administration is facing possible escalation in the middle east. as leaders of iran fact say they will target any ship heading for or to israel. effectively announcing a virtual blockade of israel sports and threatening israeli e-commerce. welcome to fox news live, i am not emanuel. fox news confirms two more attacks against forces in the middle east this weekend bringing the total attacks in iraq and syria 287 since october. lucas thomason live at the white house with more. >> attacks against u.s. forces in the middle east increase by 50% over the last week and a half weeks there's concern eventually one of the rockets or drones will find their target. >> one of these days, one missile is going to get through and hit the ship rocket get onto al-assad airbase and blowup a dining hall and there will be hell to pay. the american people should demand readership more action to protect american soldiers overseas. >> there have been at least 87 total attacks against u.s. forces in iraq and syria since october 17. the u.s. military responded with airstrikes times, one for every 14 attacks and the attacks in the red sea recently, u.s. as anya missile destroyer shotgun 22 drones and missiles in 22 weeks most by proxy forces in yemen. french warship yesterday shotgun two drones in the red sea, is ready media reporting national security advisor sin israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu told president biden israel will take military action against the u.s. will not. the u.s. aircraft carrier in the persian gulf right now ready to launch dozens of super hornets if ordered. the persian gulf launch cruise missiles. the call last month shotgun $32 million u.s. drone off the coast of yemen. so far, no response. >> lucas thomason starting off, many thanks. joining me to discuss the foodies think they will target israeli ships heading to ports in the latest attacks on u.s. bases joe petito, welcome. let's start with tony blinken today. >> would take action including sanctions this week is trying to finance their efforts and will take over actions necessary to protect our people as well as protect shipping. >> what more should be done to protect shipping to make sure they are not able to shut down shipping in the region? >> a few things we could do, one is organized coalition of naval forces. we arty have one. there's one outbreak from almost 40 different countries, anti- piracy operation the u.s. leads, u.s. naval command and we could organize that as escorting commercial ships like we did 87, 88 with the tanker worse. another thing is forceful strike against the houthis. targeting houthis in yemen, targeting at sea sending a real deterrence message that way let's show a map of the region showing yemen, the red sea and given an idea of the geography, there's where houthis are based, how troubling is this escalation? >> think about it this way, you got the really important maritime highway, 17000 ships through every year to 10% of commercial, almost 9 million barrels of oil every day go to the big now if the commercial merchants get concerned and assurance rate jack up, if they go higher, they will go through africa and that will have impact on the economy in the middle east and if the houthis drop the minds and you start to shut down traffic, that will have an impact economy so there is real risk and i want to say, anything you take here, this is the most vulnerable region in the world. there are trade-offs, risks even if with what i said striking into gavin but right now what we are doing seems like not advancing american interests at all and then there is attacks in syria, 87 since mid-october. you used to work for u.s. central command, did they want to do more to counteract strikes and being told by the white house no? >> what i can tell you is the idea of deterrence here is something we can just wake up and decide we will deter iran. the supreme theater gets a say in whether he is deterred and right now iran is not deterred. the strikes continue apace what we are doing, strikes where we are striking these buildings, striking proxy forces in syria, it's not working because iran does not care about those, does not care about proxy forces. if we want to raise the bar of deterrence, we have to strike iranian targets, strike strategic targets about the concern of the of course is widening this were so again, there are trade-offs and risks with everything you do in this world. >> clearly u.s. central command does not want men and women to be in. >> that's right. right now they got their heads down from a they are at risk and we've been lucky so far. there's more than 60 troops, 60 american troops injured, no american troops have been killed. i think it's only a matter of time before we are unlucky and i think something like that happens, if there is some catastrophic mass casualty, i think we find ourselves tumbling into war with iran in one situation where neither side has put a cap on escalation, either side deterred and we have ourselves a work nobody wants. >> what sort of strategic sites could be hit to send a strong message to iran? >> there is irg set in syria more important than we could right. there are basis inside the rent that the strike, irg seek naval vessels, irg seek chips in the coast. the arabian gulf we could strike so again all of these things come with trade-offs, come with risk but how much risk do you want to take to force right now with doing effectively nothing about this? >> you worry about other adversaries taken from our response whether we stick up for troops in other parts of the world and a sense about american power, what is the message it sends about strategic approach in syria? i think that's unfair. what the messages sent about our willingness, the american will about the will to use this incredible force built up over decades and we pushed into the region, what does it say about that? i don't think it says things that are good. >> we are nearly out of time but this escalation by the houthis, how anxious are you as a guy who worked for u.s. central command? what is the level of concern? >> it is concerning because it's another frontier in this chaotic situation. israel is talking about how it's going to manage the houthis if the u.s. -- that's a lot of bluster. israel is stretched in gaza in the northern front with hezbollah. it is concerning, should be concerning for the region, it should be concerning for the world because it is so critical to commercial trade, so critical to the global economy. >> thank you for your service, thank you for your time today. >> all eyes on the president of harvard and mit, both president and board chairman of you pen down amid backlash over last week's hearing of anti-semitism on college campuses. cb cotton has more details. >> the resignation of these two high profile leaders also comes amid increasing pressure from makeup donors. university of pennsylvania says president liz mcgill voluntarily resigned in less than an hour later use the board of trustees chairman scott down. now we are waiting to see what this could mean for president at harvard and mit as a congressional investigation gets underway and allegations anti-semitism of the elite schools. >> we this moral rot as i talked about in my comments is very widespread. we want to do a thorough investigation and where the investigation this. we don't want to prejudge what we are going to find. >> liz magill will stay on until interim president is appointed and the board of trustees an interim has already been named. after backlash from the capitol hill testimony, magill tried to clarify marks on social media arts president claudine gave didn't interview, apologizing to the student paper for this exchange with a lease janik. >> herbert does calling for the genocide of jews violate bully and harassment, yes or no? >> it can be depending on the context. >> what is the context? connect targeted as an individual. >> targeted at jewish students from a jewish individual. >> sephardic renewing call for gay to resign on friday in the case of robert president day, she was asked by seven times for the calling for the genocide of jews violate the code of conduct. she spoke her truth 17 times in the world heard. the same post she called for the president to step down, congresswoman a lot of the resignation of the president the neck thank you much, republican california congressman darrell issa. congressman, welcome. >> the previous statement says a lot where we are in america when those statements have a delayed effect on resignation rather than immediate result in resignation limit the president of the university of pennsylvania, chair of the board of trustees are out as of yesterday after president liz magill disastrous appearance on capitol hill, you expect changes at harvard, mit and elsewhere? >> has a long history, 100 years ago they systematically reduced the number of jews allowed to be admitted quote because i wanted to get to a better balance so they have a lot to be careful about because their history is check in spite of the fact that supreme court justices tend to come from our, hopefully it will make a change but it's got to make a change at uva, it's got to make a change everywhere because college campuses have created a norm but some things are a lot because liberal left accent and some things are not a lot because conservative pro- america likes them, that's not the end. if you have free speech, fine. have free speech. if you crackdown on inappropriate threats of violence or the like, great, do it but do it uniformly. it is not happening, it's one thing congress is most concerned about with our universities. >> hunter biden facing charges in california, some of them valleys. here is utah senator mitt romney on the today. >> president biden's son, hunter is an unsavory person and has had extremely damaging personal, including drug habit and so forth, casa president biden and we are not going to impeach someone because of the sins of their kids. >> what you make of the latest hunter biden indictment? >> i make of mitt romney is he's trying to find a reason is that he's will not vote for impeachment was brought to him i'm sorry to hear that from the outgoing senator. here is what we have, we have the business partner, hunter biden, old charges and criminal but part of many charges that should have been brought including tax evasion on the varied revenue we now know some cases load to joe biden and look to him, his actions, certainly inappropriate if not pay to play. that's why we are investigating, elevating our investigations, why hunter biden would fully expect the would take the fifth when it came whether it was public or private but we have to ask him what he explain that which is explainable if it can be? connect expected to vote in the house to formalize the impeachment inquiry this week, what are your expectations? >> my expectation will be to times when he doesn't come. my expectation is if comes, we are going to have to deal with something i dealt with with other people, which is we are not going to allow ever again what was done in the irs cover-up where they take innocence, tell you how wonderful they are and then take the fifth. questions will have to beef with no opening statement, are you going to answer questions here are the questions and if not, then hold them in contempt but to be honest, we need to get past hunter biden because there's a lot of the things. one example that calls me, when you being fox, ask for details for example about sentiments where you know money went to joe biden from hunter biden, they refer you to house white house counsel. to be honest, that's the presidency, multicausal of the man whose vice president at the time of the famous so we've done a lot of things we have to do it we have to do it quickly, we don't want this to be a political season but they delay us in a way in which we don't hurry, it will be up to the election and i don't want that. i want it resolved sooner rather than later. >> big push for funding for israel, ukraine and your colleagues including you think, one important component to it, how does that play out? >> we want national security, defense authorization, appropriations for our defense, appropriate spending of home and security to make our home and secure and yes, we want to have money properly spent in two wars that are broken up from one in israel, one with putin's invasion, further invasion of ukraine. in all cases we need to make sure the money is well spent, we need oversight but mostly what we need to realize is we are in national security threat because of lax enforcement at the border, because of lax work by this administration and department of defense and wrinkly, this state department started cozying up to iran on day one and embolden them and you see it around the world so it is a package but a package tied together to keep the american people safe. >> there's an intense debate about reauthorization of foreign intelligence surveillance act section 702, everybody says threat warnings are out there, can we afford to allow this program to go dark? >> we cannot afford to allow to go dark. we also cannot continue to forsake the constitution and have willful misconduct by the department of justice and fbi demonstrated time and time again forms worked out by the judiciary committee and even some select intelligence committee need to be passed. we are sorry it will have to be as late as april but the fact is, we moved it out of committee and prepared to have a vote on the floor on these packages. if accepted by the administration in the senate, we will have security abroad and dramatically better protection for the american people including a second look when the fbi says something that isn't true, the way they did even with president trump and others, if you can take on presidential candidate and circumvent the constitution, you can take on and circumvent any of us as americans. >> congressman darrell isaac, thinkable for your time today. tony blinken sank this morning the of administration is trying to do everything it can to instruct civilians are protected instruct civilians are protected manicuring assistant gets to civilians in gaza, live report kn is next. ♪r gl you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? did we peak your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening. ♪ heavy fighting report across gaza after the united states blocked a solution pushing for cease-fire. israeli government hamas fighters surrendered to israeli forces in gaza. trey yingst has the latest from israel. >> good afternoon, the 65 the war between israel and hamas, israelis continue to target positions along the gaza strip. over the past 24 hours, they fit to 50 different targets. we understand israeli forces are operating on the ground brother gaza. we watched as attack helicopters hit positions, black smoke rose from the skyline gaza and israelis set they destroyed mark levin storage facilities, booby-trapped houses and infrastructure belonging to hamas. israeli officials painted i think killed 7000. , by the spirit of this taking place as there are reports indicating distance between negotiators when it comes to any possible deal in the future that could see the release of more hostages and it comes as the chief of staff said this about israeli achievements inside gaza. take a listen. >> i see achievements day- day-to-day, queasy everyday carisbrooke killed and in the last days we see terrorists, i thought of the collapse of the system. assign we need to press harder and this is what you are doing. >> the southern front remains active as israelis go after hamas leadership gaza but we know the northern front is active as well and the militant group primary rockets into israel, and i think that attack injuring soldiers today, a sharp israeli response at the israelis trying to deter has blocked from getting more involved in this conflict. >> trey yingst live from seven israel, thanks very much. more on the ground joining us from tel aviv senior advisor to israeli prime minister mark are most welcome. >> thank you. >> you hurt my colleagues report, what's the situation on the ground next. >> our military is making good progress. obviously not without cost for serviceman are paying the price. we had combat fatalities we are progressing, taking out hamas fighters and the important sign you see the pictures we are taking more and more hamas prisoners from a they are surrendering everyday in greater numbers and this is a sign while we are not at the end, this could be the beginning of the end. >> a phone call with russia's president bottom of putin, what are your government's concerns as it relates to russia? >> prime minister clearly expressed concerns about to matters. one, he's concerned about russian relationship with iran. the corporation is up trouble to us and is a problem. two, we express concern about russia's vote of the un security council where they voted for the resolution was vetoed by the united states and united states for diplomatic support, it is greatly appreciated in israel but russia reported that resolution which was going a lifesaver to hamas because we are about to defeat hamas, we are defeating hamas and if you force into a cease-fire that keeps us alive from a you will give more in the future because if you keep hamas alive, that means we get more likely have october 7, not that i say so, hamas openly declares given the opportunity, the capability they would butcher our people as they did october 7 so it is crucial job is done, finish the job, destroy hamas military machine and remove them from gaza and the russian support for the resolution would prevent us from doing so and thank goodness united states vetoed that. >> obviously israel wants hostages back at last count, hamas holding 100 hostages with concerns about their health time goes on, what can you do about bringing those people home? >> we are talking more than 130 hamas is still holding and we are concerned about them because we've heard personal from hostages who been released from a those were released last week during the pause, we thought about 110 people released in over 80 israelis and we were thankful they came back but when we heard their stories, they suffered abuse. they suffered difficult conditions and they come back with physical wounds and psychological wounds. i think of the children, there were 30 children by hamas days and the head of the children's hospital in charge of treating them, she said honestly she wouldn't go into detail for privacy reasons but she said the children came back when she first saw them, they were the shadow of children, she said and obviously we as a society will help families, but these people become recuperated and return to normal life especially the children we have to be concerned about hostages hamas hast because we seen violet moss is capable of and we can have no illusions about the way they treat our people. >> i appreciate how busy you are, thank you for your time today, sir. >> thanks for having me connect republican candidates on the road this weekend including nikki haley in iowa. we will check in on the campaign trail next. ♪ >> veterans are homeless. that we know of. one in three veterans suffer from ptsd or thoughts of suicide. we lose 22 heroes if they suicide. a veteran needs a doctors appointment on average, it takes 29 days. while 29 days?et ♪ r and delivered right t