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Good afternoon, thank you for staying with our special coverage of the israelhamas war. Im Andrea Mitchell In Washington, where there is breaking news. The State Department confirming in the last hour at least 22 americans have been killed in the conflict so far. That update coming just minutes after President Biden doubled down on his strong comments supporting israel with remarks at the white house. This attack has brought to the surface the painful memories and scars left by antisemitism and genocide against the jewish people, and this moment we have to be crystal clear. There is no justification for terrorism, no excuse. Were also learning that Secretary Of State blinken will be traveling to israel this afternoon with a delegation that includes steve gillon, the special envoy for special hostage affairs. This hour well check in on capitol hill where a deeply divided House Republican conference could be one step closer to selecting their next speaker. Joining me now msnbcs chief correspondent ali velshi in israel, and nbc News White House correspondent monica alba here at the white house. Weve been following reports from the idf. Weve seen really the massacre in that kibbutz where you are, which was, you know, finally opened up to the press yesterday. Tell us the situation now. Reporter yeah, well, at the moment idf has confirmed reports of something going on in the north of the country. They say nothing has landed but alarms went off in the north of the country, there were various reports. The official designation is aircraft, those could have been drones. Weve seen some activity about 15 miles behind us. We felt the percussion of attacks into gaza, idf attacks into gaza, and weve seen a number of patriot launches, if one happens while were on the air, ill go to it. The situation on the kibbutz there, a number of the kibbutz on the border around gaza, one you saw the remarkable images coming out of them. They are shocking. They are, believe it or not, worse than people had already seen or even thought. I spoke to people from another kibbutz also on the border who had been evacuated. Everybodys been evacuated from that part of israel. Theyve gone to central are israel, who are staying in a hotel, and i spoke to a man earlier who was one of the people there who held off the fire from the Hamas Terrorists just with seven of his fellow men from the kibbutz. They put everybody else into the shelter. They fought these guys off. I asked him what hes feeling right now. Listen to what he told me. This is what i like, make gaza flat. Went to egypt, went to iran. I wanted to go to their friends, not to my house. I dont want any soldier will come into our gaza. I want to make it as flat from up, the size of the bomb wont matter now, only the size of the bomb. Reporter only the size of the bomb will matter now. Hes not talking about getting rid of hamas. Hes saying i want gaza to be flat, hes saying he wants the people to go to iran. Thats the sentiment from a lot of people. Where i am south of us is where the columns, the troops being called up, theyre going down there. Theyre amassing next to the border either for a Ground Invasion or for the threat of a Ground Invasion that may allow for negotiations for the release of the hostages. What about the danger to the hostages and concerns expressed privately despite strong support and being in lock step that they should try to minimize civilian casualties in gaza. There are, you know, hundreds of thousands, you know, probably more than a million palestinians. There are 2 million residents there. Theres a large proportion of them who are innocent and are being oppressed by the hamas leadership. Reporter yes, and that was the message delivered directly from President Biden to Prime Minister netanyahu, andrea, to really take into account the potential here for mass civilian casualties so to try to minimize that to the extent that its possible. We know now also that President Biden and Vice President harris both spoke again with Prime Minister netanyahu earlier this morning after they both had a large meeting with the entire National Security team here at the white house, including Secretary Of State Antony Blinken on all of the latest developments, and we know Something Else that the white house is actively coordinating right now with other countries including, of course, israel, and egypt would be Something Like a safe passage for those in gaza to leave into egypt through a Border Crossing there that would have to be coordinated among multiple countries in order to get those palestinians out, those civilians, as well as Palestinian Americans who are there who are also pleading with the u. S. Government for help in terms of trying to get out and get to safety given what could be coming in the next few days. Now, the president did speak here earlier at the white house earlier today, as you saw talking about how the support for israel right now is unshakable, and hell have a lot more to say on that later this afternoon when he meets with Jewish Community leaders here and second gentleman doug emhoff will be delivering remarks as well to talk specifically about how this is impacting the Jewish Community here in the United States domestically to talk about antisemitism, to talk about how potential hate crimes that could happen in the wake of this are something that the u. S. Is monitoring very closely. So the president is essentially being briefed hourbyhour on all of these different developments. Theyre following it very closely. As we understand, he will be speaking again this afternoon, likely to that death toll that we know has now climbed to 22 american citizens and that many u. S. Officials are bracing for that number to even potentially go up higher. As we wait to figure out the number of americans who might be held by hamas. We know some of them are, but we dont know how many and yesterday the figure of those still unaccounted for, potentially missing, potentially injured, or potentially also tragically having lost their lives was around 20 people. So were expecting to get an jut date on that from the white house this afternoon as well, andrea. And what about what the Homeland Security adviser and the National Security council said about possibly trying to arrange Charter Flights so that americans who cant get on to commercial flights can leave americans in israel, or those with dual citizenship can leave if they want to. Yes, also actively being coordinated right now by the u. S. Government. Thats a big piece of this. We understand it wouldnt even just with charters by plane, but it could also be a charter by sea. Theyre exploring all of those different kinds of angles and approaches to try to get people who want to leave israel out of there and american citizens who have expressed that similar concern, and then the other thing that the u. S. Is coordinating and continuing to provide support on is these Government Experts who have dealt with Hostage Recovery in the past, some of whom were already on the ground in israel through their work with the embassy there to provide this kind of support so they have offered their assistance to the israeli counterparts specifically working on the Hostage Matters and other Government Experts as well have now been assigned to join them to provide any kind of assistance to try to in a technical manner help this situation, and were not just talking about getting americans out of there who we know are held, but all kinds of people, the u. S. Really lending their entire full strength of support and resources from that angle as well, andrea. Our thanks to you, monica alba at the white house. Thanks to ali velshi, and joining us now for more on the israel and hamas conflict, ambassador mark regev, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ambassador, thank you very much for being with us. Can you give us any updates at all on any potential operations regarding the hostages in particular . You have so many israeli hostages and we have several we dont know how many americans. Andrea, any operations that i might have knowledge of i cant talk about. We dont talk about Military Operations before they happen, you know that. And what about a Ground Invasion, one of the concerns of the tanks and other Armored Vehicles we see amazing near the border, going in could make it very difficult for the hostages to survive if theyre being used as human shields. We are aware of the complexity of the situation and my Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said publicly that any terrorists who kills a hostage, who acts in a hostage in a brutal way, we will find them in the end, and we will bring them to justice. They will they will not get away with this, and they should know if they are involved in abusing hostages in any way, we will find them and we will bring them to justice. There was an idf warning today to people, to residents in Northern Israel of potential incursions in the air space. Clearly from hezbollah, have you identified what that may or may not have been, and is there an all clear . At the moment, as far as im aware, the situation is still fluid. We have had provocations from the north. We are concerned about the possibility of a twofront war. We know its a possibility. We have no illusions about hezbollah, which is in many ways the twin brother of hamas. They share the same proiranian orientation. They both say israel should be destroyed. They really are twins, and we cant exclude the possibility that hezbollah will try to start something in the north. The only thing i can assure you is that this time we wont be taken by surprise. We are ready. We are prepared, and if they do decide to launch hostiliies from the north, we believe not that we want it but we will be decisive in our victory. Can you give us some of the context behind the decision today that was announced today to bring benny gantz, the former Defense Minister into basically a Wartime Coalition government with the Prime Minister . So i saw the two gentlemen meet today, and they reached an agreement. As you know, benny gantz has been one of the major leaders of the opposition to this government, but the attack by hamas i think has made israelis understand that though we can argue politics until the dawn, were very good with arguing with each other, this is not a time for division. This is a time for national unity. And i think in many ways its the Public Opinion in israel and the crisis that were in has gone after the politicians and weve now got an expanded government which is one of the major parties of the opposition. Theres still a possibility that another Opposition Party will join. Thats the party of i hope it happens. The idea is if were facing this crisis, we do so as a united country. Tom friedman was warning today in the New York Times that israel should be concerned about what happens after the day after the day after the strikes. What happens if you decapitate hamas, what replaces hamas could be worse. Its similar to what happened to the u. S. After the iraq invasion when we disbanded the bath army and didnt realize that mistake led to ten years of civil war. I understand that, and as always, we can make different assessments of what can happen in which contingency and the people get paid to do that sort of thinking, and we have very effective and good people like that in our National Security structure, but lets look at the facts. For years people have been saying, you know, hamas is in control of gaza. They rule over 2. 3 million people. That forces them to be more responsible. That forces them to be more pragmatic. That forces them eventually to become more moderate. The realities of governing will make them more moderate. And many people believe that, including israelis. But i think what we saw on saturday was that hamas is stuck in its extremist positions, in the positions of this sort of militant global islamist revolution, and what theyve done is exposed themselves for being the hardcore terrorists that they are. And if ive said before, theyre the twin of hezbollah. I think as also they have a lot in common with isis. This nihilistic violence, and gruesome use of force against innocent civilians, cutting heads off, using knives, burning bodies alive. It really is similar to isis. But if you think about it this strategic terms, isis could be defeated because isis didnt have a state sponsor. Hamas has a state sponsor, and as you know, that is of course iran, and that makes hamas more difficult to deal with, precisely because theyve been funded and armed and trained and given the protection of the iranian regime. Rk regev, many thanks to you for taking the time to be with us today, we appreciate it. My pleasure. And on capitol hill right now, we have breaking news. House republicans have nominated Steve Scalise moments ago as their new speaker. A floor vote still needed, of course, joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles and former Republican National chairman, michael steele. Ryan, how did this work out . Reporter well, andrea, i think we have to be very clear under these circumstances that this is no guarantee that Steve Scalise will be the next Speaker Of The House. Republicans are still divideds as to how to take this process to the floor of the house of representatives. It requires 217 votes given the current makeup of congress in order for someone to be elected speaker. The vote that we saw come out of this internal meeting of House Republicans, which we should point out was a private ballot was tight, the final ballot, 113. Already there are members of the republican conference telling my colleague ali vitali they will not vote for Steve Scalise on the floor of the house if and when this speaker nomination actually makes it to that stage. So the math is still a problem for these republican candidates, and as we saw play out with Kevin Mccarthy, both when he was elected speaker and when he was removed from the speakers office, it takes just a handful of republicans to say that they are not going to support the nominee for Speaker Of The House to derail that process. What was interesting, as this vote played out this morning, a pair of republican congressmen put a resolution in front of the body that suggest that had they wouldnt officially nominate someone unless they had those 217 votes internally in conference. Allies of Steve Scalise put up a motion to table that particular rule. They were successful in tabling it, meaning that scalise would be able to win the nomination with just a majority of the caucus, which he was able to do. But this now sets up another confrontation on the house floor where scalise is going to have to convince these 99 members that didnt vote for him today to cast a ballot for him on the house floor, just another Extraordinary Development here in the speaker drama and something that we need to emphasize is not something that usually happens here in congress. Not at all. Michael steele, this is wild. Youve got still divisions but one is ahead and it is Steve Scalise. Of course hes a former whip, so he knows how to count votes, but jim jordan has a lot of support, especially from his background as Freedom Caucus founder. Where do you see this playing out . I see this going a number of rounds, when its on the floor for a vote. I think what youll see is scalise, as you noted as a former whip, doing a whip count, trying to get his vote shored up to get to 217. And the reality of it is theyre going to have to deal with the blowback in the efforts to oust jim jordan from that opportunity. Donald trump has endorsed jim jordan, the Freedom Caucus is squarely behind him, 90 plus members are supporting him, so theyve got to call back some votes here, and its going to be a very dramatic, you know, tabulation as it was in the last round. So this is going to be difficult. But heres the rub at the end of the day. Without a governing majority, without a governing direction, it really doesnt matter because what looms in front of the next speaker is the budget, is now israel, and ukraine, and where the base of the party is relative to those members of the house who represent that base, scalise should he be the speaker will have a long road ahead of him, and if they keep that rule in place and it only takes one to vacate the chair, he could be one of the shortest speakers of the house in history. And thats the problem hes going to