are watching all of that, and jennifer, you have unique perspective on all of this. you were there in 2005 when the israelis were evacuated from the gaza strip. >> well, sandra, thanks for reminding our viewers. we were there, reporting live as 21 jewish settlements were

evacuated after the prime minister sharon took a decision to pull out all the jewish people from the gaza strip and handed over to the palestinian authority. mention history of the time period, that's where we saw the rise of hamas and almost the complete takeover of gaza by hamas. israelis pulled out on september 12th, 2005. 11 days later a parade through gaza and hamas was showing off weaponry and streets were crowded. that weaponry exploded. there was an explosion and ten people were killed instantly, body parts everywhere, these were palestinians killed by hamas weapons and hamas blamed israel at the time and said it was an airstrike, an israeli airstrike. it was not, that was a lie to cover the fact it was hamas weapons that exploded injuring 50 people in addition to killing ten others so hamas immediately

started firing rockets into israel this. is 11 days after the israelis pulled out of the gaza strip. it threw everything into chaos. egyptians closed the raffa border, supposed to be the outlet to the palestinians to have some semblance of an economy and allow trade back and forth. the border gets closed. hamas starts to fighting with the palestinian authority, abbas and his group and then hamas wins the parlimentary elections in gaza, and 2007, a little bit of a civil war between the palestinian authority and hamas, hamas wins and basically they have been in control of the gaza strip for the last 18 years. and they have been building up their arsenal, building up their rockets, they have been obviously honing their skills. this was a very well planned and trained attack involving more than 1,000 palestinians. that is not -- this was not a rag tag group that made their way across the fence.

in terms of the intel and what the u.s. has right now, and i've talked to not only u.s. intel officials but also middle east intel officials, they don't have the smoking gun that suggests there was a meeting or a phone call or anything tying iran to the attack. they are looking, and they have not given up -- not closed the book as john kirby said on that, but any reports, there was a wall street journal report of a meeting in beirut, no evidence of that. >> john: let's go to eric now, in new york. eric, you've covered the middle east for most of your career, if not all of your career at some point in time. talk to us about the historical significance of these attacks, particularly in light of these negotiations between saudi arabia and israel that seem very close to producing some sort of

normalization of relations, that seems to be totally off the table. >> yeah, at least right for now, john. you are and seeing the attacks by hamas is a way to try and derail the pending normalization between saudi arabia and israel. let me go back to 1947, british mandate ended and the united nations passed a resolution establishing land for the jews and for the arabs, that led, though, to the 1948 arab-israeli war and the recognition of the state of israel immediately by president harry s. truman. since that time, israelis have had to show defiance, courage, resolve, resilience, because they have gone through these wars, the surprise war yom kippur, this attack seen as the greatest attack against israeli and jewish lives since the holocaust, there was the hijacking of the airplanes, and the massacre of the israeli

athletes in 1972. israeli psyche when you are there, this has wounded them somewhat in the belief the idf can always protect them, but the resolve, best said to me in 2016 i interviewed one of the founding fathers of the jewish state, shimon perez, his apartment in tel aviv, two months before he asked away, listen to what he says about the human spirit. >> nothing and nothing, neither people, no strengths, no money, no friends, discovered something else. that the real natural resource is the human being. people don't realize that what they have inside them exceeds the land, exceeds the water, and exceeds anything.

it is discovered. >> israel discovered it is the human being, we are seeing that now, tens of thousands more of reservists, 300,000 willing to take up arms to protect the jewish state, their homeland. >> sandra: eric, live in new york city, approach all of you joining us. eric, peter, jennifer, trey, thank you for your continued reporting. >> john: thanks, all. harvard university facing growing backlash over a student group, and administrators are condemning the speech saying students don't speak for the school but they are not the only university facing the heat. molly line is in cambridge, massachusetts with the latest. molly. >> good afternoon, john. reaction is coming quick after a letter from the president of nyu student bar association, blamed

israel for the horrific hamas attacks. ryna workman writes the regime of state sanctioned violence made it necessary. i condone violence of apartheid and settler colonialism. the dean of the law school declared the message was not from the law school nor did it speak for leadership and international law firm set to hire workman has taken back the offer. and harvard, a letter signed by 30 student organizations, blaming israel responsible for unholding violence. when response was published monday night it did not mention the student groups and the former president larry summers posted again to say the delayed leadership statement fails to meet the needs of the moment, why can't we find after george

floyd's death, or in russia, hundreds of israelis attending a music festival. harvard's current president put out another statement, this matter and others, students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group, not even 30 student groups, speaks for harvard university or its leadership. the group students for justice in palestine call for the chapters to join a mass mobilization for tomorrow, we are tracking that as well. john, back to you. >> john: molly, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: cory mills, working to get americans out of israel. every minute that is, and we understand that you helped rescue 32 americans from israel today. can you tell us about those efforts? >> well, thanks so much for having me, yeah. it's unfortunate that i won't be able to share too many of the details, we are still running operations at this time, a lot of americans are trying to get out, many whose flights have

been canceled or they have been stuck into an area that is no longer creating a permissible environment. so myself, i went in and was very thankful to be able to get for the second time by the way, i'll add, helping the biden administration who has failed to do their job. first time i did it was in 2021, i conducted the overland rescue of americans, here it is the second time doing the biden administration's work because they have no plan, no strategy to get the americans out who are trapped and the church groups are left behind. biden administration wants to do the lids, but i think it's time the american people put a lid on the disastrous administration that continues to fail in the plan and strategy, to get americans out or to take into account the foreign policy fub that they create that leads to these types of incidents. >> john: congressman, aishah hasnie, you know her well, is reporting she's got sources in the senate telling her there's a plan to potentially using

charter aircraft to get 16,000 americans out of israel, may begin in the next 48 hours. what do you know about that? >> i have not heard too much on the actual operation itself but i do know that the minute you start seeing a potential counteroffensive or hezbollah kick in or other proximal issue groups kick in out of iraq and syria, that could put a damper on things, especially if they take indirect fire on the runway which would cause the aircraft to either one, do evasive maneuver or cancel the flight path in entirety. so i hope they can get in and get as many americans out as possible and hope we don't see the repeat in 2021 in afghanistan, where americans were left behind and abandoned by the administration.

>> sandra: karine jean-pierre at the briefing earlier on the ongoing situation. listen. >> we know that so far 22 americans lost their lives and 17 remain unaccounted for. we know that these numbers are likely to increase in the days ahead. as the president said this afternoon, this attack has brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of anti-semitism and genocide of the jewish people. >> sandra: painful reality and remindser that the death toll right now, 22, 17 americans unaccounted for, the white house saying americans are indeed being held hostage by hamas. so we are going to wait on more updates, congressman, can you tell us a little bit, is there anything you can share with us about those americans that you helped rescue today? what you heard from them, their

stories? >> so, i worked with one of the pastors of this church group as well as for a couple of isolated individuals that were stuck in these areas. they had tried to get on multiple flights, their flights were canceled, they felt they were kind of being boxed in as some of the aggression around them started to increase. and really were just looking for an answer, looking for a way out. a couple of them had called the state department and did not get a whole lot of support, and so at that stage i just felt it was necessary for me to step in and try and do something. our government doesn't necessarily define who we are as americans. i think the american spirit is very much alive and i think standing up and stepping in is really what the people were looking for and i hope that them being home now or them actually getting out and to be in a safe space has given them confidence that americans will not be left behind and at least those of us who are elected officials will stand up when it's need fire department. >> sandra: congressman, appreciate you jumping on with us thank you, and thank you for your efforts.

>> john: one of the irony of this, you can't get a flight to tel aviv. people are trying to get back to israel. for more, mike pence, former vice president mike pence, and 2024 presidential candidates. thanks for hanging with us. i went with you on a trip to ankara, turkey where you read the riot act to president erdogan when he was threatening to take on the kurds. he dropped that plan pretty quickly. does this white house need to have a similar engagement with iran who is believed to be fully funding this, if not directly behind it? >> well, let's start with the fact that the images coming out of this, stories coming out of israel are horrific. this is the worst assault on the jewish people since the holocaust, and we ought to meet

this moment with american strength. we need to speak with one voice that america stands with israel but also we need to make it clear we are going to stand with israel while israel does what needs to be done in the gaza strip, which is not containment, which is what's happened since 2005 but i believe we need to make it clear the united states of america will continue to stand by israel until they crush hamas in gaza. and you know, i saw earlier in your broadcast the secretary of state headed into the region. i would have rather they announced the u.s.s. eisenhower was headed into the region to pull alongside the u.s.s. gerald r ford. and i would tell you, john, i think you are on to it. i mean, when we got the president erdogan and turkey to stand down on his invasion into syria that threatened our allies and the syrian defense forces is because we made it clear to him that we were going to extract a

strong economic punitive set of sanctions against turkey if they didn't do otherwise. i mean, it's incomprehensible to me the biden administration, after years of cow-towing to iran, after years of a policy of appeasement toward tehran, is now continuing to refuse simply cancel that $6 billion in ransom payment and also they ought to be calling for what are called snap-back sanctions to further isolate iran. the answer here is american strength, a show of force in the region that makes it clear that we will stand by our most cherished ally, yesterday, and essential united states of america use the power of our economy, isolate iran and if the invasion continues out of gaza, hezbollah takes further steps in the north we need to put

incredible pressure on iran, and we may well strike the very same refineries lindsey graham has spoken about in the region. >> sandra: sandra here, and the white house stating and confirming that we have heard, 17 americans are unaccounted for, 22 dead, that there are americans being held hostage right now by hamas. can you speak -- we have a minute or so left here. this is a huge question. but i'll ask you, what is this like, the urgency of this moment, to get in there and get these americans? >> well look, i don't know why joe biden is doing press conferences in the rose garden talking about something other than america's role as leader of the free world and the fact that there are americans being held hostage in gaza. i'm telling you what, if i was president of the united states i would have had the team in the

situation room, i would have directed joint special operations command to stand up special forces and immediately be prepared to deploy into gaza and tell hamas you either give up all the american hostages, give you will all the israeli hostages, or we are going in with idf forces and we are going to bring them home. >> john: all right. mr. vice president, thank you for joining us again. we appreciate you hanging with us for all the breaking news. see you again today. >> sandra: thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> john: this is day five of this now, and who knows how long it's going to go on for. 33 days in 2006, but this could go on a lot longer than that. >> sandra: we thank everybody for joining us for our continuing coverage here on the fox news channel. thanks for joining us on "america reports." i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts. we will see you tomorrow