Sporting the kick off the Savings Monopoly Tag for unlimited bonus game tickets at lucky killed in the blast. Many of the victims children. Demonstrations coinciding with the president s trip to israel where he said he is confident based on u. S. Intelligence that an israeli air strike was not to blame, but in the wake of the bombing a planned summit between biden and palestinian and egyptian leaders in jordan was called off. We want to begin with nbcs matt bradley who was in lebanon where protesters flooded the streets outside the u. S. Embassy in beirut. Give us the latest. Reporter hey, chris, im sorry, we just had a Power Failure here. This is what happens in lebanon. Theyre going through a fouryear economic crisis, and the power goes out regularly. This is part of the crisis thats going on in this country, and part of the reason why so many people here dont want to be dragged into another war with israel. You mentioned this Embassy Protest i was at today. We saw just the tail end of it, and i watched and now the lights are coming back on. I watched as, you know, we could still smell the tear gas in the air. It looks like the police had just disbursed the protesters. There was a lot of damage. We were still about a kilometer away from the embassy because the embassy is so blockaded, so protected that the protesters never even really got close to the actual building itself, but the military was there, the police were there, they were restoring the barricades, it looked like the protesters had set fire to one of the nearby commercial buildings, and you could still smell the tear gas in the air, and there was a lot of debris and razor wire around. It was clearly a terribly violent scene. Why the u. S. Embassy, there is no Israeli Embassy in beirut, lebanon has no diplomatic relationship with israel. We were at a hezbollah rally just before that where the speakers, the official speakers and the people we spoke to mentioned the United States and israel in the same breath. Joe biden and israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu took the same level of condemnation from just about everybody that we spoke with. For those people, the people who were protesting, mostly hezbollah supporters, theres no daylight between the United States and israel as far as theyre concerned. They see them as the same actor, complicit in what they consider to be the same crimes, and they used the word genocide over and over again against the palestinian people. These protests, they were called out of because of that explosion at the hospital, and i asked people, you know, do you think this was the israelis are blaming this on palestinian militant groups, absolutely not. One woman interrupted me and said you know this wasnt just explosion. You know that israel was the one who attacked this hospital. But then i asked another man, you know, what if there was just indisputable evidence that it was, in fact, an errant bomb by a palestinian militant group, and he said, look, you know, we would still be out here protesting. Were still out here protesting the israeli behavior against the palestinians, this is not about what happened last night. This is about generations of cruelty against the palestinians by the israelis, chris. Matt bradley, thank you for that. I also want to bring in nbcs raf sanchez from israel, what is the latest in gaza today, raf . Reporter well, chris, it remains just a devastating, humanitarian situation inside gaza, putting aside the carnage outside this hospital whether it was a palestinian rocket as israel and the u. S. Are saying or if it was an israeli air strike as the palestinians insist. For the 2 million palestinians inside of gaza, this is a really really dire situation. There are about 600 american citizens still trapped. I want you to take a listen from a video diary that one of them has been keeping. Take a listen. Daily challenges and trying to keep the kids calm, also so we dont lose our sanity as parents, so, yeah. Thats about it. And of course the tragic massacre that was committed last night when the air force bombed the hospital and killed hundreds. Thats just beyond barbaric. I mean, and the Defense Minister Of Israel calls us human animals, i mean, really. Reporter chris, you heard his account there, trying to keep his children safe, trying to keep them calm. I just spoke to a young mother. She has a 2yearold baby, and she says she really is noticing the changes in her little daughter that her daughter is so frightened, her daughter is so overstimulated by the explosions. She doesnt understand whats going on, but she knows that something is going wrong. Theyre the lucky ones. Theyre outside gaza city. They had water for about an hour earlier today, but it is a really really desperate situation. Now, President Biden when he met with the israeli war cabinet earlier secured an agreement from the israelis that humanitarian aid would be allowed through the Rafah Crossing, the egyptian gaza border and into the southern part of gaza, the israelis have agreed to a humanitarian zone as theyre calling it in southern gaza. But there is no guarantee, just because the americans and israelis have agreed on something that it will come to pass, you need the egyptian con sent. You need hamas consent. This is just a fiendishly confident jigsaw puzzle, and we should reiterate that the u. N. Has been very clear, that when israel orders a Million People out of northern gaza, tells them to go to southern gaza, has no way through the egyptian border, the u. N. Is saying that it is one, inevitable that it will lead to a humanitarian disaster, and two, that it is a possible war crime. Thank you so much for your reporting. We appreciate it. Nbcs Stephanie Gosk is here to break down what we know so far about that hospital explosion. The Israeli Military has put out evidence. They say it proves the Islamic Jihad faction is responsible. That is being denied. Talk about what we actually know, stephanie what we know is what each side is telling us, and we know the specifics. Its also important to point out that we cant actually get there, that american journalists are not on the ground in gaza. Some of these could be verified by eyes on the ground. Lets run through the what the idf, the Israeli Military is saying, and they had a Press Conference today, all in english to lay this out, including visuals. Weve got some of them here right now. Theres not a direct hit of the hospital, but rather this parking lot that you see here, and that one of the things they particularly pointed out is there would be, if it had been an israeli missile, they say, peripheral damage to the buildings, and you dont actually see that here in this particular image. They then said if it wasnt an israeli missile, you would have a significant crater, a crater anywhere from 20 feet to 60 feet and they provided an image of what a crater like that might look like. They had some previous impacts that they used to show. They also went on to say that hamas itself knew that it was a rocket from Islamic Jihad that was fired and then missed its target and launched a Global Media Campaign to stir up anger on purpose, and we saw how effective that has been with the protests around the arab world. What does hamas say . Hamas says, look at the damage, and again, we cant look at the damage. The damage is significant, that it leveled the hospital, that there are an enormous number of casualties that we also cant verify, and that the angle they say of where the missile hit would only be an israeli missile. So they are pushing back on this whole notion. They say, we dont have the kind of weapons that would have that number of casualties. Again, those Casualty Numbers are really in dispute here. They point out the idf in the past has had to walk back assertions. You may remember there was a Journalist Shot and killed. The idea said that originally that was Palestinian Militants responsible for her death. They had to walk that back, actually, it was Israeli Soldiers in that incident. Chris. Stephanie gosk, thank you for bringing what clarity we can to this situation. That is what is known publicly, but what are intelligence communities across the world doing right now to get to the bottom of this. I want to bring in former cia director and msnbc Senior National security and intelligence analyst, john brennan. Its really great to have you here. So the president seemed very confident in his public statements after seeing data provided by the defense department, he said israeli is not behind this explosion. What kind of data would he be given that he could say, i guess, from some peoples perspectives pretty quickly, this wasnt israel . Well, chris, i think steph did a very good job in terms of explaining what we can see from above at the hospital. And im sure President Biden was given a very indepth explanation by the Israeli Military of what they can see, and its a very believable explanation. But the u. S. Intelligence Community Military also has its own assets, overhead satellites, also drones, other types of things, signals intelligence, and im sure that President Biden would have wanted to have some strong confidence that that explanation, that it was an errant rocket launched by the palestinian Islamic Jihad, he would have wanted to have that assessment pretty strong before going out publicly and saying it. Still, its preliminary, theres no access to the site itself. The large size of the explosion does raise questions. It could have been some secondary explosions. A fuel depot that might have been there at the hospital, maybe some explosions, munitions that were nearby that caused that fire ball, and that fire that took the lives of so many, but, again, what the israelis have said is very believable, especially when we dont see the crater associated with a missile that comes off an aircraft. Director brennan, we have been watching the protests, the violence, and we have heard from our reporters there that even when they ask if it could be proved somehow to their satisfaction, that this was not israel, would they back down, and they say this is about something larger, this is about the treatment of palestinians across many many years. Given the height of emotions and given the anger, the understandable anger that exists, is it even possible to overstate the regional risks for further escalation . I dont think you can overstate it, and the tensions are higher now than they have been in decades. Even if theres going to be some convincing evidence, put out publicly, this was a rocket from the Islamic Jihad, most palestinians and many arabs are not going to believe it. Theyre convinced that this was something that the israelis intentionally targeted, a hospital, as a way to pill kiln more and more palestinians. Which is why President Biden went out there, i think he went out there for three principle reasons, one is to show solidarity with israel, the second, i think he really has been moved by the loss of innocent life, the thousands of innocent israelis and palestinians and others who have been killed so far, and hes trying to make sure that he does whatever possible to minimize any additional casualties and, then thirdly to prevent a broadening of the conflict that could engulf the entire region and really be a problem for the entire world. So it was a risky, high profile trip, and obviously he didnt know that this Hospital Strike was going to occur while he was just getting on board the aircraft, but, again, President Biden feels very strongly about the need to signal the administrations support to israel, but also prevent the loss of life he believes is quite precious. There are american lives at risk. I want to get your take on reportin b keir simmons. Securing the release of hostages is on hold. Diplomat told Nbc News The Hospital Blast has made it impossible for hamas to do anything now, even if theyre willing. I wonder if thats how you see it, and how does this complicate potentially the release of those hostages, americans and otherwise . I think raf sanchez called it fiendishly complicated and i think that is an understatement because it is so complex. There are so many actors involved here, tensions are so high the fact that you have the 200 or so hostages being held by hamas, you know, a good sign so far is that there wasnt any footage of execution of hostages that hamas had pledged to carry out. So i do think that there are a number of actors that are engaging in the discussions, the egyptians, the qataris, the red cross to see if they can safely recover those hostages, at the same time, Prevent The Gaza Environment from totally going up in flames. It has been so punishing on the palestinian people, this is a humanitarian crisis that continues to worsen. John brennan, thank you so much, its a pleasure to have you on the program. Thank you. Here at home, major fireworks on capitol hill today over the ongoing House Speaker fight. So where does this all go next . Were back in 60 seconds. Right now, House Republicans and House Democrats are having Party MeetingsBehind Closed Doors after that second speaker vote ended without a speaker. Close trump ally, ohio congressman jim jordan fail to go claim the gavel again, and in fact, he actually lost some of the support he had in the first round. Nevertheless, he said just a few minutes ago he plans to keep fighting. Mr. Jordan, i just want to ask you about that last vote and your confidence so far now at your second vote. Two ballots now, thats where Speaker Mccarthy was in the process, so were just going to keep talking to members. Joining us now, nbcs ali vitali on capitol hill. Former republican congressman carlos, and mike ricci, former Communications Director for paul ryan. Good to have all of you here. So discussions happening among democrats and republicans, what are they trying to figure out . Reporter what comes next is the main question for members of both parties. Im standing now outside of the democratic meeting, happening just over the course of the last few minutes, Behind Closed Doors. Were waiting to see Leadership Go into the room. I think the question that leadership is going to both ask their members and also their members will ask of them is what document us to do, and whats the path forward for the potential of empowering the speaker pro tem in Patrick Mchenry. One source telling me as i was standing outside the room that the goal of the meeting is a Temperature Taking so that democrats can understand how many of their members would be open to voting for that kind of an empowerment resolution, and what the political ramifications of that might be. I will say over the course of the last two and a half weeks, weve seen the top democrats, Hakeem Jeffries be pretty mum on any potential idea of something sorkinesque of a government. What was striking is the way that jeffries really seemed to be more open last night in talking with us reporters, saying that he was open to compromise. He was open to something bipartisan. The word that he used was genuine. And that could come in the form of mchenry. I think it was noticeable that jeffries and others have drawn a very clear red line around it not being jim jordan. They have used words like extreme and insurrectionist to describe him. Of course that denoting his past ties as found by the January 6th Committee and others for the things that he was allegedly doing in the aftermath of trumps loss of the 2020 election. And jordans efforts, alongside trump allies to subvert those results, so for democrats, he was never going to be a palatable option. But now that weve seen him fail on the second balloting round, republicans trying to figure out whats happening next, democrats are huddling to get a better sense of where their caucus is at and what their next move might be trying to take advantage almost of this moment of disarray, and also just get the house back to working. Yeah, so, mike, there is urgency, real urgency to that. The question is how. Let me start with the idea that jordan says he wants to keep fighting, but this isnt just a handful of opponents. He lost 22 republicans, meaning he would have to flip back 18. Is there anything that suggests to you, Kevin Mccarthys experience that he could actually pull it off . Well, chris, there arent the kinds of blocks that you saw back in january. Remember there were sort of ring leaders in january, chip roy, Byron Donalds and more, and each member would unlock, because there are bonds, and members broken into factions, there are so many free agents, its hard to know where to start. The goal was to get down to double digits and create momentum. To go backwards, below 200, sends a terrible signal. You have to express confidence and tell members youre going to keep going for it until you dont. Thats probably what hes going to do. Meantime, a lot of conversations, about the possibility that there could be an alternative here, and earlier today, former speaker