and really do something. ♪♪♪ >> don't believe me ask the dishes ♪ i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation" -- from the middle east to the pacific rim, america's influence is being tested around the world. the deadly conflict between israel and hamas has entered week seven with no clear end in sight. as israeli forces intensify efforts to eliminate hamas in gaza. caught in the crossfire, palestinian civilians and a society on the brink of

collapse. are we any closer to rescuing more than 200 hostages, some americans, still held by hamas? we'll check in with some key players from the biden administration, capitol hill, and around the world. then, after president biden's long anticipated face-to-face meeting with chinese president xi jinping what's next with america's relationship with its biggest rival? we'll hear from the bipartisan leaders of china's committee. as tempers flair here in washington -- >> stand your butt up then. >> you stand your butt up. >> the importance of restoring civility in our public discourse. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ good morning and welcome to

"face the nation." we begin with the deteriorating conditions in gaza and new warnings by the united nations that disease is a growing concern, as civilians shelter in crowded spaces with scarce food and water. meanwhile, it appears a deal with hamas to release some hostages in exchange for israel allowing in some aid to gaza is taking shape. qatar's prime minister, who is involved with mediating the talks, said today that an agreement is within reach. imtiaz tyab is in jerusalem with the latest. >> reporter: they walked for days from tel aviv to jerusalem in their thousands, to demand the hostages being held in gaza be released. >> bring them home now! >> reporter: and vent their fury at prime minister benjamin netanyahu's failure to meet regularly with the families of captives. >> our government isn't talking to them, isn't telling them what's going on, what's on the table, what are the offers, what

are the reasons for and against, nothing. nobody is talking to them. >> reporter: multiple parties, including the u.s., have been negotiating for the release of captives, potentially in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, and a major increase in humanitarian aid. the negotiations remain ongoing, as israel appears to be expanding its offensive against hamas, from northern gaza to the south, where hundreds of thousands of palestinians were told to flee for their safety. but nowhere, it seems, is safe. massive israeli air strikes across gaza over the past 24 hours have killed dozens of civilians, many of the victims are children, whose tiny bodies were wrapped in white cloth before being taken for burrell. as loved ones try to make sense of the incomprehensible. it's the al shifa hospital in gaza city which is being called a death zone. the world health organization were able to access it after

israeli forces took control of the maybe health center earlier this week, and are working to evacuate the remaining medical staff and patients, including 32 babies in critical condition. the israeli military took us to the sprawling hospital complex on a late night visit, to show us what they say is evidence of a hamas command center that was operating underground, which includes this apparent sand-filled tunnel opening and these weapons. the existence of the apparent hamas command center, which the u.s. has said it also has intelligence on, has been central to israel's justification for its assault on the hospital and beyond. there's been so much damage, so much devastation, to this hospital because this hospital was described as a command center for hamas. did you find a command center? >> oh, yeah. we found few. >> what does that mean, a few? >> i can't talk about it, but what you see here is a fraction

of the equipment we found. >> reporter: and since our visit the israeli military has made multiple statements about the so far under whelming evidence of the apparent hamas command center at al hifa saying we were only shown, quote, preliminary findings and more details would be shared soon. hospitals, of course, have protected status under international law, margaret, but israel insists its assault on gaza's largest and most important medical facility falls within those boundaries. >> great reporting from imtiaz tyab in jerusalem. we go now to the republican chair of the house intelligence committee, mike turner. good to have you back with us, sir. >> thank you, margaret. >> you've said that that absolutely brutal and horrific attack on october 7th by hamas was a huge intelligence failure. things were missed, and then there were operational failures, as we know, once the attack was under way. given those massive blind spots, can the u.s. actually be

confident in israeli intelligence now when it says that what it's doing is with full accuracy? >> i think there certainly is a gap that was unexpected with respect to israel's intelligence gathering. we saw the failures of october th when they failed to he soot emerging -- see the emerging and horrendous attack and taking of hotages, we wondered whether or not it was a lack of focus. the united states is working with israel in trying to assist in locating hamas and understanding hamas' structure. we're actually understanding that israel has a gap in capabilities. of the operational aspects as you related, because we saw a lack of response after the hamas attack began to unfold, there were concerns as to whether or not israel was going to go into gaza and to be able to locate and dismantle hamas. but i think everyone is seeing they're progressing at a faster

rate than anyone had expected, but still, as we see now, the reports are coming out of gaza as israel reports what they're accomplishing, there is concern and doubt. >> doo you believe it is militarily potentially successful goal to eliminate hamas? >> certainly with any terrorist group and organization, it's not just the individuals that are operating it that you have to look at. it's its function, structure, finances, weapons, command and control, those are things that certainly israel has the ability and prosecuting the war to that so they can diminish hamas' ability to conduct attacks on israel and given the palestinians a bridge to some other form of government in gaza. the palestinians in gaza are just as much a prisoner and victims of hamas as we're foreseeing with the effects on israel. >> i want to ask you about threats here at home, but quickly, have you seen

intelligence to back up some of the reporting that says some of these hamas attackers who were just so brutal, they were actually on an em fed mean? some of your republican colleagues are trying to take action. was that a factor here? >> i have not seen intelligence specifically about that. like you, i've seen the news reporting and troubling because it shows the viciousness of the attack. >> here at home the fbi director recently testified that foreign terrorist groups, including al qaeda, have issued specific calls to attack the u.s. how do you understand the threat to the homeland now? >> you know, this is very unusual for the fbi director to publicly make these statement and certainly in his conversations with the intelligence committee, they've been on an unclassified basis so we have the ability to talk about it. it shows the extent to which these threats are troubling the director. what he's indicated is more than a decade the increase in terrorist threats to the united states inside the united states

is at its highest ever, and he cites, you know, chaotic withdraw of afghanistan and our loss of intelligence gathering there, cites the southern border and individuals allied with international terrorist organizations that have crossed the border. those are two biden administration policies so for the fbi director to cite those where the -- as threats are imply nating, shows you how important the statements are. >> what would it take to get you on board with supporting some sort of overhaul of border policy? i know that in the senate they're talking about trying to bundle together some of these initiatives? >> i think they should be bundled together and i've been at the white house talking about the quad national security package, looking at ukraine, taiwan, east asia, but border has to be a part of it, not just funding for the border, but policy changes. our border needs to be secured. the fbi director has cited that individuals coming across that border allied with national terrorist organizations are a threat internal to the united

states. >> so congress went home for the next few weeks, and you got a lot of work to do before the end of the year. one of those things potentially is reauthorizing section 702 to allow agencies to gather data and phone calls and text messages from foreign nationals abroad. some of your republican colleagues like jim jordan and matt gaetz don't like section 702. is the republican-controlled house going to reauthorize this and when? >> absolutely. the problem is there's a bunch of misinformation out there. what you just said is absolutely correct. 702 allows the collection of foreigners outside of the united states who pose a national security threat to the united states. we have to continue to collect that data and information. it's from which we are able to keep our country secure. certainly in that, we also captured those in the united states like those terrorists who come across the southern border, the fbi talks about as being a threat here, their communications outside the united states with those terrorist groups and organizations so we can track them down and prevent the

attacks. this is absolutely essential. this is our post-9/11 structure as our national security threat increases we have to make certain that we maintain the tools that have kept us safe. >> and just to clarify here, i know that border patrol has said there are people who come across the border whose names match the terror watch list but doesn't necessarily represent a terrorist or suspected terrorist. just for anyone who is concerned there. on the -- >> but the fbi director has specifically said there are individuals that are allied with international terrorist organizations who have come across the border that pose a threat. that's a part of what his last two weeks of public statements have been. >> i want to ask about classified documents. cbs has been reporting special counsel robert her near the end of his investigation into president biden and his alleged mishandling of classified info. if there are indeed no charges brought, which is what we are reporting, what do you think the signal will be to the national security world? >> well, this will be

devastating, continue to be devastating to the depth of justice and the biden administration. biden has been found to be a serial classified document hoarder over a ten-year period, taking classified documents from the sensitive that threaten our national security home without any protection and certainly able for others to be able to access them. there needs to be consequences. the fact that hillary clinton, who had over 100 classified documents when she was secretary of state and vice president biden under obama were taking classified documents home and certainly had them be vulnerable, with no consequences, shows the department of justice is not pursuing democrats. >> well of cour, as you know, ta difference with the case of president trump who violated the espionage act, the charge against him, because he didn't work with the government to hand those over. >> biden had these documents for over ten years. you can't hoard documents in your home for a decade long

period, concealing them, taking them home as a senator or vice president and suddenly say, hey, two weeks while i was president i cooperated and, therefore, it doesn't count that i spent ten years as a serial classified document hoarder. >> we have to leave it there for today. thanks, as always, for joining us. >> thank you, margaret. we go now to the deputy national security adviser jon finer. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> i know hostage diplomacy is delicate. we've been close to a breakthrough before and then fallen apart, but this morning qatar's prime minister says we are close enough to reach a deal, and the differences are logistical at this point. does the u.s. share that assessment? >> what i can say at this point we share the assessment that many areas of difference that previously existed have been narrowed, that we believe we are closer than we have been to reaching a final agreement, but that on an issue as sensitive as this and challenging as this, the mantra nothin is agreed

until everything is agreed really does apply and we do not have an agreement in place. until that is the case, we're not going to lay out all the details in public. >> israel's prime minister said on cbs recently that they had intelligence indicating that there were hostages at al shifa hospital, but none were found. there were two bodies found nearby. did the u.s. share the assessment that hostages were being held at the hospital? because there was a release suggesting that from declassified intelligence the u.s. shared. was the u.s. assessment wrong? >> what i am going to tell you is what we have put out in terms of intelligence that we have been able to share and that we've been able to downgrade on al shifa. this is a microcosm of the challenges associated with this conflict because this is, obviously, a hospital where there are patients who are being treated the most advanced hospital in gaza and a place where innocent civilians have

ga gathered and those lives are sacred to us and equal to lives anywhere that are innocent. we have been clear we have intelligence information, not just israeli, but american intelligence, hamas has used this facility to build terrorist infrastructure, to do command and control for combat operations, and we've been quite clear about that and also said none of that authorizes, in our view, direct military strikes, from the air or on the ground, against that hospital. that is the complicated knot the israeli defense forces find themselves in and we are advising them to proceed at this point. >> the downgraded assessment says the u.s. believes that there could be in al shifa hospital, a command node and tunnels underneath and that in the past, these hospitals have been used to hold hostages. that's why i was asking you, since none were found there, if the u.s. thought there would be hostages there. there has been no -- >> one thing i would say about that, margaret, that facility is still being exploited by the

israeli defense forces. i expect you'll see more information in the coming days. i think we feel confident with the information that we've put out and let's see what their investigation reveals and where it leads. >> israel's prime minister was on this network and told my colleague norah o'donnell they are trying to cause minimal civilian casualties, but, quote, unfortunately we're not successful. given that acknowledgement by israel, i wonder, if the administration is applying the leahy act here that would allow for the united states to restrict some military equipment based on human rights basis? is israel exempt from that, given what's happened and what israel is acknowledging? do you need to change that? >> no countries are exempt from laws of armed conflict or from a u.s. statutory restrictions, but beyond that not going to say more. what i will say, though, is we have been quite clear that israel has every right to defend itself against the threat it

faces. that includes, by the way, the right to go after hamas leadership they say now have fled to the southern part of gaza and have sought refuge there. so in the event that we believe that israel is likely to embark on combat operations including in the south, there is a real concern because hundreds of thousands of resident gaza have fled to the south at israel's request and think their operation should not go forward until those people, those additional civilians, have been accounted for in their military planning. we will be conveying that directly to them and have been conveying that directly to them. they should draw lestons from how the protest proceeded in the north including lessons that lead to greater enhanced protections for civilian life, like narrowing the area of active combat, clarifying where civilians can seek refuge from the fighting but reiterate,

hamas takes no such precautions, openly and flaunts and brags about its desire to perpetrate war crimes. this is an adversary that does not hold itself to the standards we and others believe is essential. >> hamas is extremely brutal. i want to ask you about president biden's op-ed that he published in "the washington post." he said the u.s. is prepared to issue visa bans against extremists, referring to israeli settlers moving into the west bank. does that threat have teeth given there are estimates that american citizens make up as much as 15% of the settler population? >> look, the president has been extremely clear, i think far beyond even what many of his predecessors said about our concerns about developments on the west bank, and in particular, concerns about violence perpetrated against innocent palestinians by extreme settlers. he said that in public speeches and said that in an op-ed he published this weekend, and as

he indicated and as we're now moving to operationalize that could include consequences the u.s. would impose on people associated with violence against innocence in the west bank including a ban on them being able to travel to the united states on visas. we're moving in that direction and we'll have more to say about that, i'm sure, in the coming days. >> understood. jon finer, thank you for your time this morning. "face the nation" will be back in a minute so stay with us. ♪ when better money habits® content first started coming out, it expanded what i could do for special olympics athletes with developmental needs. thousands of bank of america employees like scott spend countless hours volunteering to teach people how to reach their financial goals. it felt good. it felt like i could take on the whole world.

we're joined by maryland democratic senator chris van hollen. >> good to be with you. >> a lot to talk to you about today, but i want to quickly ask you, since congress went home for the better part of two weeks, they haven't reauthorized a lot of things and haven't passed the supplemental for israel, ukraine, taiwan. is that going to get done before the end of the year? >> we have to get it done by the end of the year and pass the supplemental request that includes desperately military

assistance for ukraine support for israel, humanitarian assistance for partners in the indo-pacific region. one of the issues being discussed is trying to get something done with respect to border security and immigration reform and ongoing bipartisan discussions as we speak. >> i understand that's happening through the recess for the border. do you know, is it really realistic that's a hard issue that that's going to get done before 2023 is up? >> there are good faith negotiations going on. whether they get done or not i don't know. it seems to me given the desperate situation in ukraine, it is irresponsible for people to say that we're going to allow putin to continue his assault on ukraine, and only going to provide that assistance if we get a deal on something else. i want to get a deal on immigration reform but doesn't make sense to connect the two. >> you wrote a letter this month endorsing more funding for

israel, but also pressing the biden administration on its assessment of whether these military goals are actually achievable and how that country is protecting civilians. are you satisfied with what the white house has told you? >> we're still awaiting a public response from the biden administration. we've not received that public response yet. we have had outreach at the highest levels, and we've been offered those of white house signed the letter to meet with the president's top national security and foreign policy team to discuss some of those issues, but we're still waiting an answer to the letter because we asked a lot of questions that we think are important to get answers to. >> this is hurting the president with his fellow democrats, isn't it? >> i don't know if it's hurting the president with fellow democrats. i do think it's important that the president speak out more clearly on this issue. let me say this, in the aftermath of the horrific hamas attacks of october 7th, you have

i think virtually every senator supporting israel's objective of going after hamas and neutralizing them from the military perspective. no more october 7th. but we need to do, as secretary blinken said, how israel conducts its operation is important, and so many of us were concerned. just a few weeks ago when one of the white house national security spokesperson was asked if the united states has any red lines, and the answer was no. which means anything goes. and that cannot be consistent with american interests and american values, so that's why we're asking these questions. >> because that's not the policy for any other country that the united states provides military aid to? >> that's right. we have a policy of trying to make sure that our funds are used in a manner that advances our interests and values, and if you look at what's happening

right now in gaza, the desperate humanitarian crisis, clearly it's more that could be done and if you look at the level of civilian casualties, secretary blinken himself has acknowledged there are additional measures that the netanyahu government can take to reduce the high level of civilian casualties. two-thirds of them children. so this is why we're asking the president questions. we want to work with the president to get more assurances our interests and values will be protected. >> we have to take a break, but we want you to stay with us for more "face the nation." all of you stay with us too.

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♪ welcome back to "face the nation." we have more questions now for senator chris van hollen. senator, i want to pick up on something you've been raising concerns about for a while, going back to july, a letter where you were saying to the white house, you had concerns about the more than 3 billion in security assistance to israel because you thought taxpayer money should not shield settlers who are attacking and b