that this front may escalate even further or turn into a full war. the enemy must calculate carefully. >> please understand the clock is ticking. my grandmother has no time. >> we are absolutely focused on getting hostages back. humanitarian pause could help that effort. >> is this the most complicated time of your presidency so far? >> thank you so much. thank you. >> nothing to it? >> john: secretary of state antony blinken back in israel to meet with that country's war cabinet as fears grow president biden may soon turn his back against israel's fight to defeat hamas. all this as just moments ago a rocket lands near foreign journalists in southern israel. trey yingst among them. john roberts in washington. so starts a friday afternoon. >> sandra: sandra smith in new york. in his third visit to israel since the start of the war, blinken telling reporters the u.s. stands in solidarity with israel's right to defend itself. also urged prime minister benjamin netanyahu to halt his ground invasion for humanitarian pause. >> john: netanyahu affirming there will be no pause or ceasefire until hamas releases the hundreds of israeli hostages held captive. >> sandra: and focus to the northern front with lebanon, hezbollah leader spoke to supporters for the first time since the war began. in moments, hear from governor ron desantis and how he would address the threat from hamas if elected president. >> john: fox team coverage from around the globe over the next two hours and breaking news from the war in the middle east. >> sandra: begin with trey yingst, he is live with breaking news on the ground in southern israel for us at this hour. trey, what is the very latest from where you are? >> yeah, hey, sandra, good afternoon. 28 days into this war, hamas and islamic jihad have maintained the ability to fire on major population centers. i want to show you what it was like last hour as a rocket landed just feet from a group of journalists. >> guys, we are just -- we can hear direct impact, a rocket just slammed into the building right next to where we are at. you can see soldiers just arrived on the scene. we saw something coming off the gaza strip, sirens sounded, you have about ten seconds to get to cover here. a little out of breath because we ran straight to cover. something slipped past the israel missile defense system and slammed into the ground. we are not sure what sort of damage was done to the building, i'll let these reporters get out of the way. that's shrapnel and it cut through a car. if it can cut through a car, it can certainly injure and kill people and looks as if it was a mortar. that's -- the damage is significant, i mean, this is a direct hit, that was not intercepted. >> ended up being a small rocket, found the point of impact and the shrapnel spread out, damaging the building but not injuring or killing any of the journalists nearby. i want to show you one piece of that shrapnel here we picked up off the ground. you could imagine it could do serious damage to a person and any building in this area, and a credit to our security team member sean who ran out right after the rocket hit to make sure our colleagues in the industry were not injured. >> sandra: can you put this in the context of the president of the united states, joe biden, urging for this pause for the incursion by israel into gaza so more hostages can get out? >> yeah, sandra, ia great point. you have the biden administration calling for a pause in the fighting, but the rocket fire still continues into southern israel. and there are hamas and islamic jihad fighters inside the strip ambushing the thousands of israeli troops looking to push deeper into the strip to ultimately destroy hamas. so it's easy for hamas to call for a ceasefire after they slaughtered 1400 people. that's what we hear from the israelis. they say there is going to be no ceasefire until our hostages come home, and the words of the israelis here. they are just simply throwing the idea of the ceasefire in the trash. they say there will be no ceasefire, there are 241 people held by hamas inside gaza. the rocket fire continues into southern and central israel as do the ambushes against israeli forces. >> sandra: we will check back in with you shortly. please stay safe. see you again soon. >> john: president biden headed to maine with the first lady to meet with the survivors and families of the victims of last weeks is shooting massacre. at the same time, the president continues his push for a humanitarian pause in gaza. but his administration is resisting official calls for a ceasefire. comes as a new quinnipiac poll shows 84% of voters are worried the united states will be drawn into the conflict in the middle east. david spunt live at the white house for us this afternoon. david. >> hey, john. the president just took off from the south lawn a few moments ago. today is one of those days the commander in chief will serve as the consoler in chief. he met with the leaders of the western hemisphere and asked about gaza. >> message to americans -- [indiscernible] >> the language is very specific here, john. the president and the white house not calling for a ceasefire. he wants a pause, a humanitarian pause so americans can get out of gaza safely. his critics say really what's the difference, including several democrats in congress. white house view. >> a temporary pause, localized, to get aid in and get our people out is a good thing for the people of gaza, good thing for the americans being held hostages, and it's not going to stop israel from defending itself. the security assistance we are providing continues to flow and a temporary pause does not mean a general ceasefire where the war is over, it means pause, only temporary, for a specific purpose. >> right now at least 79 americans have made it out of gaza, john, many others remain stranded. the white house wants this humanitarian pause to get americans out. then the fighting can continue and john, critics are concerned that if there is some sort of pause, then perhaps it will give gaza an advantage, it would give hamas an advantage to perhaps rearm and you see this poll, you brought it up, 43% are very concerned about the united states potentially being drawn in this conflict in the middle east. john. >> john: david spunt for us, 1600 pennsylvania, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: secretary of state antony blinken confirming at least 35 americans have died in israel. a total of 79 u.s. citizens have made it out of gaza, but hundreds more are still trapped. senior national correspondent rich edson is live. >> good afternoon, sandra. secretary of state offered few details about his immediatings and the result of them were with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, and members of the israeli war cabinet. blinken did say in a press conference after his meetings with those officials that he discussed concrete steps to limit civilian casualties and tangible steps to boost humanitarian aid entering gaza. the secretary says when he sees young palestinian children pulled from the wreckage of buildings, he sees his own children but put it largely on hamas for using palestinians as human shields and says hamas does not care one iota for the welfare of the palestinian people. and blinken says the world must remember the events in israel from less than a month ago. >> it is striking and in some ways shocking that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many. but not in israel. and not in america. >> on this trip it's up blinken to ask israel for the humanitarian pause to briefly pause its military operations, allow hostages to leave gaza, humanitarian assistance to get in. netanyahu followed his meeting saying israel refuses to halt fighting unless hamas releases hostages and that israel will not allow fuel into gaza. blinken says israel has raised appropriate concerns about hamas, hoarding and siphoning fuel into northern gaza. 100 aid trucks a day are going into gaza and says gaza needs more than that. more americans are scheduled to leave gaza today and in the coming days. part of that agreement the united states brokered with egypt and qatar. on top of that, the secretary will be continuing his travel throughout the region going next to amman, jordan. >> sandra: rich, thank you. >> john: israeli forces say they have taken out a top hamas battalion commander and destroy more hamas tunnels in gaza. it remains to be seen how the troops will fare in the dense streets in the days ahead. general, great to be with you. thanks for joining us. i want to put up on the screen here a map of gaza, northern gaza from general jack keane institute for the study of war. you can see three major israeli defense force battalions have taken up positions basically surrounding gaza city. the one on the top left of the screen appears to be in proximity to al-shifa hospital, believed to be the headquarters of hamas. word from the idf yesterday, general, was that hamas defenses are crumbling but they have yet to get into the city proper. what lies ahead in the days and potentially weeks ahead? >> yeah, hey, john. great to be with you. thank you. that map is illustration, cutting off lines of communication, logistics lines. three dimensional battlefield with high rises, ground level rubble and 200 feet deep tunnels so they are very methodical about this, and trying to strangle the hamas headquarters by cutting off things like fuel and the internet and so forth. and then continuing to encircle them and make them fight in multiple directions and tactically move block to block, clear everything, and as netanyahu said, destroy hamas. that is their goal. so this talk of a ceasefire or operational pause is nonsense. >> john: let me get into that for a second. this is something that the white house at all levels is pushing, john kirby yesterday said it would be a series of temporary pauses, as many as would be necessary to complete whatever mission that the united states was trying to accomplish, or maybe even israel, i don't know from that standpoint when it comes to getting aid in. here is how tal heinrich, spokesperson for prime minister benjamin netanyahu responded to a question about the pause this morning on "america's newsroom." >> we will not have ceasefire, we will not have a ceasefire that serves hamas's goals to rearm and regroup and attack us again and perpetrate another massacre. >> john: if you had a pause of just a few hours, maybe a day, as i think the president and the white house team has been talking about, would that significantly affect military operations for the idf? >> yeah, john, every minute that you pause, that's another minute that hamas has to dig in, resupply, reorganize, you know, so if you are not on offense, you are on defense. if you are not getting ahead, you are getting behind. all of those phrases apply here and they have momentum. in a macro sense, it's very much like the strategic pressure, maximum pressure that we had on iran and this administration eliminated that pressure that gave iran the maneuver to do the support they are doing thesis -- these islamic groups. block by block and continue to just crush and defeat hamas and i think, i don't expect the administration thinks that israel is going to agree to any kind of pause. i think this is all caving domestic politics. they understand michigan, virginia, pennsylvania, north carolina, all battleground states have significant muslim populations, trying have it both ways. >> john: michigan in particular. >> sandra: eric trump returning to the stand wrapping his testimony in the trial against his father and the family business. we are expecting the former president will take the stand first thing monday morning. nate foy is live outside the courthouse here in lower manhattan. what did eric say while leaving the courthouse today, nate? >> well, sandra, eric wrapped up his testimony at about 11:30 and while leaving the courthouse he focused on new york attorney general letitia james, claiming she's using this trial targeting his family and he claims it's a political move for her. listen here. >> she's come after my father ruthlessly. every single day a trump is in this court, guess what, she shows up, it's her press moment and they dragged don and i into it as collateral damage. if you can line up as many trumps as you can, she can send fundraiser emails to her donor base i'm going after trump. >> sandra, attorney general james maintains the trumps fraudulently overvalued properties for financial gain but the trumps say the properties are more valuable than the prices listed in financial statements. eric testified he played a small role, but never his day-to-day properties. they both said they signed statements of financial condition but trusted their accountants to prepare those statements. ivanka trump will testify next wednesday. a state court denied her request to avoid taking the stand. she'll be the last to take the stand. and writing our country is under the highest threat ever and yet all the doj and fbi want to do is go after donald trump and his family. sad. the trial will continue on monday when former president trump himself is set to take the stand. back to you. >> sandra: nate foy, thank you, live in new york city. >> shame. shame. shame. >> john: outrage growing after a video shows a jewish student being harassed by pro palestinian students at harvard university. how the school is responding as jewish students across the united states continue to fear for their safety on their own campuses. >> sandra: plus, florida governor ron desantis rolling out his own middle east policy providing assistance in israel, for israel in the war against hamas. the move has some saying he's neglecting his state and acting as commander in chief instead. so, is this a winning strategy for him? we'll ask him personally. he'll join us in a 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