anti-semitism on our campus period, end of story. you cannot thread a needle. you have to be as full throated defense of jewish students as you are in defense of every other student on campus. but if i can just explain why this makes so much sense, why when campuses have people protesting, chanting from the river to the sea, which is a chant that envisions israel without jews in it, which is hamas' goal, or inta fa da, this century the second inta fa da killed a thousand civilians with bombings on bus stops, at caves, atopy sa places. the rhetoric being used is dangerous and must be called out everywhere by university presidents, by elected officials, by everyone who understands that we have an obligation not just to protect the jewish community but to stand squarely against terrorism, the kind that we experienced in our own country not that long ago. and that we need to stand against wherever it occurs. especially when there are americans who were killed and americans who are still being held hostage. we have to come together on this issue. >> former congressman ted deutsche, i wish we had more time. we'll have you back soon. thank you for that. >> thank you. we do have breaking news. israeli forces say an air strike has killed a hamas commander. the commander that helped direct the massacre on two areas right near the gaza border on october 7th. this comes as israeli troops push deeper into gaza and prime minister netanyahu rejects calls for a cease fire. >> calls for a cease fire are calls for israel to surrender to hamas.render to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. the bible says there's a time for peace and a time for war. this is a time for war. >> israel's military announcing the first rescue of a hostage held in gaza, the idf telling cnn a special forces operation was able to free an israeli soldier who was abducted during the october 7th terror attack. this is a video from the emotional reunion with her grandmother. meanwhile, on the ground in gaza, the idf says troops have been battling terrorist cells armed with machine guns and anti-tank missiles. also, israeli forces as they advance, hamas has released a new hostage video, this is of three israeli women, one of them was held captive is begging netanyahu to secure their release this morning. we spoke with her cousin. so we are also this morning seeing israeli forces on the move in the occupied west bank today. i want to show you some of that. that's in the west bank, video obtained by cnn of the idf demolishing the house of a hamas leader in the west bank. let's start our coverage this morning with jeremy diamond. he joins us. jeremy, what can you tell us? we just showed you some of the new advances that israel is making both from the air and on the ground. >> reporter: yeah, well, we have been hearing the study thud of artillery continuing this morning as this expanded ground operation now enters its fifth day. what is clear is that there is still on going and intense fighting inside the northern part of the gaza strip between israeli forces and hamas militants. we have been hearing machine gunfire all throughout the morning as well as yesterday as israeli forces make advances on gaza city through several different axis. what is clear is israeli troops have been spotted south of gaza city at a main junction entering the city. they have also been spotted behind me in the northeastern most part of gaza as well as two miles into gaza on the coastline, the western part of the gaza strip. so clearly advancing on several different axis. and what's clear is they're deliberately, quite slowly as they try and take out some of those re-enforced positions of hamas fighters. and what's also interesting is that israeli forces on the ground appear to be making pretty significant use of close air support. more so than in previous operations as israeli troops on the ground spot re-enforced hamas positions and then call in air strikes. we have also seen several helicopters, apatchy gun ships used to fire missiles at various targets inside the gaza strip. all of this as israel's prime minister vows this is not the time for a cease fire, saying this is a time for war. israelless military and political leadership all appear to be united in taking out hamas, removing it from control of the gaza strip. and also making very clear to the israeli public that this will come at a cost. it will be a long battle in order to achieve those objectives. >> jeremy what do we know about the hamas commander the idf says they killed. this is one of the commanders who led the attack on kibbutz on the 7th of october? >> reporter: yeah, poppy. even has israel's military operations have been heavily focussed here in the gaza strip, they have also been trying to essentially tamp down on any potential outbursts of fighting inside the west bank. they have arrested over 1,500 palestinians in recent weeks. and now we're learning that the idf has also demolished the house of effectively the de facto commander of hamas in the west bank. although he is believed to be living in lebanon. but in new video that you can see here, the israeli military demolishing that home, that is a tactic that the israeli military has used in the past, typically with terrorists who carry out at att attacks. they go ahead and demolish their homes. that's been done in the west bank over recent years. you can see them doing that as they try to avoid a broader confully grags happening in the west bank. we know as they focussed their efforts here in the gaza strip, they're very weary of this turning into a broader conflict, whether that's in the west bank, in east jer rusalem and also in the north with hezbollah and carrying out weapons depot and supply lines in syria which iran used to supply its proxies in the region. so we are actively monitoring all these different fronts. as of now, the hottest front is right here in gaza. of course there is a risk of it turns into a broader conflict. >> there certainly is. jeremy diamond, thanks for all the reporting. phil? >> joining us now is senior adviser to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. we appreciate your time. i want to start with the breaking news that we just learned from the idf that senior hamas commander who allegedly was directed and was behind the massacre had been killed. what more can you tell us about that? >> i can't go beyond the official statement. but i can tell you what our policy. all the people involved in the massacre of our people, all the people involved in the terrible atrocities of september 7th, when they stormed the border, they slaughtered our people, they raped, they beheaded, they burnt people alive so badly we still can't identify some of the bodies, anyone involved in those tray trosties we will find them and punish them and anyone, we will take them out. >> as part of the on going the air strikes or separate effort, program under way? >> i can't go into specific details precisely because the operation is still on going. and i don't want to give any information to our enemy. hamas is a fanatical and brutal enemy. we have seen that in their behavior and the way they conduct themselves. we see that in the way they're holding what is it 238 hostages. we will bring justice to hamas and that means taking out their leadership, their command, the people responsible for the tarnl terrible hostages on october 7th. >> there was a hostage recovered in a special operation by israeli forces. i believe the first of its kind, at least that we are aware of. does this indicate that your forces are getting better visibility into where the hostages may be right now? >> so, obviously we're making a maximum effort to free hostages. there are two parallel tracks going on. on the one hand, of course, where we can locate a hostage, we will act to free them. that's our commitment to each and every one of the hostages. and of course, at the same time, we're beefing up the overall military pressure on hamas, making them feel the pain. we believe pressure is the way to get our hostages out. they're not going to become boy scouts, humanitarian organization, they cynically have taken people hostages after abducting them. we believe the only way we're going to get out is to ratchet up that pressure together with diplomatic pressure on their allies in the gulf. we think that's the key to getting people out. >> how would you assess qatar's efforts as a mediator or as a partner in trying to negotiate the release of hostages the last several weeks? >> well, so far we got four out. i mean, we released -- we r rescued one of our own. so far through that sort of framework we got four out of 238. >> so they should be doing more. >> that could be higher. we don't know. let's just say this, if they want to say they're doing a good job, i think the proof of the pudding remains to be -- we have to see what happens. >> i want to ask there's been a lot of discussion agent humanitarian aid, the availability of humanitarian aid from u.s. officials especially. the united nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs yesterday at the u.n. called for the opening of a different border crossing which has been closed. saying that that would significantly affect the ability to send trucks through. that has been closed. is that something that israel was consider? >> the truth is the rafah crossing we're expediting the massive increase from that crossing. i think yesterday we had double the number of trucks we had. we're expecting that number to go up again and again. so we got a network that is working and we now have to just put in more trucks through that network. israel is willing for that to happen. it works well from that particular crossing point. the safe zone we're suggesting civilians go to is precisely by there in the southern end of the gaza strip right near the rafah crossing, close to the coast. that's the goal. we're working with the international community to make that happen. >> last one on the ground operation, estimates there are 10,000 troops perhaps in gaza. some estimates have been as much as double that. can you give us a rough estimate of how many troops are actually on the ground in gaza and if this is kind of the full scale of the ground operation in terms of size and personnel? >> i'm sorry but i'm not at libber toy go into that sort of detail. i can tell you who else is in gaza. i understand there are some 600 american passport holders who america has asked for them to leave and we're willing for that to happen and i understand the egyptians are, too. but hamas is holding them. >> how so? can you explain that, sir? i'm sorry to interrupt, what is hamas doing? this is something we have heard constantly from u.s. officials. hamas is the one that's holding -- what are they doing? because u.s. -- those passport holders on the ground say they don't hear from hamas. what is happening? >> it's clear that hamas is preventing them leaving. hamas controls the gaza side of the arafah crossing. no one can leave gaza without hamas' permission. they're denying permission to those american passport holders and denying permission to other dual nationals we okayed. we don't have any problem with them leaving. egypt has no problem receiving them. but hamas wants to keep them as also as hostages. it's a dangerous game. they're not being held in dungeons like the israelis are held under ground. they're free to walk around. they can't leave gaza because hamas made a decision they can't. >> senior adviser to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. thank you, sir, for your time. >> phil, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> thank you for that, phil. trying to get really important clarity on why they cannot get out. this morning also politics in the u.s., there's a long-shot trial that resumes in colorado that could get president trump off the ballot. >> mike pence dropping out of the white house race, are other gop candidates feeling better about their chances with less cocompe competition? chris christie joins us lilive seset to discucuss. stayay with us.. our constitution prevents people who betrayed their solemn oath as trump did here from serving in office again. trump engaged in insurrection and therefore cannot appear on the ballot. no person, not even the former president is above the law. >> that was attorney eric olson speaking in a colorado courtroom on monday. olson is representing a group of colorado voters challenging whether former president trump is eligible to be president again. the long-shot trial resumes this morning. it centers on a section of the 14th amendment that disqualifies anyone who engaged in a quote, insurrection or rebellion from holding federal office. >> challengers used trumps own words against him on the first day of this trial playing clips from his speech on election night 2020 when he falsely claimed victory and from january 6th where he urged his supporters to, quote, fight like hell at the capitol. with us this morning in the studio, republican presidential candidate chris christie. governor, good to have you. >> good to be back. >> you said it was that night, election night 2020, you're sitting on the set at abc news, your contributor, that's the moment you decided no longer can i back this guy . >> yep. >> do you think -- you're a lawyer. do you think that that precludes trump from serving as president? >> i don't. i don't. i think you have to be convicted of insurrection or reboellion o accused of it. i don't think it doesn't. >> can we play this out. if convicted, because this has been used against two convicted people from the insurrection, both in i think it's new mexico and west virginia. and they have been removed from lower offices, though, because of this. would that hold for a convicted trump? >> sure. sure it would. if he were convicted of it. but the problem is even in the january 6th federal case, he hasn't been charged with insurrection or rebellion. >> that's right. >> so there's not going to be a verdict against him on that. and i think in a bigger way, i think it would be bad for the country for him to be removed from the ballot on what would be seen by a lot of people as a legal technicality. i think the much better way to go about it is to beat him. i don't think he has any business being president of the united states again. and i think we have to defeat him at the ballot box because you see the way he was when he was defeated at the ballot box. he wouldn't accept it. can you imagine if a judge or group of judges kicked him off the ballot? it would cause such tumult in this country i would much have him defeated in an election this way. >> we want to talk about policy in particularly former policy given what we have been covering the last several weeks. there have been two dozen attacks on u.s. bases or u.s. troops deployed in the region by iranian proxies the last several weeks. the u.s. has struck back in at least one case in syria. is that enough? do you belief that president biden's response to those proxy attacks meets where it should be right now? >> look, i think that we have to make really clear to iran any more of these games and things are going to get a lot heavier for them. i think the president needs to use that language. i think he has to let them know that these type of attacks while maybe not directly connected to what's going on in gaza, we know the game they're playing. they're trying to incite regional war. so, it's a very fine line to walk when you're president. but you can't allow any other country, even through surrogates, to indiscriminately attack american men and women in uniform. so they continue to do that kind of stuff. and it causes death or injury, then you got to strike back harder. >> but what more, sent two carrier groups and rapid response force and marines moved into the region precisely to stop regional actors from acting. there have been air strikes hitting syrian, iranian proxies. what more? >> more of it. it's not a response to attacks on american fighting men and women. so, what you need to do if this continues you have to increase the level of air strikes and increase drone strikes and do that to continue to let them know that if they do this, there will be a price to pay with their personnel. we don't want to do that. but we will have to do it if they go and they hurt american men and women who are fighting for our country. >> where, though? john bolton who served while you were in the trump administration, you know, has for a long time been saying to stop iran, bomb iran. he wrote a piece on such. you talking about more strikes like the syria strikes on iran proxies or talking about in iran? if you were president, it would be your call. >> sure, no. i'm talking about iran proxies. if the attacks are from iran proxies, then you attack those iran proxies. and debilitate them from being able to do that again. i don't think you escalate it given what's happened so far. now, if there were to be significant loss of life, then it becomes -- you can directly connect that to iran. then it becomes a different story. based on what we're doing right now, you still go back at the iran proxies. but what you do, you increase the lethality of that. you make it more lethal for them in terps of destroying their capability to attack us. and hurting our injuring their folks if that's what they're doing to ours. >> house republicans have proposed $14 billion for israel. the number that president biden asked for, but they're not including ukraine funding and proposing to pay for it by recisions to the irs cost more money to some degree. do you agree with their approach right now? >> what i think is it's a typical negotiating tactic when you have a divided congress. they know that the democrats in the senate are not going to agree to exactly that proposal. >> do they? >> yeah, they do. they do. >> all of them? >> well, it doesn't matter if all of them. majority of them know. and i think the speaker certainly knows that's not going to happen. so, you sent out a marker in negotiation. this is what we would like on our best day. the democrats in the senate are going to do that. then you've got to negotiate what's going to happen in between. the president needs to get involved in that because of the importance of the israel aid package. now in ukraine, i would support it being done together. but i'm encouraged by the fact that the new speaker said, he supports aid to ukraine. and so i assume what he wants to do to try to keep peace inside his own caucus that he just barely got elected to lead is to have separate votes on that. i think what you'll see is a majority of republicans voting yes within the caucus and overwhelming majority of democrats voting yes on that and i think it will ultimately pass. >> before you go, if you were president and on the phone with bibi netanyahu, would you tell him we need humanitarian pauses? john kirby at the white house told us yesterday we may need multiple humanitarian pauses. do you think -- i know you don't want a cease fire. but does there need to be a pause to get some of these folks out, get americans out, help the children? >> look, i would think if we could get americans out that would be a goal for us to reach. but i don't think that would happen. i think what hamas would want is not a pause. they would want a guarantee that israel would not invade gaza at all. and we can't give them that guarantee because of the attack they perpetrated on october 7th. they killed 1,400 civilians. it's not right. it's not fair. and israel needs to degrade their capability to do it again. so -- secondly, i wouldn't be telling the prime minister of israel how to respond to the worst attack and murder of jews since the holocaust. i would say to him three things. one, you have the absolute obligation to protect the territorial integrity and safety of your