lebanon border and the north at this hour. this as the idf now says it's expanding ground operation into gaza. we'll have a live report on the ground in southern israel in just moments. welcome to fox news live, everyone. i'm anita vogel. >> hey anita, i'm griff jenkins. more pro-palestinian protests are planned across the country. in washington, police made arrests for defacing public property and in new york city where protesters disrupted friday night rush hour. cb cotton kicks things off with us for the latest here. >> hi, griff. the ongoing conflict continues to drive protests across the country. more pro-palestinian groups and far less justice coalitions, calling for a cease-fire in our nation's capital accusing the biden administration of helping to commit genocide against palestinians, take a listen. >> every single day this government and this institution send millions of dollars to the apartheid state of israel, shame, shame, shame! >> and hundreds gathering in d.c. on friday, blocking the entrance to union station, chanting cease-fire now. and again, reports coming into our news room early this afternoon about vandalism. there, too, others yelling from the river to the sea, condemned by many calling anti-semitic. >> and some are saying we want 48, a reference to the map before united nations formed israel and new york city, traffic was gridlocked as hundreds rallied outside the new york city public library. and similar demonstrations continuing on college campuses and hundreds of pro-palestinian protesters barging onto the campus of university of michigan, demanding to speak, and calling on companies to divest helping people in israel. people there chanting things like this. >> will never be defeated. the people united will never be defeated. >> and as these pro-palestinian demonstrations continue, griff, we're watching specific groups call on their supporters to specifically boycott or picket our news organizations and businesses and griff, we saw this in new york city. griff: we did, indeed. cb kicking things off for us in new york. anita. >> hundreds of officials representing 40 government agencies sent a letter to president biden tuesday protesting the administration's israel policy. lucas tomlinson is live on the north lawn of the white house with more on this. hi lucas. >> good afternoon, anita. welcome to washington. remember when the biden administration wanted to pivot to asia, and this is focus on hamas-israeli war and hundreds focusing displeasure in the dissent letter and now former secretary of state mike pompeo writing to our colleagues at fox digital talking about this letter, saying, quote, people who serve our country in any government institution, whether in the military or the state department, swear allegiance to the united states and should commit to the mission of the president elected by the people and his administration. if they're able to do so, they should resign or face termination. pro-palestinian protests continued in the nation's capital and mounting criticism within the biden administration, hundreds of officials from 40 different departments and agencies, signed an anonymous letter demanding cease-fire, opposing. >> and this one not anonymous, from the obama and biden administration, the krac courag leadership and supporting the handling of the war and israelis. 66% of americans favor the israelis, 22% the palestinians, 8% neither. where the good news ends, the president's support on a host of other issues, including this one still underwater, the president's job approval rating and national security 40%, the israeli-hamas war 39% and guns, immigration, the economy, inflation all underwater. here is the president in san francisco earlier this week. >> the strength of our economy is driving growth and spurring investment throughout our region. >> now, president biden turns 81 on monday and if it's like last year's birthday when he turned 80, it was not well-publicized. >> a lot on his plate for his birthday. thank you, law lucas. griff: we're joined by the member of the house armed services committee christy hoolahan. thank you for joining us on a saturday and weighing in. we keep seeing the protests and i want to get to that and get your thoughts. let's dive into what lucas was reporting, multiple letters, one of anonymous of the people in the administration, condemning the administration's actions and the other supporting. what do you mike make of this? what do you make of the split, the divide, if you will? >> first of all, thank you very much for having me again. it's a pleasure to be here and this is a really, really complicated situation and there are obviously quite diverse opinions on what we should be doing right now. and it is the right of people to express their opinions, to articulate those in a safe and peaceful manner. it is also the right of people within the government to do the same. that being said, i do agree with the prior commentary that you're advising which is we serve-- all of us serve, many within the government serve at the pleasure of the president. if for whatever reason they're not on board with what the president is doing, they have options and it should be their responsibility to make sure they are aligned with what it is the administration is trying to do with a fair amount of pushback, but they make sure that they understand we're under one commander-in-chief. griff: congresswoman, are you concerned about these growing protests, we had large one on the mall, i covered it. and pro-palestinian and i was covering the one that got violent in front of the dnc. i spoke to one of the protesters that was late wednesday night outside the dnc where it got violent, and i asked her specifically about why they're doing this and she basically said that so many democrats are out of touch with the party's wishes. listen here, i want to play it for you and get your reaction. >> we call our congress people. we have come to their office as constituents and tried to ask them to do what 80% of their base is asking for and call for a cease-fire. they're not listening. griff: does 80% of the democratic base support a cease-fire in your opinion? >> i don't believe that that is the case, to be really honest. when we're in our offices we certainly are used to having constituents reach out to us and we appreciate that, with their opinions, usually the opinions go one way or the other. people don't usually call you when they're happy with what it is you're doing. it's hard for us to ascertain what the percentage is. and importantly, i serve all of the people in my district, serve in a district 40% republican, 40% democrat, and independents. and i try to do the best i can to try to articulate the opinion and ideas to washington and to the leadership. but also, just as importantly, it's my responsibility to lead in reverse as well, to tell people what i'm learning, what i know about what's going on and help to educate them what's going on in the global environment so we can all be hopefully as unified as possible during this really very difficult time. griff: based on what you know, are you calling for a cease-fire? >> no, at this point in time, very importantly, it is very much the responsibility israel to protect and defend its sovereignty. it's also the responsibility of israel to make sure that they're doing that under the laws of war. i have certainly called for that. i have also called for strategic pauses and humanitarian pauses and i believe that's appropriate, but we also want to make sure that we are understanding that hamas is a very vile and violent terrorist organization that absolutely needs to be taken out of power in the gaza area. and so, i believe that that can be done, should be done, but i also know that it needs very much to be done with respect to the internationally established law of war. griff: some of your colleagues, notably those in the so-called squad, rashida tlaib, alexandria ocasio-cortez and ilhan omar, and some are reporting that progressive democrats like the squad have gone to your minority leader jeffries and asking for some help in countering apac, the largest israeli lobby in the u.s., that is trying to get pro-israel democrats in the primary to challenge them. what do you make of that? >> so, it's really important that when we're having these conversations that people like us who are in positions like ours, members of congress, lead with humanity, with civility and decency and we lead with the interest of trying to unify our communities. so i think it's important when i listen to rhetoric from either side going on that i ask questions, that i seek unity and harmony and i understand that rashida and ilhan and those folks have different life experiences than i do or many in my communities do and i'd like to ask questions, and ask faith leaders in my community figuring out how to keep people together. thankfully in my community we have been trying to speak across the faiths and it's important. because if we don't have civil and decent conversations then we-- it's hopeless. i think that that's what's important right now. very evil forces, frankly, are trying to divide us, very, very evil forces and we need to be listening to each other. griff: congresswoman, i just want to point out for our viewers, you're seeing on the screen there, those are live rockets in gaza. in the last 20 seconds or so i've got here, ask you a question, you talk about unity as we watch rockets over gaza and you have a very big division with progressives in your party. do democrats have a problem in the house come next november over this issue? >> i think that democrats have demonstrated their humanity, their civility and their decency and i think this is a complicated issue and there are many, many people who-- there's more than enough sorrow going around right now. what we are trying to do is make sure that the hostages are freed, we're trying to make sure that the palestinian people are safe, that the israeli people are safe as well. and those are not, i think, complex issues. i think those are the values of the democratic party. griff: congresswoman krissy houlahan. thank you. as we take a look at rockets and flares, in israel. thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> griff, the idf says it's expanding its ground operation in gaza as the situation at al-shifa hospital has deteriorated. our trey yingst has the latest on this. >> good afternoon. israeli forces continue to push deeper into the gaza strip today. we're following reports of a school that was hit earlier with many palestinian civilians sheltering there. we're waiting still from a comment from the israeli military to determine the exact source of this strike, but it's one of the developments taking place out of gaza today. it comes as the israeli released video of hamas striking positions across the strip and trying to use their air force and artillery units across the border and infantry troops that say they're operating in an area of gaza, an indicating going from the mediterranean sea on the western side and pushing eastward as they work their way block by block and street by street, a lot of difficult battles for the israelis. just tonight released a new number saying 57 israeli troops have been killed since the ground operation began three weeks ago. now, inside gaza, the focus remains often on the al-shifa hospital at the heart of gaza city where there are hundreds of palestinian civilians sheltering in place there. the israeli continue to look for hamas infrastructure, but have not yet released any evidence to support that headquarters is at the hospital. this comes as on the northern front, israeli forces are pushing back against hezbollah strikes. as many as 25 rockets were fired into northern israel. the israelis responding with artillery and air strikes against hezbollah positions. as hezbollah climbs the ladder. you can see on the map, 6 1 strikes against the u.s. interests, and a concern on the ground in the north and south of israel could expand to a much broader regional conflict. >> trey yingst live for us in israel. thank you for that report. for more on this, we're joined now by nathan sales, the former ambassador at large and coordinator for counterterrorism in the trump administration. nathan, thank you so much, mr. ambassador, i should say, thank you for joining us today. great to have you on the set. >> thank you, anita, for being here. >> we've watched trey's report at the hospital and a lot of tension on that. although they're looking, they haven't found yet it's been used as a headquarters. they found ammunition, military supplies, hamas paraphernalia. we haven't seen any evidence of tunnels or used as a headquarters. what are we to make of that? >> we need to stay tuned. we know for a fact that hamas fighters are there, why are there so many rpg's and other weapons? the israeli intelligence services said that hamas is using this facility as a command center in the tunnels underneath and we've had confirmation from the u.s. intelligence community. president biden said we know with a level of certainty that hamas is using this facility illegally under the laws of war, it's a war crime to take a protected structure like a hospital and militarize it. the president has said and the military community said we know they're there. we need to be patient as observers and wait and see. israel can't pull back the curtain all at once because it doesn't have full control over the facility. let's see what happens in the coming days. >> if the united states has intelligence that this exists there, are we sharing with israel so they can better find what they're looking for? >> one would hope. we know that the counterterrorism and intelligence and military cooperation between the united states and israel is second to none. they have incredible and exquisite capabilities and we do, too. over the years we've built a strong partnership involving the sharing of information, sharing of expertise so my hope is that whatever resources the united states has, we're making that fully available to the israelis so they can win this war and also, do it as quickly as possible. the quicker this war is over, the better it is going to be for palestinian civilians. >> for everyone. just want to bring our viewers to attention on the screen, those were live flares over gaza, so, of course, there it is, 43 days into the war still, lots of activity there. i want to ask you about the hostages. still over 200 people missing, i think 246 is the number. we keep hearing that there is a deal in the works. the egyptians, the qataris, the united states, they are talking. what can you share what you know? >> this is probably the most heartbreaking part of the past six weeks, a six weeks filled with images. there are children, babies being kept under the tunnels. today is the 9th birthday of a girl aviva. and a boy, 10 months, can you imagine that, 10 months. >> no, i cannot. >> and the talks are going at an advanced state it, seems. we don't know what the sticking points are. it may be, we've heard chatter that hamas is releasing israel's call to release children, the women. hamas sees the children, the babies as pawns, it's valuable for hamas to have these precious and vulnerable children because they know what it does to people like you and me, and it turns our stomachs, and that's exactly the card that hamas is trying to play here. >> i have about 10 seconds left. if you had to guess, would you say that any hostages will be home by christmas, especially the american hostages? >> god willing, but it's pardon to say. we know at that israeli forces have found the bodies of hostages taken into gaza, and that the hamas probably killed them there. and my hope is that they find a solution so they can come home. >> we all hope that. >> ambassador sales, thank you. griff. griff: anita, calls to ban tik tok are reigniting after osama bin laden letter to america justifying the 9/11 attacks went viral on the app this week. the social media giant removed the hashtag letter to america from search function after some users posted videos expressing sympathy towards or praising the mastermind behind the deadliest terror attack on u.s. soil. alexandria hoff has the latest. >> yeah, the videos promoting the letter are easy to find. it's poses like a clothing ad or review. some say it's an existential crisis. >> i need to stop what you're doing and go read a letter to america, it's literally the craziest thing i've reads in a while, while i can't say i'm surprised. i'm pretty shock. >> this isn't an argument for bin laden, but he had some good points. >> he could have left some out of it, but the rest of it, you know, he was eating. >> when say they eating, they've done something welcome. this is amplifying the gear that the chinese are coaching, and they met with people denying pro-palestinian content, and it's reignited call to ban the app. >> the idea that bin laden was, that israel was the great satan and what china wants them to believe and iran wants this they believe. >> and one went viral for promoting the letter. lynn is a pro-palestinian activist who share this. i did not share the letter to promote hate or violence against anyone nor do i agree with extremism, i'm shocked by what i read and wanted to have a conversation about it with my followers and said that tik tok banned her account. >> alexandria hoff live for us in washington. thank you. >> well, griff, ex-chairman elon musk is criticized for his endorsement of a recent tweet that several activists and lawmakers are calling anti-semitic, it's said to be part of a conspiracy theory that inspired the pittsburgh synagogue shooter. and some called it unacceptable and several major advertisers says they'll cut their spending on the x platform. griff: iceland officials rush to protect a power plant from an impending volcanic eruption. what? 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