We are now preparing ourselves. Were striking gaza from the air. All options are on the table. Were on the Offensive Targeting hamas, destroying their capabilities, the government capabilities, civilian capabilities. Neil israel pounding hamas from the air as it prepare as major offensive on the ground. Troops and tanks amassing at the border and both sides get ready to enter the next day of war with the american Death Toll Rising and the search for hostages john going. Where is the u. S. Involvement in all of this head something well ask Michael Mccaul. Welcome, everybody. Im neil cavuto. It doesnt end. It accelerates. Now a possible ground war that could be moments away. Lets get the very latest from greg palkot in israel with the latest. Greg . Ive been covering the region 25 years. Ive never seen anything like this. Weve been on the ground for three days with the war with israel and hamas. Its more intense, more active. The numbers are grim. Israel is saying that 1,200 of their own are killed. 1,100 palestinians killed. Among those dead, 22 americans. The big wild card in this, 150 hostages. America is saying that in fact 17 of their own have not been accounted for and at least some of those are in the grips of the militants. The scale of the infiltration by the militants in the Thousands Saturday and sunday. Amazing. We were in an area that was a couple miles away from gaza today. There was still territory that the Israeli Government could not say that they had control. The scale of the blast, the blasts against hamas infrastructure inside gaza, its remarkable, too. 250,000 palestinians now without homes. Theyre not all hamas backers. Lets get back to the hostages now. Theres american hostages. There are a lot of families very worried about this moment. We speak with an Israeli American man that flew back yesterday worried about his father. Take a look at what we heard. At 6 30, he called and said theres alarms. Hes going to shelter. Since then we lost touch. Israeli american igor talking about his father. He went with his friends to fish near his home in Southern Israel next to the gaza strip. Hamas militants arrived. His car full of bullet holes, Fishing Tackle in the trunk. His body not found. You think hes being held hostage in gaza . At this point, i hope so. You hope so. That would be the best alternative . Yeah. Igor flew from his new jersey home to comfort his mother. My mom cant imagine life without him. And help search for his beloved father. Theyve had little word from the Israeli Government. Igor has several words for hamas. They should be deleted. Every Terrorist Organization should be erased from the face of the earth. They should be erased. We ask igor if he could talk to his father right now, what would he tell him . He said come home. Come home. Back to you, neil. Neil so sad. Thanks, greg palkot who has covered more than his fair is share of these tragedies. Jennifer griffin with the view from the pentagon where theyre trying to keep track of americans that could be killed or hostages. Jennifer . We just learned the State Department is making preparations to evacuate thousands of americans that want to leave israel and having trouble getting on commercial flights or going over land to jordan. Theyre planning to have their own contracted flights go in to israel. Those arrangements are being made as we speak. The president and his National Security team spoke again with israeli Prime Minister b. B. Netanyahu today offering more u. S. Assistance. This attack has brought to the service painful memories and scars left by a millennium of antisemitism against the jewish people. At this moment, we have to be crystal clear. Theres no justification for terrorism. No excuse. The type of terrorism exhibited here is beyond the pale. At nato Head Quarters in brussels, the new joint chiefs chairman c. Q. Brown and Defense Secretary austin met with nato Defense Ministers about aid to ukraine. Israels Defense Minister call in to the meeting. Lloyd austin said make no mistake, the United States will remain able to project power and direct resources to tackle crises in multiple theaters. We will stand with israel and support ukraine. No decision has been made about keeping two u. S. Aircraft strike carriers in the groups 1 the u. S. S. Eisenhower arrives in two weeks. The u. S. S. Ford is likely to be extended. For anyone thinking about trying to take advantage of the agony in israel, to try to widen this conflict or spill more blood, we have just one word. Dont. Secretary austin has offered u. S. Personnel, military personnel, including Special Operators to help develop intelligence that could lead to the rescue of israeli and american hostages. Some are already in israel for training. Special operations personnel were already on the ground as part of their jobs at the embassy or support for bilateral Training Agreements between u. S. And Israeli Special operations. The Israeli Defense ministry released this footage from the u. S. Already arriving in Southern Israel. Ive not seen any indications of additional players that are going to get ininvolved to the detriment of israel, this is one of the reasons that we its not only in support of israel but deter future actions. U. S. Officials are holding hourly calls with their counter parts. Theyre concerned about this widening beyond the gaza border and theyre looking very closely tonight at the hezbollah border in the north. Neil . Thanks, jennifer. To congressman Michael Mccaul of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Chairman, good to have you. Thanks for taking the time. The war is widening. Its clear. Look what has happened to the north and what hamas has already done. That was the scenario that a lot of people feared what do you make of that . Well, that is a nightmare scenario. To contain this war in gaza is really the key here. If it escalates with hezbollah to the north out of lebanon, they have 100,000 rockets, hezbollah does, which would overload the iron dome. Its not capable of protecting from that many rockets. So you know, with iran playing a role in this, which i know the administration doesnt want to talk about with hezbollah and lebanon, with the isis radicals is islamist in syria threat ago gentlemen had to jerusalem, the last thing we want is an escalation of this war. The best way to do that is through deterrence by sending our Aircraft Carriers and frigates to the mediterranean as a warning sign not to escalate. Neil chairman, you talk about Warning Signs. Jacqui heinrich raised this question today, whether there had been early signals or warnings of this attack last week by hamas, this is from the white house briefing, a few moments ago. Can you speak to the reports that israel was warned by egypt . I cant. Mccaul from Foreign Affairs made that allegation this morning saying that was something that members were told around the Foreign Affairs committee. So has that been discussed at all . Is that something youre looking into . I cant speak to specific intelligence matters. We have time to look back at this as we always do and we will. Right now were sharpening the intelligence gathering in cooperation and sharing with israel as we should since theyre involved in active operations and make sure that they get the tools that they need. Martha your intelligence might be saying one thing. John kirby might be holding his cards. The white house has another set of cards. Who is right . We know the egyptian intelligence did refer this to israel. I cant get into any more depth than that. I do think there was a Threat Stream out there. It was a failure of intelligence. You know, we had a classified briefing that i moderated with the entire house today. Well have to get to the bottom of what went wrong. They planned for this almost a year, hamas did, to make this horrible Invasion Attack on israel. Yet there were no Warning Signs in advance. When the egyptians did warn israeli officials, obviously there wasnt enough done to stop it. This concerns me not just with respect to hamas but what about our intelligence on hezbollah . What about our intelligence on iran . Theres no clear link to iran . I disagree with that. Iran gives them 100 million a year and we know a lot of the Weapon Seasons that they get comes straight out of iran. So the idea that iran is not complicit or doesnt have any fingerprints on this is absolutely laughable from an tell standpoint. Neil back up, chairman. You raised a lot of point. People want to know if its semantics, what type of aid or planning was involved here. Back to this egyptian warning. Was it to the point of saying hamas was going to lead a multipronged attack on israel . Was it that blunt, that blatant . I cant get into specific details. The warns was made from egyptian intelligence to the israelis. What did our committee know about that . Its unclear. The answers are not very good to be honest with you. We dont know what levels this intelligence went up the chain in israel prior to this Terror Attack from hamas. Neil chairman, were learning that more american munitions have arrived on site. The su the u. S. S. Gerald ford is in the area. You think there should be more advisers onned the ground in israel . Yeah, the more Threat Posturing we can have in the region, the more deterrence we have from an escalation. You know, as was mentioned in your report, we do have Special Operators. I know the Fbi Hostage Rescue Team assisting the idf, the israelis as they move from bombing, command and control to going house to house, which is what theyre going to start doing soon. Thats where it gets dangerous. To Rescue Hostages and perhaps americans and israelis. Thats going to take a long time, to be honest with you. Thats when they really need our assistance. Nobody is better at going house to house than we are. We perfected that in iraq. Fallujah, a good example in 2004. So they need our training and assistance. Thats why were there helping them. Chairman, the State Department as we just learned, is looking at trying to get americans, trying to get out of there have the means to do so. This follows on the heels of canada planning to fly a lot of citizens, independents out of its rile by the end of the week. Do you know anything more about that, will that be different than what was pandemonium around afghanistan, for example. Yeah, i talked to the Undersecretary Of State today. We have a committee to assist members that get calls from their constituents about getting americans out of israel. Theres about 500,000 american citizens in israel. A lot of them with duel citizenship. We need help. If they want to get out, we need to help them. What i worry about are almost 20 americans that unaccounted for right now. We dont know where they are, whether they have been killed or taken hostage and taken in to gaza. I will say, neil, i was in the kabbuts with Kevin Mccarthy. To that very community that was overrun by hamas. They massacred that entire village that we were in and then went in to the Day Care Center and killed the children that i saw a year ago. Decapitated children and babies, this is beyond the pale. Its terror. Its evil at its worst. I know you cant share much intelligence and i respect that. What would compel hamas to do Something Like this . Theyve had control over the gaza since 2007. Theres been three or four major incursions. Some call them wars under their control. Nothing ever like this. There might be a search for to trigger a jihad or something that the ayatollah wanted after 911 or something grander. Do you know of anything beyond just the brutality that would trigger it . That would make them think hamas think that this strategy was a winner for them . Youre right. Its the largest Terror Attack from hamas. That was a 50th Anniversary of yom kippur. However, i think theres Larger Forces at play here. Remember, you know, iran is tied to rush, which is tied to china. You know, north korea. We dont really know i know that iran had a major factor in this. Even know the administration wont admit that. But i think your question is very valid. Why now . Why so massive . I think the anniversary had a lot to do with it. Neil theyve had to know to your point that the israeli response would be as its turned out to be massive and ten, maybe 100 fold to make this point that this was an unwise horrific decision on the part of hamas. While i still have you, sir, looks like republicans might have settled on the speaker issue around Steve Scalise. Were told that jim jordan will throw his support behind him. The only issue is when that will happen. Do you know . Well, we hope any moment now. We were told around this hour. We obviously dont want to go to the floor without the requisite number, that being 217. We dont want to go there 15 rounds and ballots, which neil are there names emerging . What you would think jordan throwing his support to scalise, thats it. Its done. But maybe not . No, there would be no other nominees. Just a question of whether this eight or so gang of eight, if you will, will throw their support for scalise. Enough to give him 217. We dont want to do that, make the charade that was done last time. If anything, neil, this projects weakness to the world. Its the last thing we need to be showing is a democracy cant function. We need to govern. The first bill that steve is going to put on the floor is my resolution condemning hamas for the Terror Attack and supporting israel. Neil would there be another measure to stop this single vote, all it takes to a single congressman to nix a speaker and undo what we just saw, Kevin Mccarthy . Thats right. So with a razor thin majority, every vote will count. Some members are not even here. That makes it worst. So every vote will count. Neil the right to vacate gives a single congressman a power to nix a speaker, youre not a fan of that. Are you going to insist on that to settle the speaker matter, that whoever they settle on, assuming Steve Scalise, that that measure, that power goes . We can entertain that. We can change that motion to vacate later on. Right now were focused on getting a speakner the chair to get the work of the people done. Neil thanks, chairman. Mike mccaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee. Lets get the latest on the speaker battle and where it stands. Chad pergram has more. Chad . Good afternoon, neil. We dont know definitively if theres a vote tonight. Jim jordan, the chair of the Judiciary Committee and one of the members running here, he has put his full support right now behind Steve Scalise. He says when he was asked a few minutes ago whether or not he thinks there should be a floor tonight, he says he hopes so. They want to get this speaker in place especially considering the State Of The World and whats going on in the middle east, neil. Neil obviously jim jordan was the pick of the real conservatives. He had bipartisan support early on. Look like Steve Scalise would be an also ran. They might divide that vote. So theres a lot of possibilities. How will this play out . When is it going to play out . This is very organic. They probably want to go to the floor sooner rather than later. If you think you have the votes, you want to vote. As mike mccaul said, maybe if they vote and they lose, then thats a problem. Maybe people say maybe we should have somebody else, maybe patrick mchenry. Maybe they need to vote a couple times. Patrick mchenry is the speaker pro tem. Heres the thing to watch for. I talked the victoria spartz, the republican representative from indiana just a bit ago. She voted present in the conference meeting. I said how will you vote on the floor . She said i dont know. We havent figured this out. This is why this is not just about the math, neil. This is about the algebra. We dont know about the precise number on votes that Steve Scalise or anybody else requires to be elected on the floor. Its contingent on how many members cast ballots, how many people are there, how many people vote present. That is really hard to figure. Again, to whip that vote and understand where everybody is. Look at how many votes that Steve Scalise got this afternoon in the conference. Thats a lower bar. 11 three. If everybody in the House Of Representatives right now, 433, you need to have 217. Three of the votes im told came from the nonvoting delegates that are republicans. You get the idea. They cant vote on the floor. They can vote in conference but not on the floor. That gets Steve Scalise down to