War between israel and hamas. Israeli forces getting ready for what will be a perilous Ground Invasion. The death toll is mounting too moving throughout the morning. And good morning from new york. Im bill herman, back with my partner here today,. Dana im dana perino and this is americas news room and its good to be with you on your knowledge of the region. 25 americans con if i wered dead in the attack by hamas and Israeli Death toll topping 1200 and palestinian at 1200 and the number wills ration of independence. Bill Antony Blinken was in tel aviv and introduced himself as jew and i shall talked about his jewish and talked about his grandparents in Concentration Camps in europe. Today, he condemned hamas in no uncertain terms. Babies slaughtered, bodies desecrated. Young people burned alive women raped, parents executed in frohn of their children and children in front of their parents. How are we to even understand that . The message i bring to israel is this you may be strong out of on your own to enough on your own to defend yourself but as long as america exists, you will never ever have to. We will always be there by where are side. Dana all this upping the pressure on President Biden to do something about hamas biggest sponsor iran. A push to refreeze a 6 billion payment to the regime is gaining traction even among democrats. Bill Team Fox Coverage as we get underway now. Alexis mcadams, peter doocy, Mark Meredith but start on the border between gaza and israel with mike tobin with the duties this hour. Mike, where are we now in hello. Reporter were in a position where all eyes are on the gaza strip and have that remarkable statement from sec Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken saying the Israeli Force may be Strong Enough to defend itself but with the u. S. By its side, itll never have to Stapedius Muscled alone. As that happens, were getting Israeli Defense force on the record as far as some of the raids, strikes, Commando Operations taking place in the gaza trip. Lieutenant colonel richard heck saying the home of was hit and described as operative in the gaza strip and hamas. In the hit on the house he was killed and taken from the House Naval Equipment and equipment for Commando Operations underground as well as other armaments and described a number of other strikes on hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives up and down the gaza strip. And the idf as well as Israeli Government continues to note connections between hamas and isis. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hamas should be treated the same as they should be spit out from the community of nations. No leader should meet them. No country should harbor them. And those that do should be sanctioned. We continue to armor massed on the border of the gather Vascularized Strip and troops on the move and artillery continues to fire into the gaza strip as Israeli Defense force said the next phase of this operation is ready to begin, a strong hint that the Ground Invasion is imminent. Bill. Mike, thank you. Dana. Here at home, pressure mounting for stronger action from the Biden Administration calling out iran. Paider doocy live at the white house peter doocy live at the white house. Hi, peter. Reporter President Biden in his remarks yesterday before a group of Jewish Community leaders and he said that moving these massive amounts of Military Assets into the region at least a little bit closer to where the action is all happening was a essentially a message to iran to be careful. When they dont have a direct line connecting the leaders in iran to hamas and to the planning that we now understand took place over the course of about a year or more. Thats because they just dont have it yet. There is Press Reporting supporting that. There are many comments when officials around here talk about this that iran is complicit in these kinds of things happening all around the world, but theyre not prepared to directly blame iran because they dont have evidence and know what that would do. It would require a much stronger response from the United States, and it does not appear that they are ready to say that or to respond in a more significant way to iran specifically. Dana. Dana those will continue and see you more no doubt later today. Thank you. Bill the calls to freeze the 6 billion currently held by iran in a bank in qatar. Mark meredith reaction now on capitol hill with regards to this now. Mark, good morning. Reporter bill, good morning to you. The white house as peter mentioned says its trying to determine what role, if any, iran had in the attack on israelis, but up here on capitol hill lawmakers have no problem trying to hold iran accountable now for long and continued support of hamas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell and arkansas senator tom cotton calling on congress to pass legislation that would essentially block iran from being able to access that money that was unfrozen by the Biden Administration and the senators released a statement saying the Civilized Orlando must reimpose serious Con Generalses in the regime that aids and helps murderous evil against innocent israelis and the u. S. Must lead that by example and freezing the asset is a important first step. The administration denies claims any Money Unfrozed through the iranian Hostage Exchange would have been used in the most recent attack on israelis back on saturday. However, again, theres still a lot of speculation about whats been happening behind the scenes and in addition to that, we have seen some democratic lawmakers who have had to react in realtime to whether or not this should be done or money refrozen even though iran says all this will be their money and theyre going to be able to do with it what they will. Some democrats say theyre unsure if its even possible to get that money back. Its not actually that simple because it was part of a larger deal to get american hostages back, and i think actually it may be unconstitutional because it infringes on the president s ability to conduct Foreign Affairs without interference. But whats fascinating here within the last 24 hours, theres a number of Senate Democrats joining with republicans saying they believe this money should be at least frozen temporarily until more information can be obtained and, bill, you can imagine this would really push the white house in a different direction because theyre not going to be able to say this is simply a partisan push. Bill mark, thanks. Mark meredith live on the hill. Giving you a sense of this area of gaza and important to understand the geography of which we speak and its a small area and this area marked in red, there were Tens Of Thousands of israelis that have been moved out of these towns and kibbutz that are located throughout the area from ashkelon down to the southeast and the reason why is the ziti Ragaini Ellie Military has moved in. What about gaza in youll hear an awful lot about that stretch opportunistic land in the eastern med train coast. Theres a Border Running about 24 miles along the coast. Thats been sealed off by the ziti really navy. You have a border here in the sinai we script. Theres a town there called rafa, thats located about right here and well get into that a bit later this morning. It is a critical Crossing Point for anyone that wants to go into gaza or out of gaza. The significance is coming up shortly here. The rest of it is about a 36mile stretch that boarders on israel. Population hear in gaza about 2 million. About twice the size of Washington Dc so its not large. One man who has studied this joins us now. John spencer, a veteran who served two combat tours in iraq fighting in some of the u. S. Armys most elite and storied units and now chair of the Urban Warfare Studies at modern War Institute at west point. Sir, thank you for being here. We rely on your expertise to take us through a moment like this. Thank you for being here. The israelis have not been in gaza in nine years. What has hamas done on half of the help theyve had with iran during that time with regard to munitions, drones, and antitank munitions, rockets that can now reach tel aviv, and the tunnels that some estimate could be as long as 300 miles. John, how does this go . R destructively and not in this area but recent history of other missions against isis and hamas spent nine years gathering rockets and all the munitions to turn this into a very costly operation, but i think the idea its still going to do. Hamas i teach Urban Warfare and hamas is the example of using human shields. Were in the air campaign where the idf are engaging hamas Military Targets because they too have been watching gaza for nine years. Know where every hamas Military Target is. But hamas fills those targets with civilians and airs their deaths in the attempt to make the idf stop and make the International Community make the idf stop. Theyre going to move forward and face combat in hell. Block by block, street by street with enemy popping up from Underneath Hundreds of miles of tunnels, engaging them but that rubble thats there creates even more bunkers than they already have and theyre going to its going to be costly, but the idf can do it. Dana john, dana perino here and something that struck me last night reading the wall street journal, killing civilians, the new normal. I want to emphasize these civilian deaths by hamas and russia and ukraine are not Collateral Damage from Urban Warfare, theyre part of the war plan fought out by calm men sitting around Tafanely Table in mas cow or beirut looking at maps and civilian targets. Is there a new phase of war fair in the world with this . I dont think so, dana. Thats a flat out lie. Ive been to ive been all other southern israel and spent time with the idf. They do things to limit Collateral Damage that other militaries dont do. Theyll call a building and say im getting ready to destroy this building. You have ten minutes, get out. We dont do that. They have Legal Advisers in their command post making decision on is this a valid Military Target. Dana john, let me jump in dan was agreeing with you on that point saying that hamas and the russians are purposely targeting civilians florid to try, i guess, win and also to demoralize the victims. Absolutely. I mean, russia is a great example and hamas is where they use war crimes as method of fighting and use civilian deaths to try and achieve their goals. 100 and especially as the world is more urbanized, they can do that more; right . Gaza is almost a completely urbanized area full of civilians that are trapped and not allowed to leave. Its a vile act but i agree with you, as more Urban Warfare continues around the world, that becomes a new norm. Bill john, our u. S. Marines had this experience in fallujah and iraq and bloody and deadly and lasted for weeks. Do you think, a, the israelis have made the decision to go in yet . Because there is some debate about that still. And also, what you write and talk about a lot when it comes to warfare like this is the will and the time and if you could, just tell our audience about what you mean by both of those elements. Right. All wars are the contest of will. The soldiers to fight, politicians to give them the octoberive and the will of the population objective and the will of the population to support the population. In Urban Warfare, even the u. S. Has seen this. The first Battle Of Fallujah and u. S. Contractors were killed and the president made a decision go and get the people that committed those crimes against u. S. Citizens. Within three days, the International Community urged the u. S. To stop because of the Collateral Damage. That element of time on the will to continue the operation. To answer your question, has the idf made a decision . Thats all signs that i can see, especially from what theyre mobilizing and politicians have said is that the mission is to go in and remove hamas Military Cameability from ever being able to do a vile act like this again. That requires going in. You cant bomb your way to that mission. Bill well, it appears that both sides have the will right now. When you see the acts that hamas committed on saturday morning, and now you listen to Benjamin Netanyahu today, this appears, john, itll be bloody and deadly and this will last for a very long time possibly. Absolutely. It took us nine months, 100,000 Iraqi Security forces backed by the worlds best air power, ours, nine months to wedge 5,000 or less fighters out of the mosule in to 17 and this will take weeks or months to accomplish that mission. Bill john, thank you for your time. Well call on you again. John spencer, the authority on this on Urban Warfare. Thank you, sir, for your time. Bill Breaking News now, Alexis Mcadams is live in the news room. The latest. Dana, thats right. U. S. Citizens in the gaza strip are looking for a way to get out of there, including over the border into egypt. So we know that its ab estimated 5 an estimated 500600 u. S. Citizens that live in the gather s strip including the people trying to cross over to the border into egypt. This is according to to a senior u. S. Official and bill explained the gaza is a near 25mile stretch of land pressed against the m Mediterranean Sea and theyre trying a to arrange that safe passage and difficult with the rocket fire and egypt closed the rafa Border Crossing and the egypt official saying the government is expect ago large number of Pal Tin Januaries to attempt to palestinians to attempt to cross that border soon. If itll be reextra points anded, we dont know yet and a lot of people trying to get out of the gaza strip. The uk government, dana, announcing flights to evacuate uk nationals from israel with the first flight from tel aviv today are happening and expecting all the flights to continue as we know. So many people there were not able to get on the commercial flights and now the government is stepping in as those people also wait to evacuate, dana. Dana Alexis Mcadams, thank you for the update and well have Breaking News from you throughout this hour and the day. Bill the israeli president had a bit of Tense Exchange with reporters during a Press Conference. We wanted to share this moment with you. He is considered to be mild mannered as a leader, but watch his reaction to questions about the retaliatory strikes that are happening in gaza. We seem to hold the people of gaza responsible for not trying to remove let me finish. Do you hold a missile in your kitchen, in your living room, a missile that is sent on our head . If therell be a siren, its a missile from that kitchen with all due respect, if you have a missile in your [bleep] kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am i allowed to defend myself . Yes. Thats the situation. But the question is this ultimately you cant remove the people of gaza. Theyre going to be stuck in this naked. So we have to fight. What do you want us to do . We tell them, get out. And we fight against the launchers. We are Fighting Terror. Humanity has to decide are we accommodating terror or are we Fighting Terror . We are Fighting Terror. I agree, there are many, many innocent palestinians that dont agree to this. Unfortunately in their homes, there are missiles shooting at us, at my children, at the entire nation of israel. We have to defend ourselves. We have the full right to do so. Its about time that the world understands it. This is the tragedy of using terror and terror has theres no mercy to terror. Bill he called out Media Organizations during that m