of leland vittert. had been a cease-fire in place. that has been rumored all day. it's not in effect. the parties are still working on that. it's yet to come profruition. we will keep you updated if that happens. brit tapes joined france in formally recognizing the newly formed syrian opposition. u.s. has not gone that far. rebels seize headquarters near damascus after four days of fighting. >>> san franciscfrance ended cot operation in afghanistan. handover ceremony held at base northeast ofc of kabul. they promised to withdraw combat troops by the end of the year. if there is a cease-fire will it hold between the palestinians a sunrise we'll ask the foc fox all-stars when e return. >>> moment we draw symmetry between the victims of terror and the unintended casualties that result from legitimate military action against the terrorists, the minute that false symmetry is drawn, the terrorists win. >> the rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside gaza on israeli cities and sounds must end. and a

adding to the sea of tanks and troops at that are now on stand by near the border with gaza, leland vittert is live on the front lines near the israel-gaza border, leland? >> reporter: kelly, we're in front of what would be the tip of israel's spear, the black behind me, where the tanks would roll through on the gaza strip and the lights behind me. right now as we speak, we're hearing explosions inside the gaza strip, the sound of israeli drones and f-16's overhead and every once in a while a red dot fly out of gaza. that's one of the missiles headed out of gaza toward the millions of israeli civilians now in the line of fair. israel's ground forces are just waiting for the go order, the d-9 bulldozers that will lead the assault over-the-hill into gaza and then you have the tanks and armored personnel carriers that will follow in, we were at this position just 24 hours ago, there is significantly more activity. they have fuel trucks brought in, ammunition trucks brought in to supply the troops that are just waiting for the go order. through the afternoon, gaza militants launched countless r

let's get to leave until -- leland vittert. reporter: we are certainly further along towards the cease-fire than when we talked last night. everything fell apart and the wheels came off. there has been an announcement of a broader agreements between hamas and israel. the israelis, the number one thing they wanted was an end to the rocket. that is the very key thing for the israeli people. the israelis and jihad and other organizations, egypt is being held responsible by the united states and the entire world for the rockets coming out of the gaza strip, if there are any. another point to make is that there is going to be a cessation attempts to stop the weapons smuggling that is coming from egypt into the gaza strip. if you look at this live, there is a faint glow and rocket interceptor that went out. the school has now burned out. but we are not at the point of the cease-fire agreement as of yet. that will come in about 58 minutes. you just heard the boom from the rocket interception overhead of the gaza strip. here is what to

>> chris: leland vittert from the border with gaza. thank you. like boxers circling each other before throwing the first punch, democrats and republicans are staking out their positions for startup talks to try to move the country back from the now famous fiscal cliff. >> reporter: reports suggest the economy slipped back to recession, offering little hope of the exports to that part of the world and increase in jobless filing last week, some economists blame hurricane sandy, lawmakers look to lower the fiscal cliff the economy is approaching if they don't reach a deal on reducing the deficit. house democratic leader nancy pelosi urged extending middle class tax cut. >> we must not hold middle class tax cuts hostage to wealthiest americans. >> republicans know if they don't the democrats will let the upper income tax cuts expire, which they say will hurt job creation. day after the first news conference in more than half a year and the first after the re-election, newspaper seized on the president's suggestion he might not demand the top income t

correspondent leland vittert with the day in the life of a nation under attack. >> the united states days from school. here in israel, rocket days. this is a rocket that came through the concrete roof of a major school here. high school. through here and embedded itself there in the ground. this is a bench where students would normally sit. we could see it's peppered with shrapnel. [ sirens ] okay, got sirens going. we're going keep going. this area was hit once before. we are going to keep moving. grab this. coming this way. we are getting inside. this is where israeli students would be hiding if, of course, they had been in school. today was rocket day. we just heard the explosions overhead. and that was really close. we literally just got to scene of the rockets that you heard inside the bomb shelter. this is what a rocket did to a concrete block walkway. you imagine what it would have done to any person who was standing out here. these are the ultimate in citizen soldiers. many of these are engineers or account tants who have now been called up. they are using every spare minute

>> chris: leland vittert reporting from the israel-gaza border.for that. >>> israel's defense minister says syrian rebels control nearly all villages near the boarder with the golan heights. rebels along the boarder with turkey are being bombarded by the government aircraft and artillery. opposition forces see as much of the region last week. >>> the president weighs in on the petraeus scandal and the benghazi investigation. we will hear about both from the panel when we come right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro. we have so much tenology in our store toeally show the customers what's going on with their bodies. now you can feel what happens as we raise your sleep number setting and allow th

>> bret: leland vittert in the golan heights. thank you. israeli jihad militants release the video saturday rockets being fired from gaza strip to what is presumed southern israel. israeli airstrike killed a militant and wounded two othe others. satellite imagery indicates north korea testing rocket engines and american academic institute says it is a sign the country continues to develop its long range ballistic missiles. analysis on the satellite images taken recently as september april, they launched a rocket to failed attempt to propel satellite in space. in this country residents of the northeast battle aftereffect ostwo of weather events in the past two weeks. new york's governor is asking for $30 billion in federal disaster aid. jonathan hunt tells us help can't come fast enough for those still in the dark. >> how long have you lived here? >> 50 years. >> 50 years? >> 5-0. >> tom is one of the many residents who lost everything. flood and fire ra advantaging the neighborhood. destroying home after home. tom like most here says he wil

>> bret: leland vittert live in the middle east newsroom. thank you.k in this country, the votes have been cast and confetti has fallen now. president obama is back at the white house and he is already staring at a full plate of issues, including syria and libya. we look at the chance ahead. >> after returning to the white house last night, president obama today took a stream of celebratory phone calls from world leaders like the u.k.'s david cameron and israel's benjamin netanyahu. the euphoria of re-election is quickly giving way to hard reality of governing with the foreign policy crisis bubbling from iran to syria. plus, lingering questions about the terror attack in benghazi, which will result in those three different house and senate committees, grilling administration officials next thursday. >> hopefully now that we're past the election the administration will do the right thing. coming up to the election they did notch they claim to be the most pope and transparent administration ever but they are not going the basics in sharing with congress

leland leland vittert back from the border live in jerusalem this evening. nd. >> shep, the israelis have shown a lot of restraint so far and things are relatively calm. there has been no more cross border shelling overnight. israelis are very firm in their resolve and warn of dire consequences of these kinds of attacks continue and in this part of the world. the line between a war of words and a war with real bullets is awfully thin. you are looking at one of the syrian villages where the civil war wages on. machine gun firing today and artillery pounding away on the israeli side. outpost. this is a machine gun pillbox where they can fire out from and concrete trench where soldiers can move around. we already had a couple of mortar rounds land near this position. inside there is the living quarters for soldiers. relatively speaking, this border has been calm for 40 years that certainly now is beginning to change as the the israeli army is on high alert and ready to reinforce their positions if things on this very very tense border get any worse. [right now t

leland vittert has the latest. leland?reporter: chris, israel is very much a country on the brink of war. we have seen hundreds, if not thousands of tanks and personally carriers, ready to push into the gaza strip, in a moment's notice, because the airstrike simply did not stop the rockets flying out of gaza, towards israel. and the iron dome intercepted a number of those rockets today. however, about 8 or 10 got through, causing a half dozen injuries inside of southern israel. and, for the israelis, the airstrikes continued pounding away, day five of hitting the gaza strip, so far the airstrikes killed 50-plus people, half of them civilians, including a number of children and the air forces hit almost a thousand targets, and, leveled much of hamas's infrastructure, inside of the gaza strip. as for the ground war, which certainly caused more civilian casualties, a major escalation. israel called up 30,000 reservists and they are on the borders now, infantry and their tanks, simply waiting for the "go" order to head in and

leland vittert is live at the border a very tenuous situation to say the least. you with us this morning? >> very much so. to say that the israelis are ready for war would be an understatement. this is the tip of the spear right here. we have hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers yesterday to move into gaza. they do want to show hamas is that they are ready for a ground invasion which could be coming. it's just a couple of hundred yards into gaza from here. they would send a main fce in. gaza and then begin this ground defensive. hamas is putting out a lot of propaganda today on their television today a long movie saying they missed the suicide bombings that would once again return to that they said we are ready to continue to fight the israelis. of course, put out their own message, also saying they are ready for a ground invasion. keep pounding away from the air. which they did last night. a number of military barracks, compounds including the prime minister's residence that they are now trying to put through the message to hamas that they do not want to

look at this, leland vittert live on the scene with his helmet on as renewed rocket attacks are seen from our camera position near the border between israel and gaza. just a few minutes ago we got reported that an israeli soldier was reportedly killed in one of the dozens of strikes. look at it raining fire in the sky. you can hear leland, he was getting ready for -- he was going to do a hit for fox business network which he has not yet done, but this is the scene. this is a day at work for him and a day of fear for many israelis, not to mention those in gaza. more on that in a bit. >>> well, new controversy today involving ambassador susan rice's comments about the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. nearly a hundred house republicans sent a letter to president obama asking him now not to nominate her to be our next secretary of state. you remember the president last week said i'll nominate her if i want to. she is widely viewed as having incompetently misled the american public in the benghazi matter, and those words are being criticized by james clyburn who says they

leland vittert is in the danger zone along the bordered. he joins us live. >> megyn it is really eerie out here. that would be the best words we know. a hundred yards in the black abyss are israeli cannons, the artillery firing inch. you hear explosions. and then see the pwraoeuf orange fire balls light up the night sky. around us most of the people here have fled. there are a million israelis who live within range, and many of them have fled north. they are too scared as this country is now on the brink of war. all along the gaza strip outposts have popped up, communication centers have been moved in and set up over the past 24 to 48 hours, and now it resembles and armed camp. these are valuable hours, daylight while they can practice inside these fields that are relatively secure before the go order is given, how to move through gaza, how they are going to clear houses, who will go where on what street, and that is valuable information, because in combat you don't have much time to think. of course for many of these soldiers the waiting i

leland vittert is live in jerusalem. what can we report?r: right now there are some myths to the israeli version of killing osama bin laden. ahmed jabari had been running this for 10 years. he killed so many israeli people. he was killed in a targeted killing in the gaza strip. a missile took out a card he was riding in. it leads to more targeted killing of militants there. the military now calling this operation cloud pillar. we just got off the briefing with the israeli military says it is going to be in operation against hamas and islamic jihad. also some of their camps and weapons storage facilities there, inside of the gaza strip. what we are waiting for right now is the reciprocity multiplier to begin. over the past week or so there have been about 160 rockets fired out of the gaza strip into southern israel. those rockets believe messing up life in southern israel. obviously, they have the potential to kill and injure a number of people. they demanded action and eventually, the israeli military has said that this has worn thin. the q

correspondent leland vittert has the evidence. >> bretevidence >> reporter: they have been firing offearing ready for battle. the western intelligence sources tell fox news the men are ire rainian revolutionary guard troops coming to help bashar assad in the syria long civil war. they have exploited the attention on syria to ramp up the flight. often sending ton of ammunition, weapon and equipment multiple times a week. they are flying via rocky air space. the u.s. put pressure on iraq. iraq is inspecting the planes but sources say it's done on the return flight. when the plane is empty to appease the u.s. keep the flight coming. 18 months since the civil war. deflection from the syrian army means that assad has less well-trained men. >> recent rebel takeover have robbed the soldiers of equipment. and the army is running low on ammunition. >> while diplomatic pressure from united states is the only thing to stop iran shipments via iraqi air space, in israel they take a more proactive approach. last month, the jewish state bombed iranian owned weapon facility in sudan. sources say it w

rick: leland vittert on the ground in southern israel. leland, thanks.right now on our top story the investigation into the terror attack in benghazi killing our ambassador there and three other americans. senator john mccain speaking moments ago after a closed-door briefing. take a listen. >> we will be introducing this afternoon a resolution that would establish such a select committee and we will urge the senate leadership to act on it as soon as possible. jenna: chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge continues to follow this story and has more for us now. catherine. >> reporter: thank you, jenna. there are growing calls on capitol hill for either a select committee or special panel to investigate the benghazi scandal. there are three tracks to this investigation. there are the warnings, the requests for security that were denied before the consulate attack. there are the administration's statements that it was a chem station that spun out of control in response to the anti-islam video which conflicted with the available intelligence. and

leland vittert is live in jerusalem with the latest. leland?ck, right now the big concern in terms of the civil war is just how close the syrians civil war is getting to its borders, namely with turkey and also here with israel. the airstrikes we have watched over the past couple of days along the turkish border were shots from turkey, meaning that is how close the planes were and the turks for their part have promised to shoot down any syrian air force jet that ends up inside turkey airspace. that of course could have a whole cascading range of effects going down. the air force for the syrian government is really the trump card as they have been able to act with impunity. although rebels have gotten better organized the past couple weeks they're nowhere near the level, france, britain or the united states will consider sending over some type of anti-aircraft missiles or other types of heavy weapons to allow them to try to turn the tide in their war against president bashar assad. the other story we're watching very closely here that could easi

leland vittert joins us live in our jerusalem bureau. what is hamas saying about all of this? >> hamas says the shooting incident that killed one palestinian, injured 19 on the gaza border breaks the cease-fire agreement. what hamas is doing is perhaps more important which is using its police force to try to hold people back from the scene there on the border and prevent any more protestors from reaching that fence. earlier today 300 protestors went towards the fence, the israeli soldiers came out, told them to get back, at some point there was automatic weapons fire, whether the soldiers meant to shoot to kill or not is still unclear. this has been a big part of the negotiations for the cease-fire because israel has kept a buffer zone inside the gaza strip for a long period of time now, and tried to keep palestinians back from that. that was part of the cease-fire agreement. and this is what the palestinians were testing. right now the cease-fire appears good. the question is will we see more of these incidents or will we see more peopl

leland vittert live on the israel-gaza border for us now. leland. >> reporter: jon, we were at that school, there was no kids there, because they don't have snow days here, they have rocket days. today being one of them. behind me in the black abyss is the israeli artillery and their cannons moving about. for the first time today we heard them firing into gaza, ranging in their guns for a possible ground offensive as we were in the line of fire for the rockets. this is the rocket that came through the concrete roof of a major school here, a high school, through here, embedded itself there down in the ground. this is a bench where students would normally sit. you can see it's now peppered with shrapnel, something like this shrapnel which obviously destroyed the bench could very easily kill a student. okay, you got the sirens going, we've got the sirens going, we are going to keep going. this area was hit once before, we are going to keep moving, we are going to grab this. keep coming this way. we are getting inside. all the way inside. this is

fox news correspondent leland vittert is on the scene with the latest. >> reporter: there is no questiona country on the brink of war. behind me are tankss maneuvering waiting for the order to head to the gaza strip. the iron dome intercepted rockets today but there been a dozen israelis injuried in the attack. the airstrikes continue to pound away. 70 palestinians dead. the israeli air force say they hit 1,000 targets so far. the ground war is just getting ready. the tankss armored personnel carriers moving to fighting position so far. there are 30,000 reservists drafted awaiting orders that could come in 24 to 48 hours. the israeli envoy that is in cairo and involved in peace talk. islamic jihad and trying to bring about cease-fire. back to you in washington. >> chris: joining us now two leading senators. saxby chambliss, vice chair of the intelligence committee. and joseph lieberman head of the homeland security committee. i want to ask you both about the rolling conflict between israel and palestinians in gaza. senator lieberman, israel has to be able to defend it, do you worry about

leland vittert is live from the israel-gaza border for us right now. leland. >> certainly, jon what we're seeing right now is a majorress ka lace. there hav major escalation. there have never been rockets fired, first time in 20 years on tell louisiana sreufplt it's going to elicit a very strong response from israel here along the border we continue to take incoming fire. there is an eerie feeling of sorts around here that an all out ground offensive by israel is imminent. there is so much take of the iron dome interest septembering missiles but it's not perfect and it doesn't work this close to gaza where home-made rockets fly out there is not time. it impacted right here a couple of yards from a house. you see what it did to the whole barbecue area. had there been people out here they won't have stood a chance. to give you an idea as to what it would do to a person if somebody was standing out here. this is the wall of the house and you can see where the strap tphashap knellvan knel shrapnel embedded itself. had you been outside this would have been y

>>shepard: that was leland vittert. sadly we do not have reports from the other side. this -- jonathan hunt? >>jonathan: there is a security council text being circulated but when it finally gets approved it will be in effect meaningless with in proposal for any kind of action. there is the part of the u.n. secretary-general arriving in the generation -- in the generation -- egyptian capital and will meet with israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu and palestinian president but whether the secretary-general's talks can lead to a progress seems doubtful at this point. >>shepard: i understand the u.s. and monitoring the egyptian led ceasefire negotiations. >>jonathan: yes. president obama has made his views known in the phone calls to president morrissey of egypt and prime minister binyamin netanyahu of israel saying hamas has to be stopped and the rocket attacks have to stop. egypt is at the forefront of negotiations and the united states clearly does not want to get in the middle of it or comment too much on what egypt's president morsi is saying or the public prono

leland vittert is on it.e is live near the israeli-gaza border where the military has been mobilized. there is a lot of talk about a ground invasion. are we close to that happening again in the gaza strip? >> reporter: certainly seems that way, bill, in the sense we saw a number of rockets go off from gaza launching here into israel. so clearly these three days of punishing airstrikes have not yet diminished hamas's ability to launch rockets towards israel. now israel is thinking it may have to go in on the ground. we were driving around where the idf had dozens if not hundreds of personal care yors and bulldozers and tanks, that were concealed pretty well behind a large berm and trees out of the line of sight from palestinians where they can use laser-guided anti-tank weapons. the israelis called up some 15,000 reservist forces activity duty guys from both sides of the border to mass here on the gaza border to go in if the order it given. bill: leland you have much different middle east from the last time wh

leland vittert joins us live in jerusalem. how is this working? >> reporter: essentially what is going on here, general ace the iranians want some way to get weapons, ammunition and men over to the syrian regime. they can't fly north through turkey, they are flying through iraq that is despite the u.s. asking iraq to close down air space to these kinds of flights. this is video that's been confirmed to fox news by western intelligence sources showing iranian revolutionary guard troops getting off of cargo troops that view via iraqi air space inside syria to join the fight. it's no secret that iran is trying very hard to help president bashar al-assad. it's most interesting how they are getting increasingly sneaky about how they are getting him his weapons and ammunition and those kinds of things. the issue here is that over the past couple of months the u.s. put a lot of pressure on iraq to shut the flights down. what they are doing now is the flights go over iraqi air space but inspected on the way back, so therefore when the iraqis inspect the f

leland vittert has been on this story now. he joins us live from jerusalem. leland, what do we know here? >> reporter: martha, it is no secret that iran wants to keep president bashar assad in power there in syria but they're becoming increasingly sneaky how they are getting him weapons, ammunition, other things to continue the fight against his own people. western intelligence sources confirm this video shows cargo planes that have landed from iran inside syria flown by iraqi airspace. despite very intense u.s. pressure to stop those flights. they land. they off-load and the people you are watching our sources tell us are iran revolutionary guard corps members helping the syrian regime. according to our sources the revolutionary guard used all media attention that happened in gaza, no one is talking about syria for two weeks to increase the flights significantly and continue to supply president assad because they say he is running out of ammunition, especially artillery shells for being able to hit syrian cities. what we also learned this is turning into a li

leland vittert with the latest. good afternoon. >> reporter: afternoon here, morning in new york to you all and this is a country ready for war indeed. we've seen soldiers gassing up at the local stations and picking up supplies and headed off to battle and these are citizen soldiers manning the armored personnel carriers and tanks which are maneuvering here in the desert landscape just before the gaza border you see out there and as it happens, hamas is beginning to take pot shots with mortars here into that area and the tanks and armored personnel carriers are getting set up for a possible multi-pronged attack in the gaza city and quite simply the air war has not stopped the rockets from flying. a thousand rockets towards israeli cities and two more towards tel aviv and those were intercepted by the iron dome system. it's not perfect, but there were a couple of rockets that fell in towns, injuring several people. we were in an apartment building where the rockets came through two cements ceilings and into the seco

gregg: leland vittert is live in southern israel with the latest. leland? >> reporter: good morning, gregg. there's sort of a cold rain that has descended here on southern israel, but all is quiet on the southern front. the only sounds we are hearing is the tanks and the armored personnel carriers that the israeli army brought out to possibly launch a ground invasion of gaza now heading north, back to their bases. as life, at least a little bit, begins to return to normal. for the past eight days, we've been at this shopping center. it was deserted. now you can barely find a place to park as israelis begin to try to put their lives back together. >> of course, i feel better. i haven't left the house in two weeks. >> we can go out and do whatever we want. >> reporter: these are one are among the one million who escaped the random destruction and death that rained down. >> we want to be at home, we want to normal, we want to start again. [laughter] they need to go to school and kindergarten. >> reporter: with the ceasefire, they're heading home and buying gro

we will go live to leland vittert on the border just ahead for a live report on what is happening today. plus, a number of democrats today held a news conference demanding that the u.n. ambassador, susan rice, and her comments on libya, be explained. this hours after general petraeus testified on capitol hill. is this a prelude to a ambassador susan rice getting tapped for a bigger job? we will have more of that next. >> how can she say five days later? there is no evidence of a coordinated al qaeda attack when there is a bunch of evidence hey, look! a shooting star! make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. test drive! but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. on any new volkswagen. avoid bad.fats. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a d

we want to get right to leland vittert who's in jerusalem. i'm megyn kelly. leland, the situation on the ground there getting more dangerous. >> reporter: here we go! megyn: we're going to get right to him. there is ongoing violence, leland, take it from here. >> reporter: really right now, megyn, this is as real as it gets. you're hearing in the background the air raid sirens coming out of the city. in the past 45 seconds to a minute we've had about a dozen iron dome interceptor rockets go out. that means there were rockets coming from gaza in towards israel trying to hit population centers. the iron dome then decided it was going to launch. if you see that flashing red light, that's where they go off from. it is this system that is the only thing protecting more than a million people from these rockets that rain down here. 200 have come down here in israel in about the 18 hours, and i can tell you when the air raid sirens start to go off, your adrenaline really starts to flow. megyn: understandable. and we wanted to get right to you because of the breaking n

gregg: leland vittert we'll check back with you. can secretary clinton get both sides to agree on anything or are we in for more violence? jack keane will join us live. >> the labor department just releasing its weekly unemployment claims report. applications falling a little from the week before but still high at 410,000. the labor department blaming the recent spike in claims on superstorm sandy. last week's numbers were the first time we saw above 400,000 in more than a year. we are learning that has been resides up by 12,000. it was originally reported at 439,000 and was 451,000. that's an 8-month high for reporting. gregg: new applications for unemployment benefits fluctuated between 380,000 and 390,000. jobless claims have stayed above 300,000 and spiked in early 2009. they must fall below 375,000 to indicate the job market is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. >> unions flexing their muscle. the seiu warns members to expect delays in l.a., and new york and chicago as they negotiate a new contract. black friday shop

fox team coverage is with leland vittert and jennifer griffin. go first to leland in southern israel. >> reporter: jon you might say here we go again. another night, another round of reports that there will be an announcement of a cease-fire, no official confirmation in as little as the past 20 or 30 minutes we've seen major explosions d do dottin the skyline, this as a very long day of fighting comes to an end. the bus bombings have started again would be the easiest way to say it. in is the raw intensity that we saw during the suicide bombings. you can see over here all the glass that's been knocked out. this is where passengers were. while the iron dome has protected tel-aviv from hamaz's missiles it certainly did not protect it from this and once again bring fear to the streets of the country's largest city. >> oh, god not these tere owes in the street again. i cross this way like ten times a day. it could have been me just as well. >> in gaza celebrations of the bus bombings began almost immediately with candy being handed out to kids and ham