said, wants the hold lifted. you are talking about 375 officers at this point, 379 positions, it's a lot of senior leadership that can't move right now and let me give you an example here, now that you made me think of it. let's just take a look at the central command region of the world. i won't go through all of it. but here is some of the positions that are being affected by mr. tuberville. fifth fleet commander, the fleet that's in the gulf region. the deputy fifth fleet commander. the deputy central command commander. the defense atache to israel. expeditionary wing, chief of staff at u.s. central command, and good one, deputy director of strategy plans and policy for u.s. central command. helps write operational plans and executes policy decisions at that level and there's more than that. i mean -- it's beyond ridiculous

that this one senator is having this kind of an impact on our operational readiness and if you don't think it isn't, i would urge him or anybody else who doubts this, go on down to tampa, florida and talk to the folks in central command about the priorities and what they are trying to do on behalf of our administration's policy in the middle east, especially right now with everything going on. it's having an impact and as karine rightly said, an impact on family members, can't get schools for the kids, can't buy or rent houses, don't know where they are going to be living next. absolutely ridiculous. >> the vice president was over in london and said if israel and ukraine were bifurcated the president would veto it. you over the last couple of days have explained that you would be something offset, especially involving the irs. but i wanted to be clear, if the president was presented with a

clean israel funding bill without ukraine, he would veto that as well? >> the president believes the supplemental requests that we submitted contains four really critical national security urgent needs. israel, ukraine, indo-pacific resource, when it comes to manufacturing of submarines, and of course, border security. all four important. and the whole idea of an urgent supplemental, you are submitting what you think are urgent requests and the president wants to see all of them honored, acted on by congress, all of them together. he would not have submitted it that way if didn't believe they were not all important and should be acted on together. >> obviously you want to see them all together, but lawmakers are trying to figure out right now how to kind of negotiate through this, and seems to be sort of an unclear signal from the administration. was the vice president correct, he would veto israel only bill if it didn't have other issues you were concerned about? >> the president would veto an

only israel bill. i think that we have made that clear. >> thanks, admiral. the president keeps saying israel needs to follow international law. israel needs to follow international law. that suggests he thinks that israel isn't following international law, doesn't it? >> no. >> why would he be saying that if he felt israel was doing everything to do to prevent civilian casualties. >> we have been saying from the beginning, nancy, we want to see our good friend and partner abide by the shared commitments for the respect for civilian life and the law of war. we have been saying that since dang near the beginning of it. >> i've never heard him say ukraine needs to follow international law. he's making a point with israel. >> these are different conflicts and ukraine was the victim of a massive invasion by a neighboring nation, and their military operations have been,

with the exception of the counteroffensive going after russian positions, largely defensive in nature. it's a different situation than what the israeli defense forces are doing inside gaza going after hamas terrorists in a fairly aggressive way. >> question about the evacuees the president said 70 something dual citizens were able to make it out today. how many days do you anticipate it will take to get all of the americans who want to leave out of gaza? >> we don't know. as i said in my opening statement, we hope that that number can increase over coming days and we can get them all out very, very soon. today's progress, i mean yesterday was five, so far as you and i are speaking, it's 74. we are hoping that number could increase throughout the day, hoping. that's a good sign the trajectory is going in the right direction, we want to get them out as soon as possible but could not put a date and tell you that's it. >> is part of the deal none of them will stay in egypt, that

they'll all leave and go elsewhere? >> that's up to them. they are free citizens. american citizens and have families to look after. that's why we are getting them collected at the embassy in cairo and the consular staff verified their identifies, got them on busses and now we are going to be working on whatever forward onward movement they may want. some may not want that, but we'll work that out individually with each family. >> john, the israelis are saying referring to jabalia as a refugee camp is a misnomer. >> i'll leave them to speak to their operations. >> bilateral, dominican-haitian border dispute come up. what is the position on that? >> largely over the security

situation in haiti and efforts to work with the international community to hold those accountable causing that insecurity and the violence, but also to work on ways throughout the region to provide relief to the haitian people. >> thanks, john. talking about getting americans out of gaza, president biden said i want to thank our partners in the region and particularly qatar. the leader of hamas lives in qatar. why is president biden thanking them for anything? >> oh, geez, peter. take a step back and look at this. qatar -- >> terrorist group that killed americans and kidnapped americans in the last month. >> peter, qatar has been helpful in getting those americans out. i'm sure you would agree with me and everybody at your network would agree getting the hostages out is a good thing. qatar has lines of communication with hamas that almost nobody else has. i'm not saying we support hamas,

of course we don't. they are a terrorist organization. and israel has an absolute right to go after them. qatar has lines of communication not everybody else has and it would be irresponsible, in fact i would expect that you and everybody else in here would be going after me if we weren't doing everything we could and having every possible conversation we can have to get americans that are held hostage back home with their families. if we weren't doing that, it would be diplomatic malpractice. let me read something to you, if you don't mind. i think i want to put this in context here. let me tell you what we are dealing with with hamas. this is your notebook, karine. sorry. this fella, hamas a guy named hamad did an interview. said israel has no place on our land. we must remove it, it constitute security, military catastrophe

to the arab nation and must be finished. we are not ashamed to say this with full force. must teach israel a lesson and will do this again and again. that's what the israeli people are up against and that's the group that are holding innocent americans as well as 200, you are going to say why are you talking to them. and why are you -- no, i'm not. i'm not. >> if qatar is so helpful. why aren't we asking them to hand over the leader of the terrorist -- >> we are working with qatar to get our people out and aid in. that's a priority right now and helping israel go after hamas. >> as you push the israelis for humanitarian pauses, are they just supposed to sit back and let hamas attack them and attack them and attack them and not fight back? >> we have been crystal clear that israel has a right to defend themselves. i mean, my goodness. >> pause means they can still shoot back. >> my goodness, peter, giving them security assistance almost

every day. but do we advocate pauses by both sides here, temporary, localized, to be able to get americans out, to be able to get aid in, you bet we do. that doesn't mean we are calling for a general ceasefire, hang on a second, there is a difference, a big difference here and we understand that as i said earlier, humanitarian pauses have to be negotiated and have to have a credible basis for doing it and temporary localized way. i would also expect we would get a lot of criticism from you and from your network and others if we just had the whole idea of a temporary pause so people could not get out. i mean -- we are doing exactly what you should be doing to try to look after these folks. >> pause does not help hamas. >> a temporary pause, that's localized, that would allow us to get aid in and to get our people out is a good thing for the people of gaza, it's a good thing for the americans held hostage, and it's not going to

stop israel from defending itself because the security assistance we are providing continues to flow and temporary pause does not mean a general ceasefire where the war is over, it means a pause, only temporary for a specific purpose. >> the temporary ceasefire that the president said he had convinced prime minister benjamin netanyahu to put in place to get out, can you tell us more, was it localized, for a short period of time, anything about the parameters of that? >> i won't go into the details of that since we are trying to see what we can do to get additional temporary pauses, humanitarian pauses in place. but in order to move hostages from where they were being held to safety, it does require a short pause in the fighting so that you can do it safely. why wouldn't you? i mean, it would be -- it would be completely unsafe and irresponsible if you weren't trying to find some safe passage for hostages you got released while there's an area of combat going on.

>> admiral, earlier this week you had said after the first airstrike in jabalia that it's obvious to us that israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties. now that you've had more time to see and assess the situation there, would you still say it's obvious that israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties? >> we see in the scope of their operations that they are making efforts to try to minimize civilian casualties. that does not mean, and i did not say that they aren't still causing some, that their operations are not still causing some, they are. and each one is tragic, each one shouldn't happen and we have been crystal clear about that. >> would you say with jabalia specifically. >> i'm not going to talk about a specific event. >> why not? >> because i'm not going to litigate an operational event that our military is not involved in and almost realtime. i'm not going to do that, m.j.,

inappropriate from the white house podium. >> minimizing civilian casualties, isn't an airstrike that targets a refugee camp or densely populated civilian area, isn't that sort of the definition of not minimizing civilian casualties? >> that is a question for the israeli defense forces. they should have to answer questions about the decisions on the battle field and how they are doing targeting and their operations. we are not going to throw it in from the sidelines from washington, d.c.. i will tell you again what i've said 100 times already. we are having daily conversations with our israeli counterparts about their thinking, their plans, strategy, about the execution of that strategy, and continuing to urge them to do everything they can to minimize civilian casualties. >> you would not weigh in, even though the president and everyone on down said that the minimizing civilian casualties is incredibly important, that it's something that he is talking to his counterpart about

all the time. >> what i said was i'm not going to weigh in from the podium and make public -- provide public analysis in near realtime of operations that u.s. forces aren't involved in. >> given the intensity of the idf bombing across gaza and areas of safe passage are targeted, is there any concern that americans who want to get to rafah can't get to rafah? >> i don't know what the status is of all americans at gaza are at rafah. i don't know. a better question for the state department. i do know, we believe, that the vast, vast majority of american citizens who we know are in gaza are down there. but i can't tell you with

certitude there is not family members elsewhere that have not made their way down or can't make their way down. and i can tell you i know the state department is in direct contact with the american families in gaza, and those on the lists for departure, they are notified where to go, when to be there, and as far as i know, again, a better question for the state department, that there isn't -- that we are not aware of american families that are trying to get down there and can't. but again, that's a pretty question for my colleagues. >> and the same question. independent has reviewed a list of 400 americans who have been cleared to leave by egyptians, the israelis, and so forth. there have been prior reports that there were, i believe, between 500 and 700 americans in gaza. so i'm curious about the discrepancy. 400 cleared to leave.

if there are several hundred more in gaza, is there a reason that they have not been cleared to leave? have they not asked? are they on some other list? and why then would the u.s. not object to u.s. passport holders not being allowed to exit? >> you are talking about a rolling process here. i think our estimate is somewhere between 101,000 and a 1200, and the pool is somewhere in that number, somewhere there, about 400 families. but this is a rolling process of getting folks out. so we know that there have been 400 that have gotten through that process, and we fully expect that the rest of them will get through that as well. >> john, i have a question on the islamophobia strategy, but

two quick ones on gaza. in london, the vice president said every gazan who wants to go back after the war is allowed to. the vice president in london said everyone from gaza who wants to go back after the war will be allowed to do that. does the president agree and how will they ensure that israel will allow it. >> of course, i've said it before. nothing new. if a citizen of gaza finds themselves outside of gaza and they want to go back to their home, yeah, we absolutely support that and will work with partners to make it happen. >> still in gaza, this week israel released intelligence showing hamas taking fuel from the indonesian hospital in gaza. is this something that you can confirm? >> nope. >> islamophobia, some of the muslim leaders i spoke with, said while they appreciate the

effort to combat islamophobia, they thought the timing of the announcement was interesting. this is something the administration has been working on for months and some feel it's a political bone thrown at them and does not address their concern, which is u.s. policy to support israel where they are frustrated that their perspectives are not being heard. your message to them. >> this is a very genuine effort on behalf of the president and the vice president and the entire administration to plant a marker about how hate has no business here in the united states, particularly hate that can lead to real threats of violence against the muslim community, the arab community, palestinian community. we take that seriously. this -- the thinking that went into leading up to this strategy is long standing. and predates the events of october 7th. but again, i don't know who, all

those folks are necessarily, but we value their opinion, we value their perspective, and even especially if it's a contrary perspective or they feel it's a contrary perspective it's valuable to us. we want to, as we embrace the effort to develop this strategy, we are absolutely going to reach out to folks all across the country from all different perspectives, particularly in the muslim community to get their views, that will be important, inform our work. >> heard raised a lot every time they want to address u.s. support to israel, the white house pivots to islamophobia. is that an accurate assessment? >> i'll let them speak to their opinion of our work. i can tell you that this strategy is borne from a genuine desire to go after the kinds of hate in america to lead to threats of violence against real people, our fellow citizens who

are of the muslim faith or arab community and palestinian community, that comes from a genuine instinctual place for the president and for the vice president. i mean, he has said time after time after time that that kind of hate has no place. >> john, i want to go back to what you want about your conversations with the israelis and trying to encourage them to minimize civilian casualties. you said that you are trying to impart some of the lessons the u.s. has learned. can you elaborate, and to what extent would the u.s. be able to help israel in pinpointing its targeting precisely to avoid the casualties of 195 killed at jabalia. how can you help israel minimize casualties? >> look, we have a lot of

experience in what's called urban warfare, in iraq, afghanistan, mosul, think about fallujah, places like that. and one of the reasons why we dis dispatched senior officers to israel not long ago to share lessons learned about how you conduct operations against a terrorist network inside an urban environment such that you are minimizing damage to civilian infrastructure and absolutely minimizing loss of life to innocent people. and there are -- there are things you can do on the ground that you can't do from the air, particularly if you have good intelligence, and so i think

those were the kind of conversations that we were having with our israeli counterparts, and on your second question, there's no plan or intention for the united states to get involved in the targeting process. these are israeli military operations and the israeli defense force. their leaders, they are making these decisions, executing these operations. what we are doing is making sure that we are giving them the tools, including perspective and advice, but also weapons, to be able to conduct these operations in a most efficient way possible and in a way that again, minimizes civilian harm. >> is the u.s. providing weapons intended to minimize harm but then we see large civilian casualties in places like jabalia. does the u.s. bear some responsibility by providing the weapons? >> we are not making the targeting decisions. the israeli defense force are making the decisions.

we are giving them the tools and capabilities they need to defend themselves against what i just read is a pretty dire chilling threat. these guys want to wipe them off the map. they have a right, a responsibility to go after these folks and we are trying to give them the tools and capabilities to do that. but in addition to it is our perspective, our lessons learned, our advice about how to do it in a way that minimizes civilian harm. >> are you going to increase the number of officers providing this advice and then a quick question on chile. >> i know of no other decision to send more officers over there. the ones that went over are now back. they were not still there. but obviously we have terrific communications with our israeli counterparts. >> and on chile, the president of chile will be meeting later with the president. chile has recalled its

ambassador from israel. other countries in latin america have recalled their envoys and broken ties with israel. do you see this being a big topic today, and what will the president say to the president of chile about this decision to recall the ambassador. >> i'm not going to get ahead of a conversation that has not happened yet. obviously each country, these are sovereign nations, they have the right to handle their bilateral diplomatic relations in the way they see fit. i'm not going to lecture the people how they handle that. i don't know to your other question, i don't personally know of other nations that have recalled their israeli ambassador, but obviously that's for them to decide. what we decided to do is what i've just told you about our goals and our support for israel. and we can speak to that. >> this might be repeating something, but i want to be fully clear, when the president said last night he convinced prime minister netanyahu to do a ceasefire, he was referring to

the two americans that got out, but israel has never acknowledged they paused. can you give us a better understanding of what exactly was paused and if the understanding is for every sort of hostage release there would be a pause? >> i'm not going to go into more detail than what we have put out there publicly. we were able to help negotiate release of the two americans and that's a good thing. and in order to get folks out, you have to make sure they do it safely. that's what the president was referring to. >> admiral switching gears from gaza to the northern border, hezbollah is expected to make first public comments since the war broke out tomorrow and the group mounted 19 simultaneous strikes on israeli forces using strikes and missiles. what does the white house expect to hear from the hezbollah leader tomorrow and if the goal of the administration was to prevent a wider war, isn't that

starting to happen with so many engagements with israeli forces. >> we'll see what he has to say. our message to him and anybody else is that they are thinking about widening and escalating, deepening the conflict, you shouldn't do it. we have proven in the past we'll protect and defend them, and do it again in the future. >> how concerning is it that there have been consistent engagement with israeli forces? >> obviously we are concerned about continued attacks on israeli forces in the north, as are the israelis. but i don't believe we have seen any indication yet specifically that hezbollah is ready to go in full force, we'll see what he has to say. >> thank you so much. pakistan, a lot of problem, pakistan pushed and police make a bad deal with them to force

them to leave pakistan although they don't have any opportunity in afghanistan. any comment, any possibility to united states to bring pakistan pressure to give them more chance? >> we -- let pakistan speak to their policies with respect to refugees and asylum seekers. obviously we want to see all nations do what they can to help refugees and asylum seekers and that certainly includes our pakistani friends with respect to afghans who are trying to flee. >> john, over the past three weeks you've expressed from the podium our opposition to a ceasefire. now you are advocating for a humanitarian pause. what's the difference, and one, essentially no fighting from hamas side at the same time there's no fighting from the israeli side? >> so a couple of things here. first, you said now we are

advocating. this is something we have been talking about now for several days. secretary blinken brought it up at the u.n. i believe late last week. this is not some new idea that we are just introducing into the -- into the intellectual pool here today. and i'll repeat it again. when we talk about a general ceasefire, we are talking about a stoppage of fighting all across the front, if you will, all across the battle, where neither side, everybody lays down arms and a general ceasefire. usually when you are talking about a general ceasefire it is about trying to find a cessation to the hostilities, to try to get to a truce, right, or some sort of end of the war. that's what we mean by a general ceasefire. we aren't advocating for a general ceasefire at this point as i said earlier.

we believe a general ceasefire would benefit hamas and giving them breathing time and place to execute attacks on the israeli people. humanitarian pause, temporary, localized and focused, focused on a particular objective or objectives. humanitarian aid in, people out. and in a pause, again, each one would have to be negotiated separately and distinctly, but the general idea is that in that geographic space for that limited time, there would be cessation of hostilities enough to allow whatever it is you are trying to allow. does that make sense? does that lay it out? >> it does. you spent most of your professional life in the military. i don't know the answer to this question. was there a time in the u.s. fight against al-qaeda in which the u.s. implemented humanitarian pauses? >> i'm not aware of any.

but i would remind you that al-qaeda, you know, wasn't in possession of 200 hostages in iraq or afghanistan. and it's a different -- it's a different situation. but that's what we are talking about here. >> thank you. senator durbin the first senator to call for a ceasefire today. do you have a response to that. i know you said that would benefit hamas. is there an analysis how long the process could go before it no longer benefits hamas to have a ceasefire and how are you doing that analysis, especially as additional lawmakers call for ceasefire. >> there's no change to our view right now that a ceasefire is not in the best interest of the israeli people and the israeli government. we are trying to protect those people, that's where we are. >> secondly, communications blackout in gaza. you spoke about this a few days ago, you said that the u.s. played a role in getting that

reversed. there was another report about a blackout yesterday. is it the u.s. position that communications blackouts cutting off internet, phone access, is against u.s. policy for gaza at this point? >> there are times in military operations where you want to limit your enemy's ability to communicate. we have seen that in the war in ukraine, both russia and ukraine trying to limit each other's ability to communicate and sometimes that means in the execution of that task that you are also shutting down sectors of the public communication vehicles. so you know, i can't sit here and tell you that in warfare either side might see benefit in doing that, and legitimate need to do that, to shut down enemy need to communicate with itself, execute command and control. but in this particular case we

felt that such a blackout was hampering, specifically hampering the ability to get humanitarian assistance and hampering the ability of humanitarian agencies to communicate with their people on the ground to try to solve a level of desperation that we just have not seen in a very, very long time. and so we did not believe that it should continue and we did have a hand in helping get it stopped. >> on the subject of hostages, hamas says at least seven were killed in these israel strikes on this refugee camp, including three with u.s. passports. do you know if any were americans? >> i don't have any information to verify those claims. >> i wanted to ask a quick question about ukraine and then something you said previously. in an interview with the

economists, ukraine's top commander acknowledged his forces are locked in what he called a stalemate and said there's no chance that a significant breakthrough in the front there is imminent. obviously the president continues to say that the united states will stand with ukraine for as long as it takes. but is there, in the months and years ahead, is there going to be an updated strategy, more advance weapons or more of an appetite for negotiations. >> certainly we will let ukrainian leaders speak to their progress or lack thereof. that's for them to talk about. i think it underscores how important it is that we continue to support ukraine. i don't have -- i can't stand here today and tell you it's going to lead to this particular weapons system or this new capability. we are evolving and have evolved what we provided ukraine as the war itself has evolved and i suspect that process would continue. it would be easier for us to do

that if congress would pass the supplemental funding that supports ukraine. it's not only about capabilities for ukraine, there's a big chunk of that that goes to replenishment ability for our own inventory. >> you said moments ago the president would veto an israel-only bill. but you also noted that each of those four categories, i believe they were ukraine indo-pacific, and they were critical, and supplemental as the need occurs. can you take us into the president's mindset here, why not triage this and as you have opportunities to meet those critical needs, why not take them as they come, rather than, you know, wait and try and deal with them all at once. >> i think in our statement of administration policy we laid out very clearly why with he would not want to do that and why we think all the things we have asked for in the supplemental are important. and the israel only thing, the way the house republicans have

carved this out, no humanitarian assistance. only goes to security assistance for israel and it has to be a nonstarter. that's nothing more than partisan politics. here we are, i don't know how many questions about civilian casualties and the desperation of the people in gaza. i mean, it's wrong that anybody would think we would not need additional funding to get food, water, medicine to the people. they didn't ask for it, they need that support. i've made a mess of your whole -- >> sandra: that was the update from john kirby at the white house, karine jean-pierre will update as well. and kirby talking about the president's call for a pause, he said "exploring the idea of taking as many pauses as necessary to get people out of

gaza and to get aid in." so he was obviously pressed multiple times what that looks like and whether or not that would benefit hamas. >> john: and again, kirby emphasized that it would be localized and it would be temporary, so this is nothing that would go any distance toward a blanket ceasefire in the area. it would be, you know, the way we saw in the last few days, temporary pause in bombings or ground operations to push further while hostages or people were released to go south through the rafah crossings and then into egypt from there. >> sandra: and as far as the ongoing threat coming from the north and hezbollah, john kirby saying a second ago that white house has not seen evidence that hezbollah is ready to go full force but he did say the white house is concerned about the strikes from the north. >> john: we'll see if that lasts. because the leader of hezbollah

is supposed to talk for the first time since october 7th tomorrow. we'll see what he says. update from the ground now in israel, lucas tomlinson is along the coast. what does it look like from where you are, lucas? >> well, john, the biggest news here in israel today was israel's top general saying his forces have entered gaza city as another division pushes east almost reaching the sea in order to severe the palestinian territory to two pieces. >> idf fighters have been operating in gaza city for the past few days, encircling from several directions, deepening entrance and the achievements. >> a tank firing one of the high explosive rounds after a series of assaults, israeli forces have been fighting continuously inside gaza nearly a week. three divisions converging from three different directions. one from the east to the sea,

israeli soldiers are moving slowly, john, clearing not only the homes and buildings as you can see here, but the spider web of tunnels underground as well. they don't want hamas fighters to pop up behind him. air force says it has destroyed 12,000 targets inside gaza. israeli pilots dropping bombs, not just on gaza, but the west bank, lebanon and syria as well. also been busy as incoming targets in the air as well, israeli f-35 shot down a cruise missile fired from yemen. these missiles are travelling over 1,000 miles to reach israel. one of the reasons the israeli navy moved warships to the red sea to help protect the southern flank. and once again, israel's aro air defense system is active, shooting down another ballistic missile from yemen. iron dome is used from gaza, and tonight here we are about 20

miles from gaza. so far, quiet overhead. we have heard some israeli f-16s orbiting overhead awaiting for orders to strike, john. >> john: hopefully it will stay quiet where you are. thank you. >> the reality is that the jewish community is uniquely, uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organizations across the spectrum, and when you look at a group that makes up 2.4% roughly of the american population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population accounts for something like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes. >> sandra: that was fbi director christopher wray warning congress that antisemitism is historic levels. but the white house appear to be a bit more focused on discussing

islamophobia. the first-ever u.s. national strategy to counter anti-islamic threats, this coming after new polling shows arab american support for president biden has plummeted. bring in new jersey democrat congressman josh gottheimer. thanks for joining us. what about the timing of this and why is this a priority right now? >> listen, i think we need to do everything possible to stand up as this white house is doing, antisemitism, islamophobia and hate in the country. and make sure we are doing to give israel the room she needs to crush the terrorists, to get the hostages out and home, especially american hostages out as quickly as possible. and make sure we get humanitarian aid in. it's a full force on every front. i think this white house and this president has done a phenomenal job making it clear we need to get israel's back, get the hostages out and crush the terrorists.

>> sandra: are we doing enough to target and address the antisemitism that is happening in this country right now? >> i spoke to the white house this morning about that. and as the fbi director has talked about, action on college campuses, i believe the white house is acting, i was with rabbis and in northern new jersey, people are concerned about the huge spike in antisemitism. look at the numbers in the recent years, gone up significantly, and of course now it's going up even higher. i'm deeply concerned about that and we need to be concerned about islamophobia as well and make sure there is no place for hate in our country. but we have to get the hostages out and americans home, that's critical. >> sandra: number on the screen, this is, you know, pretty shocking to many people this moment that we are in in this

country right now. to see these incidents of antisemitism on the rise in such a short period of time, up 388%. >> scary. >> sandra: folks are asking where is the priority to that. this is the former u.s. ambassador to israel, calling the islamophobia policy tone deaf. >> it's all politics and a shame. this should be above politics and it's not. i'm waiting for the announcement on antisemitism and the punch line is we are going to fight islamophobia. how tone deaf can you get? >> to that you say what. >> i know david and former ambassador, a good man, but i don't agree with the assessment. stand against hate on all fronts and i believe the white house is fighting hard and strong, i'm talking with them and working with them, as someone who is jewish, to fight against

antisemitism wherever it is and rearing its ugly head and we are doing that. this is a very difficult time for the country and the world. and we have seen antisemitism spiking everywhere. we need to stand up against it. we need to leave no room to make sure where we stand as a country against it. but frankly i'm not seeing what others are seeing, the white house is standing strong. also that does not mean you can't do both. stand up to antisemitism and islamophobia, we need to do both. the mission is clear what we need to do. i don't think there is any room there. >> sandra: alexandria ocasio-cortez, your colleague, put a tweet out, your response to it. on the american israel public affairs committee. she says it endorsed scores of january 6th insurrectionists. no friend of american democracy, she writes. they are one of the more racist and bigotted pacts in congress as well who target members of

color. they are an extremist organization that destabilizes u.s. democracy. do you support that comment? >> no, i think it's absurd. apack does a phenomenal job, we know key to protecting america's national security. democracy in the region. both arab israelis and jews serve, and gay rights, and women's rights, so i'm not sure i understand the comment. not only is aipac doing the right thing, but groups around standing up, and make sure we achieve the mission here. crushing the terrorists, hamas, getting humanitarian aid and getting the hostages out and home. >> sandra: just the last -- i don't see there are blurred

lines there. she's calling a pro israel group that you are supportive of racist and bigotted. just a final question, is there room for this in congress? >> i'm -- listen, the congress -- plenty of people disagree, i obviously disagree with that assessment strongly. but frankly, i'm not focused on that, she does not speak -- it's not reflective of where the democratic party is, where the democratic party is voting to stand up to hamas, and terrorist organizations, to make sure we get the hostages home. if you saw the vote last week, it was supporting israel and saying we need to crush and kill the terrorists. that's what it's about. we have to make sure we do that, humanitarian aid into the region. keep getting americans out as mr. kirby was just talking about, and into egypt, make sure we can get everyone out safely, that's what our focus should be and that's where the country is. certainly where this president has been and i think people should praise the president for his actions here. >> sandra: congressman, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate your time today. thanks for sticking with us

through the breaking news. >> john: after the lengthy update from the white house, awaiting an update from the pentagon as israeli troops advance deeper into the gaza strip. this as new maps put up by general jack keane's institute for the study of war are highlighting idf ground operations. mark esper, nice to have you with us today. the map on the screen, it clearly shows the area of operations of israeli forces and what we are doing here. looks like they are trying to cut off the northern part of gaza from the south, and the two circles, one on the left-hand side of the screen and the bottom part of the screen, perhaps about to engage in some sort of pinzer movement against the al-shifa hospital, which is hamas headquarters. what do you make of what the idf is doing so far, mr. secretary? >> well, first of all, thanks, john, good to be with you today. just looking at the map and what we see, my sense is they are

trying to cordon off the northern part of gaza. you know, like when you go in and you shake up a hornet's nest or rats, they will flee. in this case, will hamas flee south. i think what you want to do is back stop that southern retreat and make sure they can't escape northern gaza as you go in. because when they go in, they are in now, and begin flushing them out, engage them above the ground, on the ground and below the ground, you are going to have any number of hamas fighters trying to go south in order to seek some type of safety to regroup and reorganize and launch attacks from the southern half of gaza into the northern half. so i suspect israel idf is trying to prevent that. >> john: if hamas is using al-shifa hospital as headquarters as israel defense has insisted, and including computer graphics to that effect, does that mean in your

estimation israel will try to go after that hospital or could there be an operation that is something less than actually targeting the hospital that may smoke hamas leadership out, so to speak? >> well, i think we do know hamas uses all types of civilian structures to include hospitals and schools and mosques to keep fighters, to hide weapons and ammunition, any number of things. it's not out of bounds, if you will, for the idf to go in and search through the hospital, make sure it is secured to flush out hamas fighters. i don't think that's unreasonable at all, they should do that, and with other civilian infrastructure in gaza, taking care not to cause unnecessary damage, collateral damage, you name it. >> john: now the point of the pause, a big subject of discussion during the white house briefing. the president said during a fundraiser in minnesota, i think we need a pause, a pause means

give time to get the prisoners out. give time. peter doocy put the question to john kirby who that might benefit. >> so a pause does not help hamas? >> a temporary pause that's localized that would allow us to get aid in and to get our people out is a good thing for the people of gaza, it's a good thing for the americans that are being held hostage, and it's not going to stop israel from defending itself because the security assistance we are providing continues to flow and a temporary pause does not mean a general ceasefire when the war is over, pause, only temporary, for a specific purpose. >> john: and he did not say just one pause, but as many pauses as might be necessary. what do you think of that strategy? >> well, you are right in terms of what kirby said. look, i don't think the two are mutually exclusive. certainly any pause benefits hamas, allows them a chance to regroup, rearm, refit, those

things any military would do. but also if it actually, a short pause of an hour or two or whatever allows us to bring a few hostages out of gaza in that very localized area that is helpful, too. both can be true. the question is these have to be very narrow geographic areas if you are going to do a pause. number two, have to be very limited in time and number three, a clear benefit. you have to get something out of it. in this case, hostages. it can't be a pause just to continue talking about releasing hostages because my goodness, we have been at this for three weeks now and only released, what, 4, 5, 6, 7 folks, still holding 240 people, in itself is a violation of the laws of war. so, i think -- i think it requires more explanation and i hope that the biden administration position is not weakening but it feels like it is. >> john: all right, we'll keep watching to see if it weakens any further. mark esper, thanks for joining

us. appreciate it. >> thank you, john. >> john: a massive migrant caravan making its way north through mexico. organizers say it is 7,000 people strong, and it's headed for the u.s. southern border. as it approaches, the mayors of democratic cities are meeting with biden administration officials to ask for billions of dollars to manage the crisis. team coverage with brian kilmeade standing by. start with casey stegall live from dallas. how many sanctuary cities, are saying we need money. >> five, los angeles, houston, denver, chicago and new york. although today only two met with senior white house officials and lawmakers on capitol hill. new york mayor eric adams was scheduled to be in the beltway, but unexpectedly returned home at the last minute. the coalition of sanctuary city leaders is asking the administration for additional

$5 billion in funding to cover expenditures in their communities. also asking for ways to accelerate the process for those seeking asylum to find work here in the u.s. >> require the full force of government at every single level to intervene here. look, 150 busses alone have showed up since the month -- in the month of october. since i've been in office, over 350 busses show up in this short period of time. >> we believe congress and the president will decide what they want the entrance policies to be. our belief is whatever they decide on, it should be the ability to work when you arrive. >> organizers of the current caravan says additional 1,000 people joined the group. estimated now roughly 7,000 in size. although mexican authorities dispute that, saying it's more like 3500. they recently passed through southern mexico about 16 miles

from tapachula, a city near guatemala border. >> john: casey, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: thank you so much, john. brian kilmeade, "fox & friends" co-host and "one nation host." i know you've been covering it in the mornings, this is certainly still on our watch here. this migrant caravan heading north, we have sort of laid out the path that it's taking. we are told right now it's about here, but this is yet another caravan making its way to our southern border at a time, we don't know whose coming, don't know who is pouring over the border but know more than ever we are catching people, stopping people at the border that are on the terror watch list. what are your thoughts on all this? >> brian: mexico is more than capable of stopping them. they once had 20,000 of their marines on the southern border to stop them from coming up. and use leverage and put pressure on mexico to do just

that. break this up, send them back, wrap them up, and get them out. and send a message to the next caravan, it stops here. but when said, the mexican leader is meeting with the colombian president, arch enemy of ours, iran leaders, and thumb's up and middle finger to america. you heard the leader say doesn't america understand that everyone is collaborating and working with each other against american interests in order to flood the border? don't they understand what's going on? what happened to their intelligence. my answer is yeah, what happened to our intelligence. not only is the border overwhelmed, they are saying to us it's going to get worse. >> sandra: all right. on the screen right now, for situational awareness per the san diego field office, brian, this is a cbp terror warning memo out of the san diego field office. we sort of -- we dug through it for you and tell you what you

need to know. it's warning that individuals inspired by or reacting to the current israel-hamas conflict may attempt travel, brian, to or from the area of hostilities in the middle east. specifically mentions hamas. the palestinian islamic jihad, possible indicators, brian, military-age males, possession of military gear, single travelers and plan association with the region there is a warning for you, brian. >> brian: there's a warning. and there's a welcome mat that's put out in central and south america. wreak havoc in america. if they want to blow things up and says america is the big satan, 690 from iran in the last year, our chance to act. wouldn't you think logic, extrapolate that out and listen to christopher wray yesterday

this is something we should be aware of. the one thing you can't put the wool over america's eyes is on terror. we went to terror school since 2011. if you have these jobs or everyday activity, special security in the airports, you are aware of what type of terror, terrorists are up to and capable of. watching what they did in israel. what would stop 5, 10, 15 from doing that. but if i told you 900 were here and that's their background, who would not be concerned? >> sandra: that is something, and we have the numbers up on the screen everybody needs to know about. number of migrants arriving in dem-led cities. you see it every day here, brian, new york city since spring 2022, up 136,000, chicago, up 20,000. brian, i want to finish off by taking a look at the president's

approval rating. obviously all of this factors in. the overall approval rating falling to 37% in october, down another four points from where it was in september. the latest gallup polling. so, this is obviously hurting the president as he runs for re-election. >> brian: and i know you are up against a break, i'll be quick. the moment he was supposed to get a boost, backing up israel he's taken a dip. there is panic at the white house by almost all accounts. they don't see a way out of this or seeing the major things weighing him down easing up and don't trust his instincts to do the right thing. he is already wobbling in his support from israel, he feels he's losing a lot of muslim support in places like migrant. that does not bode well for political future. be a leader and do the right thing. >> sandra: finish off with the democrats' approval of the president, down 11 points month to month.

fell to 75%, 86% in september. thanks for sticking around with us. >> brian: great watching you. >> john: the white house confirming 74 got out of gaza, one group helping the effort is the special operations association of america. alex sits on the board of the non-profit and joins us. the oka family from the boston area got out as did the roshembergers. and five kids. how tough to get these folks out? >> thank you for having me. a difficult three weeks or so, not the first time we have engaged in the efforts in afghanistan and ukraine, and easier getting them out of kabul than gaza, it's completely sealed off. so handling folks with partners from safer allies, and a matter to keep them safe until they get out. >> john: israelis are saying we

want to get folks out of gaza, egyptians saying happy to let them through the rafah gate, but the hamas was controlling everything. how are they when it comes to letting people out, particularly americans living in gaza or visiting gaza? >> sure, we found over the last three weeks, it takes all three parties in the negotiations between the egyptians, israelis and hamas to come to an agreement on people leaving, along with outside support from the united states. we have had the president and number of cabinet ministers in and out, cabinet secretaries, rather, in and out of the region trying to negotiate and quite some time to get to that point. it was very difficult, the conditions on the grounds, getting unlivable. running out of water, regular diseases from poor sanitation and aid workers, dealing with american citizens, close to the -- to very critical time for them. >> john: the negotiations obviously take place at the state level, but what does your organization do to facilitate the exit of americans from gaza?

>> that's an excellent question. so just like we have done in previous conflicts, right, inherently governmental responsibilities in terms of negotiations, foreign policy and whatnot. put that on the far right in terms of a negotiated exit of sorts or evacuation, and then a hostage rescue off to the left. in the middle, the gap, right, in terms of being able to identify citizens where they are, register, locations taken care of, help them with basic things, survival techniques, that kind of stuff. removing them remotely to safe locations, so fill the gap and provide information to the government, and working with them the last three conflicts where you have had these situations pop up. this is different, because the majority of folks were american citizens who spoke english. >> john: 74 out.

any idea how many left? >> 5 to 600, and spoke with more folks you mentioned we have been helping. so, still at least a couple hundred left. we are going to continue working and use the support so far, soaa.org, and we will continue working. keeping folks as safe as we can and the government is doing what they are supposed to be doing and we will support them to the extent we can. >> john: quick, john kirby says it will take some time to get everybody out. what would you estimate the time to be? >> it depends how many people get through the gate. yesterday, first time they tried it, a couple hundred folks, but today 74 americans and foreign nationals. tens of thousands from all the countries combined. >> john: alex, great work you are doing and thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> sandra: john, great to be with you. i'm sandra smith. >> john: i'm john roberts.