wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. the xfinity 10g network. made for streaming. ♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the “newshour” tonight, hamas releases two israeli hostages and aid trickles into gaza amid calls to address the worsening humanitarian disaster in the palestinian enclave.

nine candidates in the race for house speaker make their pitch to fellow republicans as congress remains largely at a standstill. and the israel-hamas war divides college campuses across the united states, leading to heated protests and a sense of fear and uncertainty. >> i'm scared for the future of israel and palestine. i'm scared for what the future will look like on campus. ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour."

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. amna: welcome to the "newshour." hamas has freed two more hostages tonight, a pair of israeli women. israeli officials say 220 people, with more than 30 nationalities, are believed to be still held captive. meanwhile, israel's bombardment of gaza continues. gaza's health ministry says more than 5000 palestinians have been killed. that's in the more than two weeks since more than 1400 israelis were killed in the hamas attacks. leila molana-allen has our report on this day's events. and a warning, some images in this report are disturbing. leila: kidnapped from their homes, held captive for more

than two weeks, 85-year-old yocheved lifshitz and 79-year-old nurit cooper, two of the oldest hostages taken by hamas, are finally free. hamas said it released them for humanitarian reasons, but their husbands remain in captivity. the release follows mediation efforts by qatar and egypt. this comes even as preparation for a ground invasion rolls on, and israeli airstrikes continue to pound gaza. the palestinian prime minister warned against an israeli offensive in a cabinet meeting. pm shtayyeh: what we hear from the leaders of the occupying state preparing for a ground invasion means the continuation of committing new crimes, forced displacement and killing for the sake of killing and revenge. leila: at a meeting of european leaders in luxembourg, european union foreign policy chief josep borrell said there was a consensus for a pause in fighting to allow for humanitarian support.

josep: even for a humanitarian aid to get in, there needs to be a pause in the war. otherwise, humanitarian aid itself will fall victim to military activity. leila: another group of 20 aid trucks entered gaza from the egyptian border at rafah. but the united nations said they carry only a fraction of what's needed. israel barred the trucks from bringing in one key resource, fuel. without it, hospitals, water pumps and sanitation systems will grind to a halt. hospitals are struggling to keep power running for critical equipment, including incubators for premature babies, all this as israeli airstrikes rain down on gaza, spreading dust and rubble into the streets not far from the rafah crossing. israel is intensifying its bombardment. screams of fear echo from the clouds of dust cloaking the sheikh radwan neighborhood in gaza city, as families escape another israeli airstrike.

not too far away in the jabalia refugee camp, paramedics rescued civilians trapped in the rubble. the injured were rushed to hospital. palestinian health officials said 266 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, more than 100 of them children. khan yunis in southern gaza , meant to be a safe haven, also woke up to an intense barrage that toppled residential buildings. tarek salout thought his daughter was safe here. he came from northern gaza when israel ordered civilians to evacuate. tarek: we were told that khan yunis is considered to be a safe place. and everyone came here from the north or from gaza city because it is considered safe. but, unfortunately, last night was the hardest night so far we saw in khan yunis. leila: another father who could not save his child. he was one of dozens mourning their loved ones killed in israeli airstrikes in deir al balah in central gaza, including

this father, who held his child close even in death. >> look, because of how worried he was about his daughter, they both died together. god have mercy on them. leila: this daughter broke down as she identified her dead mother by her hair. she lost her mother and sister today, after already losing her grandparents, aunt and cousins. >> i wish that you would have taken me. haven't they had enough? have mercy on us. leila: in northern israel, a growing threat, not just rockets but anti-tank missiles, and even marauding groups of fighters with guns now assaulting towns here. just beyond the hills behind me is lebanon, and we have been hearing the gunfire in the background after multiple exchanges of fire over the last few days with both hezbollah and the palestinian factions based in south lebanon. israeli authorities are evacuating all the towns along the lebanese border as they prepare for another potential conflict on this frontier.

in kiryat shmona, painted tanks from a previous war in a children's playground, but now the real tanks are back. and as the army rolls in, residents flee. but as israel attempts to evacuate not only the gaza border towns, but northern ones too, space in safer parts of the country is running out. and some here say they haven't received any help to leave at all yet. adva and her neighbor olga with 10 young kids between them are the only families left on their street. adva: we're waiting to -- for someone to call us to take us to any place. no space. no space. people go, and i hear. i call every day. and, last night, i call. i will be waiting two hours. leila: frightened and alone, they wait and hope as the conflict around them intensifies. today, militants from across the

border attacked an idf checkpoint just outside the town. adva: my feeling is to save my family. we are very, very scared. we don't know what happened, what we're going to do. and we wait. and we're sleeping on the -- leila: you're sleeping in the shelter? adva: yes, in the shelter, two weeks. leila: adva grew up here amidst the withdrawal of israel's occupation of southern lebanon in 2000 and the chaos of the 2006 cross-border war. now she fears her children will suffer the same trauma. adva: it was a very hard war. we were terrified. i still don't sleep at night, nightmares, so many rockets. the kids don't understand what's happening. we don't know what's going to happen now, and that's the biggest fear. leila: olga is afraid too, but believes, if this war happens, it must secure their area's future once and for all. olga: this is not life.

we are not really living. we are always feeling threatened. leila: miri won't wait for the government to find them refuge. we meet her and her son scrambling to pack everything they can into their small car, evacuating on their own to stay with family in central israel. miri: they are not helping us for now. there is no space. a lot of people traveled to the hotels and they came back there because their stay was canceled. leila: and whether it's to fight or to flee, as this violence grows, people across the country are preparing themselves, amna. amna: that's leila molana-allen reporting for us in jerusalem tonight. and joining us here in our studio is our foreign affairs and defense correspondent, nick schifrin. leila, i want to return to you now because i know, earlier today, you saw firsthand the video that israeli officials showed you about the kind of violence that hamas militants and terrorists inflicted on

those israeli communities back on october 7. tell us about those videos and why the officials were showing them to you now. leila: so, officials told us they decided to show us. it was a 45 minute film at a screening held in private of hundreds of hours of footage that they have collected. they said they felt that we had to see this. you saw a small clip of it there. that's all that's been released, because it is so graphic. and i have to say that, in 15 years of reporting on conflicts, this is some of the worst, most brutal personal violence i have seen. we saw horrific scenes. i can't describe a lot of it to you because it's too graphic. but we saw a parent rescuing his two young boys half-dressed in the morning, trying to take them into a safe room, a hamas militant immediately throwing a grenade in there. the two young boys screaming for their father as they watched him die covered in shrapnel wounds, as were they. we still don't know the fate of those young boys. they put together footage from victims' phone cameras found at

that music festival together with hamas body camera footage. and we can see the victims after they had been piled into the shelter together. we see some of them alive on a phone video, and then we see most of them dead piled on top of each other, others with missing limbs being piled into trucks as they're taken into gaza. and it is the treatment of those hostages as well that really was a focus today. we see them being taken into gaza. and people are, of course, incredibly worried about their welfare. and this is one of the things that's created such a fear, a chill in the heart of israelis across the country, because this does feel like an existential fight with this level of horrific violence they have endured. amna: just horrifying imagery there. nick, meantime, the u.s. is working very hard to prevent this war from expanding further. what are u.s. military officials telling you about how they're doing that? nick: they are sending significant assets to the middle east and to the area both to deter iranian-backed groups, but also to defend u.s. troops. so we talked about, on deterrence, they have sent the uss ford, the carrier strike group, off the coast of israel, thousands of other soldiers

given prepare-to-deploy orders. but now we have a second carrier. that's what you see there, a second carrier. the uss eisenhower will sail through the suez canal into the middle east. that is a clear warning to iran. u.s. officials believe the carriers does deter iran. on the protection, air defense, a single terminal high altitude area defense, or thaad, will go to the region to defend u.s. troops, and multiple patriot battalions will also do that. a u.s. defense official told me tonight that roughly eight strikes have been hit of u.s. -- sorry -- eight attacks on u.s. troops across four locations in iraq and syria just since the october 7 attack. that is a significant escalation across the region. and the fear is among u.s. officials that that will increase both in lethality and in number the minute that israel invades gaza in a further ground invasion. amna: and what about that ground invasion?

i mean, do u.s. officials want israel to delay that while they move these assets into place? nick: so, the u.s. officials i have talked to do not like the word delay or asking israel to delay. but the fact is that u.s. -- the u.s. has four main priorities right now, releasing the hostages, getting those military forces in place, delivering humanitarian assistance and freeing american citizens trapped in gaza. and, amna, in each of those cases, they benefit from more time, and each of those priorities get much more difficult the moment israel invades. amna: leila, what have you been hearing from israeli officials you're talking to in terms of the timeline for any potential ground invasion? leila: well, of course, the hostages are a concern. but from the beginning, israeli officials have said that they will go in anyway, as concerned as they are. now, there's a suspicion here on the ground that one of the reasons why hamas has started to release hostages -- we have seen these two more elderly hostages released today -- is that they want to try and delay a bit to try and recoup their forces in gaza and get ready. now, mainly, what officials are telling me here is, this is actually strategic. that's not that they're in any

rush to go in. they're currently trying to remove what capability hamas has. they're striking top commanders there. they're removing weapons depots they know, their operational command they know is there, so they can be ready to go. and, at the same time, they are upskilling and training over 300,000 reservists who've just come in to active duty. now, that's double the number of active-duty soldiers that there were before. so this is a huge operation, teaching them how to fight in tunnels, urban warfare, just so many skills they need to learn in a very short amount of time. and they're now being deployed across the country to cover multiple frontiers. it's a huge challenge, and they want to be ready. amna: that is leila molana-allen in jerusalem and nick schifrin here in our studio. thank you to you both. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with "newshour west." here are the latest headlines.

the united auto workers added a new factory to its ongoing strike, on day 39. some 6800 workers walked out at a michigan plant that makes ram pickup trucks for stellantis. the union said friday that the detroit big three need to offer more. in all, 41,000 workers are now on strike against stellantis, ford, and gm. seven people have been killed in vehicle crashes in southern louisiana who do low visibility as a result of a so-called super fog. that returns of the smoke from marsh fires that mixed with fog this morning, leading to a wave of crashes on roads and highways. in addition to the fatalities, 25 people were injured. senator bob menendez has again pleaded not guilty, this time to federal charges he acted as an agent for egypt. the new jersey democrat left a courthouse in new york after today's hearing, without speaking. he's also accused of taking

bribes, but has denied all wrongdoing. in russia, a court ordered russian-american journalist alsu kurmasheva to stay in custody until early december. she appeared in a hood and mask, held in a defendant's box. she was detained last week on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. the united states is vowing again to defend the philippines after chinese ships collided with filipino vessels in the south china sea. it happened sunday off the disputed second thomas shoal, where beijing has sweeping territorial claims. video caught a chinese vessel ramming a philippines supply boat. then, another chinese ship blocked the philippines' coast guard from approaching. manila condemned the actions. >> we are here to really decry in the strongest possible terms this egregious violation and illegal act within the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic

zone, and the obfuscation of the truth by china distorting the story to fit its own ends. stephanie: in argentina, the presidential election will head for a run-off after economy minister sergio massa made a surprise first-round showing. supporters cheered the center-left candidate last night after he finished first over javier milei. the far-right populist had voiced admiration for former u.s. president trump. the runoff is scheduled for mid-november. and the world's oldest dog on record has died in portugal. bobi the guard dog passed away over the weekend. he lived all his life on the same farm, and claimed the guinness record for longevity en he turned 30. at his death, bobi was 31. that's 217 in dog years. still to come on the "newshour," tamara keith and amy walter weigh in on house republicans' struggle to choose a leader. israel's military tactics raise questions about whether the

nation is abiding by the laws of war. a new book explores senator mitt romney's fraught relationship with his own party. and more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: nine republicans are jockeying to serve as speaker of the house after several failed votes and a weeks-long stalemate over the future of the chamber. this evening, the candidates are pitching their plans to unite a divided house republican conference in a closed-door candidate forum. joining me now from the capitol is washington post's leigh ann caldwell. leigh ann, welcome back. so, day 20 without a speaker now. three have tried and failed, mr. mccarthy, scalise and jordan, nine new contenders. does any one of them stand out as someone who could gain the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership?

leigh ann: it's going to be a very tough pass to that 217, nine candidates across the ideological spectrum with differing levels of influence and experience in this party. but there's three that i'm watching. the first is a majority whip tom emmer. he's the number three republican in the house of representatives. he has deep relationships with a lot of members. he's responsible for a lot of members who have their seats because he was head of the campaign committee. and then there's kevin hern, who's a conservative and who leads the largest caucus within the republican conference. and then there's byron donalds. he's a relatively newcomer, but he's conservative. he's a member of the far-right freedom caucus. but people like him. and so those are the three people that i'm watching, amna. amna: leigh ann, tom emmer is only one of two of those nine who did vote to certify the 2020 election results. does that help or hurt his chances in any way?

leigh ann: i think that that vote specifically is not going to have much of an impact. but what will have an impact is donald trump and his supporters. donald trump doesn't like that emmer voted to certify the election. they have had a tense relationship. and my sources are telling me that, behind the scenes, donald trump is pushing his allies to slam emmer, to make sure that he does not win the speaker's race. now, donald trump isn't going to say anything publicly negative about emmer, but that behind-the-scenes could influence some republican close allies of trump who serve here in congress. amna: so, leigh ann, are the republicans doing anything differently this time in terms of the process that could help them avoid the gridlock of the past? leigh ann: they're not. and it's going to be mo complicated, because there's not just one candidate or not just two candidates. there's nine candidates. so they have to whittle that down just to one, which is going to be contentious. and then, of course, they have to go to the house floor and get a majority of the house.

that's about 217 members. no democrat is going to support any of these people. so it has to be done with all republicans. they can't lose more than four votes. and so it's going to be still very complicated. and i'm not sure if there's going to be a speaker at the end of this week, amna. amna: in 30 seconds we have left, is this the universe of people who could be speaker, or are there other candidates who could emerge longer this goes on? leigh ann: i think that the backup option, which failed last week, was just to give the temporary speaker, representative patrick mchenry, some more powers for just a limited amount of time. that's something that democrats would support. republicans weren't ready to go down that path yet, but that is kind of maybe the final option that we're going to keep watching if any of these nine fail. amna: all right, leigh ann caldwell of the washington post joining us from capitol hill. leigh ann, thank you. and let's continue looking now at the potential political fallout of the speaker's race and how it could affect u.s. aid for israel and ukraine with amy

walter of the cook political report with amy walter and tamara keith of npr. good to see you both. amy, i want to begin with your latest for the cook political report, something that's struck with me and kind of gives us a little bit of context we need. you wrote this. you said, "if you step back from the day-to-day chaos, it's easier to see this as part of a longer trajectory, one in which the so-called establishment has been gradually and effectively undermined for the last 30 years." you're talking, of course, about the crisis and trying to find a speaker. so, how did this happen, amy? amy: yes, this 30 years -- and i have been in washington that entire time. so, yes, i'm officially old. but in watching what's happening today, i was really struck by the fact that this began really back in 1994, the first set of sort of disrupters, anti-establishment started by newt gingrich, the gingrich revolution in 1994. then we moved to the second group of revolutionaries, i

would call them. that was the tea party back in 2010, and, then, finally, what we have now with trump and maga. and what's really interesting, amna, when you look at the trajectory of this, there's something that all of these groups have in common. the first is not just that they disliked the leadership, but what they saw was a republican leadership that wasn't fighting hard enough against democrats, that saw compromise as something that was considered more of a sin than an asset. what you also see is, in between each of these periods, the leadership or the establishment seems to think it found a way to either incorporate, accommodate, or fight back or repel those disrupters, those rebels, only to find that a new set of rebels was standing at the gate a few years later. and that's where kevin mccarthy found himself, of course, in -- well, gosh, this was two weeks ago now, three weeks ago -- where -- or maybe we can take it

back to the election of 2022, where things did not turn out the way that kevin mccarthy would have liked. he wanted a bigger margin in the house. and so he was left then with a very narrow margin, meaning that the rebels, that faction that doesn't want to see leadership working closely with democrats, was able to depose him. amna: tam, what about the trump of it all? i mean, we know his endorsement of jim jordan didn't help him get across the line in securing the speakership. you heard what leigh ann just had to say about him not exactly backing tom emmer. does he still have as much of a hold on house republicans as he previously did? tamara: i think you can safely say that he still has a stronghold on house republicans. and his endorsement may not be the thing that puts someone over the line, in part because their -- the threshold for becoming speaker is just so difficult. you have to get that 217, which means you can't lose anyone, or

you can lose only a handful. and i see this divide shaping up in the republican party that, essentially, what's happening in the house is a reflection of a broader divide in the republican party, where there's maybe like 20% or 30% of republicans who don't want to burn it all down and who have discomfort with trump or, in emmer's case, supported -- or were willing to accept that joe biden won the election. and then you have the rest of them who have fully gone all in on sort of the trump republican party. and that includes foreign policy. that includes -- it's easy to forget, but there was a time where there was a bipartisan deal to avoid a government shutdown. it looked like there wouldn't be a government shutdown. and then trump himself said, oh, no, i don't like that. and then there was a government shutdown. so, there really is this divide between republicans who realize

that governing requires some bipartisan compromise just because of the sheer math, and those that don't care. and it's hard to find a speaker candidate who can bridge that divide. amna: amy, tam mentioned foreign policy as part of this puzzle. and i want to remind folks about that rare oval office address that president biden gave a few days ago about a funding request he's sending to congress, more aid for israel and ukraine, including other things. here are some top lines from that request, over $61 billion for ukraine, $14 billion for israel, over $9 billion for humanitarian assistance, and over $13.5 billion for the border. but, amy, where is the american public on this? do they see all of these needs as vital u.s. interests? amy: the -- where the american public is -- in terms of as a voting issue, and how they see

this, is probably not as focused as many members of congress are on this. look, the issues of ukraine and israel, they are the kinds of issues that are critically important for policy reasons, but for voting reasons, for voters in terms of, is this the prism through which they are determining their vote for president, for congress? unlikely so. what i think is also important about this package, amna, is that it seems to have a little something for everybody, including for the border, immigration funding. this is what republicans have said previously they would like to see before they give any more support, especially to ukraine, but foreign aid, in particular. however, getting that deal done is going to require republicans to accommodate to the ukraine funding, which they previously said they would not like to see. and, also, it doesn't have any

policy changes to immigration. it's just more money for border enforcement. what a lot of republicans would like to see is actually a difference -- a different direction some key policies that democrats are not going to agree to. amna: tam, as you know, the president argues that this is critical funding that he needs. that funding is held up while the house is in disarray. is there anything the white house thinks they could do to help sort out that dysfunction? is there someone among these candidates they think they could work with? tamara: oh, the white house is not going to get involved in the speaker's race. they would not be a helpful force, and they are gladly staying away from it, though, when we were on air force one coming back from israel and asked president biden how he felt about jim jordan losing out on the speaker's race, he was like, yeah, i don't feel sorry for that guy at all. there was some sarcasm there. he weighed in once it was over.

but, no, the white house is not going to get involved in this house speaker's race. but, as you say, until there is a speaker, nothing can get done on these funding measures. over on the senate side, they clearly have a partner in minority leader mitch mcconnell, who is out there saying, well, if you want to push back on russia and china and iran, then this funding package is the way to do it. i expect, on the house side, they're not going to take this up as a package. amna: a lot to watch in the week ahead. tamara keith and amy walter, good to see you both. thank you so much. amy: thank you. ♪ amna: the hamas terror attack on israeli civilians two weeks ago and the subsequent israeli bombardment of gaza have roiled college and university campuses across the country, from arizona state to indiana to george mason and many more.

jeffrey brown reports on how protests and debates around free speech are reverberating on campus. [chanting] jeffrey: between rain showers friday on the campus of rutgers university in new jersey, members of the local chapter of the students for justice in palestine staged the latest in a series of demonstrations. [chanting] jeffrey: after the hamas attack on israel, the group issued a statement calling it a -- quote -- "justified retaliation" and those behind the attack freedom fighters. for now, it was demanding an end to the bombing and siege of gaza by israel and defending its own right to speak out. >> they report us as antisemitic. however, what we are really, truly doing is speaking about the atrocities and crimes against humanity in palestine. jeffrey: protesters mostly covered themselves to hide their identities and spoke to us

anonymously, citing fears of a backlash. >> tensions are high. plenty of students are really very terrified for their safety, including myself. i know a lot of my peers are afraid to leave their homes, staying at home as much as possible, meant some people skipping classes. so there's definitely been a real threat to our safety and a sense of just kind of terrifying concern. jeffrey: down the street in the campus' hillel house, part of an international jewish student organization, senior shari samuel said members of her community also have a newfound fear. shari: i have some friends who have never considered taking off their kippah, which is their religious head covering, to go to class and, right after this, started considering that, which is really terrifying. jeffrey: after the horror of the hamas attack, hillel helped organize a vigil for students to come together to grieve and mourn.

now samuel said she's hurt and angered by the actions of some on campus. shari: i don't want someone coming up to me and starting a conversation with me on -- as if i'm the representative here on behalf of the entire people of israel. i can only share my beliefs. and i -- frankly, this has turned into a lot of antisemitism. and i don't want to put myself into harm's way. jeffrey: around the country, college campuses far and wide, already mired in debates over free speech, curricula and much more, have become a flash point for anger and tensions. the day after the hamas attack, more than 30 student groups at harvard signed onto a public letter holding the israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. the backlash was immediate, including former treasury secretary and harvard president lawrence summers declaring that, "in nearly 50 years of harvard affiliation, i have never been as disillusioned and alienated

as i am today," and criticizing university leadership for not immediately denouncing terrorism. the next day, harvard's current president, claudine gay, did condemn terrorist atrocities. and days later, she released a video, saying in part -- claudine: our university rejects hate, hate of jews, hate of muslims, hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspect of their identity. our university rejects the harassment or intimidation of individuals based on their beliefs. and our university embraces a commitment to free expression. jeffrey: but those commitments continue to be challenged at harvard and elsewhere. at columbia university in new york, demonstrators at dueling rallies were kept separate. those took place a day after an israeli student was allegedly assaulted while hanging posters of people kidnapped by hamas.

yola: the rise of antisemitism on our campus has been abhorrent. there are people over there who are cheering with palestinian flags after women were raped and stripped and then taken, their dead corpses paraded through the streets of gaza. jeffrey: pro-palestinian protesters claimed a lack of equal support from the university administration. nadia: the clear bias in the communication that we received from the president of the university, without a single mention of the lives lost of palestinians. clearly, we're all against violence, but we're just asking for the lives of palestinian civilians to be acknowledged as well. jeffrey: a different kind of pressure has come from donors, trustees, and outside groups. marc: this has tapped into a nerve. whatever people's dissatisfaction with how universities, in particular, the university of pennsylvania, is being run, this just has made it boiled over. jeffrey: in a cnbc interview, marc rowan, ceo of a private equity firm and chair of the

board of advisers at the university of pennsylvania's wharton school, called on fellow penn alumni to stop donating. another prominent penn alumnus, former utah governor and ambassador jon huntsman, announced he would do just that. rowan also called for university leaders to resign for allowing a palestinian literary festival in september that included what he called hate-filled rhetoric and for not speaking out forcefully enough after the hamas attack. marc: this is not an issue of woke or anti-woke. this is an issue of right or wrong. is is a group, hamas, that believes that the jews should be killed. this is a group that is a terrorist group. the inability to actually say that is morally confused and bankrupt. jeffrey: a harvard alumnus, hedge fund billionaire bill ackman, called for the names of students tied to groups that signed the public letter blaming israel for the initial attack to be circulated so employers can

avoid hiring them. and individual students at harvard have been targeted through the practice known as doxxing, their personal information posted online, some branded as harvard's leading anti-semites on digital billboards on a roving truck operated by the conservative group accuracy in media. maya: for me and for many other jewish and israeli students on campus, the statement was so hurtful and upsetting. but then the answer is not to dox students. jeffrey: harvard sophomore maya bodnick rejects such tactics and says, after tense weeks on campus, it's still hard to see a way forward. maya: i come away from this feeling pretty cynical. i'm scared for the future of israel and palestine. i'm scared for what the future will look like on campus. one thing i do know is that, as much as possible, we need to work on consensus-building, not with intimidation tactics, but with debate and discussion and civil discourse.

jeffrey: friday at rutgers, students saw their protest as a key part of that discourse. >> we are not hostile. if you're interested in having a conversation with palestinians, i have had multiple conversations, and i have always explained that we just want to live. and the most powerful weapon that we have is our voice. jeffrey: in the meantime, colleges themselves grapple with finding their own voice. university representatives here at rutgers, as well as harvard, columbia, penn, and stanford, declined our request for an interview. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown. ♪ amna: president biden and the leaders of half-a-dozen european countries released a letter overnight endorsing israel's right to defend itself, but also -- quote -- "calling for israel to adhere to international

humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians." nick schifrin looks at those laws of war and whether they're being followed. nick: the rules that define armed conflict are a set of internationally recognized laws and resolutions that govern military targeting and require militaries to balance their priorities with protecting and warning civilians. what we have seen on the ground so far, hamas terrorists turned israeli kibbutzim into ashes and a music festival into a massacre, more than 1400 israelis killed, hundreds taken hostage. in gaza, health authorities say more than 5000 palestinians are dead, nearly half of the population displaced, and some gaza city neighborhoods reduced to moonscapes by israeli airstrikes. for more on the question of international law, we get two views, pnina sharvit baruch, former legal adviser to the israel defense forces and senior research fellow at the israel institute for national security studies, and sari bashi, human

rights lawyer and program director at human rights watch. thank you very much to both of you. welcome to the "newshour." pnina sharvit baruch, let me starwith you. is israel following the law of armed conflict? pnina: i was a legal adviser in the idf, in the military, and the laws of armed conflict are entrenched in our commands, in the training. we have legal advisers there. we are -- it is important for us to be -- to abide by the rules, to be a law-abiding state. but, of course, the application and the implementation relies on the circumstances. this is -- there is a flexibility in the laws of armed conflict. nick: sari bashi, what do you see in the circumstances? do you believe israel is abiding by the law of armed conflict? sari: no. so, this current escalation began on october 7, when hamas-led fighters committed unspeakable war crimes against israeli civilians, killing, massacring, and taking hostage, including children. and the israeli response, unfortunately, has been to target civilians in gaza. one of the first things the

israeli military did was cut off all supplies to gaza, food, fuel, water, and electricity, which has set into motion a spiraling humanitarian crisis. punishing civilians in gaza for the actions of fighters is collective punishment. and it's a war crime under international law. nick: pnina sharvit baruch, let's start with that topic. the israeli military very specifically cut off water, electricity that israel provides to gaza. is that collective punishment? pnina: no, it's not collective punishment. what the hamas terrorists did was a brutal attack against the state of israel. they are clearly an enemy that is after us, that is there to -- main aim is to destroy the state of israel. israel is acting fully in its right to defend -- its obligation, even, to defend its civilians. the only thing that the law demands with regard to the civilian population of the enemy -- i'm talking here about

supplying -- is that there will be no starvation and to allow the supply of basic humanitarian needs. and israel is doing that. there have been trucks, i don't know how many, but many trucks going in the last few days through rafah, to the civilian population. so there is no starvation, is allowing that. but to talk about a collective punishment, when we are really defending ourselves against this vicious enemy that is there -- and it's not just revenge. it's not revenge. revenge is not the policy. nick: sari bashi, what about that argument? the israelis, the egyptians, the americans have figured out to get about three dozen or so trucks at this point through rafah, and israel is not obligated to continue sending in electricity and other items that it argues could be dual use for hamas. sari: so, water is not a dual-use item. water is something that civilians need to drink. and the israeli army in an

update yesterday to diplomats acknowledged that there are water shortages in northern gaza. but their response was, well, those people should evacuate. that's not what international law says. civilians need to be protected all the time. what the israeli authorities have done is deliberately cut the water and electricity that simply flows into gaza. they're also blocking fuel from entering the rafah crossing, the southern egyptian crossing. the fuel is needed to deliver the very small quantities of aid that have come in. the fuel is needed for hospital generators. this is lifesaving equipment. and deliberately impeding that passage is a war crime. there's a very simple and very clear thing that needs to happen. the israeli government needs to immediately turn back on the electricity and water, stop blocking fuel from entering via rafah, and take the steps necessary, as it has done in previous conflicts, to open its own crossing, so that the full panoply of humanitarian aid can enter for civilians in gaza. nick: pnina sharvit baruch, let me switch over to the israeli

air campaign that we have seen so far. some neighborhoods in gaza city have been reduced, frankly, to moonscapes. law of armed conflict talks about proportionality. do you believe that the israeli air force and the campaign so far has been proportional to the threat that hamas poses and those hamas targets that israel says it's pursuing? pnina: we have to understand that all the military infrastructure of the hamas and the other terrorist organizations is within, is inside civilian buildings and under civilian buildings. and, according to the law, when a civilian object is used for military purposes, it becomes a lawful military target. then, even when you do attack them, you have to examine, what is the military advantage and whether the collateral damage to harm to civilians expected would be excessive in comparison to the military advantage? israel is facing from the hamas an existential threat. we have 200,000 israelis, internally displaced israelis, villages that are burnt.

we cannot go back and live there. the other enemies, hezbollah and the iran and other proxies, are looking to see. if israel is weak, they will enter the fight. this could be the end of the state of israel. yes, civilians, unfortunately, are harmed, but that doesn't mean this harm is excessive because of this huge military advantage that we have on the other side. nick: sari bashi, take on that point. i personally have reported from gaza inside wars in 2014. and i have seen how hamas uses mosques, schools, et cetera, as military bases. sari: so i would agree that the proportionality inquiry is case-by-case and specific. my concern is that the israeli military is dropping explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas in ways that are predicted to kill civilians, and they're killing civilians. and since this war began, the israeli military has killed, on average, every day more than 100 children in gaza.

that is not only what i would call excessive, to use pnina's words. it also violates a widely accepted new standard, including a standard that the united states has signed onto, about the need to avoid the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas. if you continue to do that, you raise the risk of indiscriminate attacks, which are unlawful. nick: pnina sharvit baruch, let's look into the future. the united states right now is giving tactical and operational discussions with israelis about how to conduct their ground invasion expected to start at any minute. will the idf try its best to limit civilian casualties by using some of the smaller weapons and different techniques on the ground, or will it use overwhelming force? pnina: it is in our interest to minimize harm to civilians. it's also our legal obligation to take precautions, feasible precautions. of course, we will do whatever we can. but, again, we have to understand hamas has these

tunnels under all the buildings. they booby-trap buildings, civilian buildings, so that, if we attack a target, a tunnel in one place, it will lead to another house collapsing somewhere else. it's a means -- they're using the palestinian life as a means of warfare, of lawfare, of fighting us in the international arena. so, what are we supposed to do, do nothing, allow them to come again and butcher us again, allow our other enemies to join when they think that we are weak? and what are the options? nick: sari bashi, what is your message to the idf as it launches its ground invasion, given the realities of how hamas is embedded into gaza city especially? sari: so the option and the requirement is to obey the law. and the law has very specific protections for civilians. i'm particularly worried about the many civilians who've remained in northern gaza. the israeli military asked or warned people in gaza, one million people, to leave. for many, that's impossible. and the israeli military last

night dropped fliers warning people in northern gaza that, if they stay behind, they risk being considered to be part of -- to be complicit in terrorism. that is a very, very dark sign of how they intend to treat civilians in gaza. nick: pnina sharvit baruch, sari bashi, thank you very much to you both. sari: thank you. pnina: thank you. ♪ amna: it wasn't that long ago, in 2012, that mitt romney was the republican party's presidential nominee. but, today, the gop he once led is dominated by donald trump. now a senator from utah, romney is attempting to make sense of the changes within the party and his own actions over his decades-long political career. for numerous hours over 14 months, he shared his thoughts with journalist mckay coppins. lisa desjardins picks up the story from there. lisa: that's right, amna. and the result of those intimate

conversations is mckay coppins new book, "romney: a reckoning." and mckay joins me now. mckay, lots of headlines from this, but mitt romney here is not just reckoning with his party, but also reckoning with himself in some ways. and i wonder, can you pick a revealing moment that shows sort of this restless quality that comes through in the book, and how this affects a historic figure making big decisions throughout? mckay: yes, it's interesting. one of the things that drew me to him as a subject was that, especially in the wake of january 6, he was really going through a process of trying to understand how his party had become the way it was and whether he played any role in the party's de-evolution. now, obviously, he's been a prominent critic of donald trump's, but he told me about a moment in the wake of the 2016 election when he had been very openly hostile to donald trump's campaign, but trump actually invited him to talk about joining his administration as

secretary of state. and romney went back and forth on whether to pursue that, and he did have a couple meetings with trump. and he told me, if i'm being honest with myself, i said that i had a lot of noble intentions in pursuing this, but there was also a part of me that just wanted the job, wanted the power, wanted to be in the middle of the action. and i think what's fascinating about my conversations with him is that he was often going back through his career and his life and identifying those moments where he was rationalizing things in his self-interest. and i think that's important, because i think that those kinds of rationalizations run through a lot of american politics today, and it's what's brought us to this moment that we're in right now. lisa: how does he look at his role with trump and whether he's complicit with where trump ended up? mckay: there's one moment in the book, and some people might remember this. in 2012 when mitt romney was running for the republican presidential nomination, he

accepted donald trump's endorsement. at the time, mitt romney rationalized to himself that trump was a celebrity. he was a kind of buffoonish figure, and both parties have celebrities like this. but in the years since, obviously, that moment has looked worse and worse to romney. and he told me, if there's anything that i did in that campaign to give him credibility and help him four years later become president, obviously, i regret it. and i think that he does have a lot of regret about not just how he indulged trump and kind of the maga wing of the party, but, more broadly, how he indulged some of the more toxic elements of his party when he was trying to pursue the presidency. a lot of the story of this book is those extremist forces in the party that people like mitt romney thought they could sort of keep at bay and that, over the years, especially recently, kind of took over the party, and they realized that it wasn't

possible to just sort of flirt with them and then keep them at arm's length. lisa: this book has made a lot of news. it also has garnered a lot of reaction. some of my sources on capitol hill, including some romney allies, actually felt that there were some hypocritical kind of ideas in here for mr. romney. how do you reckon these two mitt romneys? which one is real, the one who is venting sharply to you behind closed doors or the one who is not saying those same things in public yet? mckay: well, a lot of the venting that he did for -- with me and that i recall in the book was stuff that he had said over the course of years. so, he gave me his private journals that recounted some of the stories of his interactions with people like mitch mcconnell, ted cruz, josh hawley. and it's funny, he later told me that he hadn't reread those journals before he gave them to me. so i put them in there to demonstrate his growing alarm with the leadership of his party over years. but, i mean, look, the reality

is he has been very critical of the leadership of his party. he's enormously disappointed in some of his colleagues and how they, behind closed doors, will say that donald trump is a menace, that he's a buffoon, and then, in public, will perform their loyalty to him. and i think he deserves some credit for saying it out loud, the things that most of his republican colleagues would never say out loud. lisa: what is his relationship with the republican party, you think, going forward? mckay: i think he's more isolated than ever. i mean, he has made very clear that he doesn't have a home in this party anymore. he, by the end time of -- by the end of our conversations, had been openly talking to me about leaving the party, starting a third party, perhaps. as long as donald trump is the dominant figure in the gop, he is going to remain a vocal critic and opponent of significant elements of that party. and i will be interested to see if he remains affiliated with it

in the years ahead. lisa: his book is "romney: a reckoning." mckay coppins, thank you for all the work and for joining us. mckay: thank you. ♪ amna: some international singers lent their talents yesterday to a virtual concert called voices of peace in times of war in collaboration with the john f. kennedy performing arts center. the 10-year-old jerusalem youth chorus composed of israeli and palestinian singers helped organize this after canceling its long-planned trip to the u.s. this week. the group is intended to foster dialogue and empathy even in the worst of times. and here they are, performing "reason to love." ♪

amna: you can find the link to more of that concert on our website. and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by.

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