forces are carrying out a targeted operation against hamas inside gaza's largest hospital, where hundreds of civilians are trapped, including dozens of babies younger than the war itself. senior adviser to israeli prime minister netanyahu joins us to talk about that and more. here in the u.s., high stakes summit for one of the world's most consequential relationships as president biden and chinese leader xi jinping are set to meet face to face this afternoon for the first time in a year. meanwhile, on capitol hill, new house speaker mike johnson appears to have cleared the first major hurdle of his tenure with the house passing a temporary plan to avert a government shutdown. and today in georgia, the judge will hear arguments in the 2020 election interference case after the fulton county d.a. slams the release of interview tapes with former trump allies as witness intimidation. why she is seeking an emergency protective order. and we begin this hour with new developments in israel's war against hamas. happening right now, the israel defense forces say it is carrying out a targeted raid of gaza's largest hospital, where hundreds of patients and staff are inside with dwindling water and supplies. it worsens an already desperate scenario for dozens of premature babies who have been removed from their incubators because of power shortages. the operation comes after the biden administration says u.s. intelligence match the israeli allegation that hamas uses hospitals including this one, this al shifa hospital, and tunnels beneath them to hide in and keep hostages. here's what we heard from the pentagon tuesday. >> we do have information that hamas and the palestinian islamic jihad uses some hospitals in the gaza strip, including the al shifa hospital as a way to conceal and support their military operations and hold hostages. they have tunnels underneath these hospitals. and so, hamas and pij members operate a command and control node from al shifa hospital in gaza city. they have weapons stored there. and are prepared to respond to an israeli military operation against the facility. >> now, hamas is denying the accu while a spokesperson declined to com on the ongoing operation in t hospital, they tell nbcnews, quote, we do not s striking a hospital f the air and we don't want to a fire fight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people ting to get medical care they deserve are caught in the cross fire. hospitals and patients must be protected. it comes as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu vowed there is no place in gaza that we will not reach, adding he spoke with president biden last night. joining us now nbc news chief international correspondent keir simmons in tel aviv today. keir, what more do we know about this operation at the hospital? >> reporter: well, these are crucial hours, jose. they're crucial hours for the al shifa hospital, crucial hours for israel because the world will be watching and they are crucial hours for the palestinians in gaza. and the reason for that is because this is a hospital at the center of all this. we heard the israelis say that they have intelligence pointing to this hospital that there is hamas or islamic jihad operation underneath the hospital, and the world will be watching to see whether israel finds that evidence there. and then, of course, there are all the international laws surrounding an operation like this. the law doesn't prevent the military like israel's -- israeli defense force from going into a hospital. it does believe there are fighters there. and if there are, the way it behaves will be watched and will be looked at from a legal standpoint as well. now, the hospital says that the raid happened at 2:00 a.m. it says there are 650 patients in hospital, 400 medical staff, around 2,000 displaced people. it is not clear about how many of those are civilians. and the israeli defense force say that they are there because of intelligence, that they are bringing in medical equipment and supplies, and bringing out video of that. so, i think we'll hear more and more through the day because, again, for israel, what is happening right now is really crucial in terms of its operation, in terms of the way the world sees the operation. >> and, keir, you know, meanwhile we have the hostages that are there. you spoke with the man whose family was kidnapped as he travels from tel aviv to jerusalem alongside loved ones of hostages. what he did tell you? >> reporter: that's right. he was on this march to jerusalem and you talked to the families of hostages and their stories are just heart breaking. in his case, he has seven members of his family, seven who are hostages. his dad was killed in the of course 7th terror attacks. i spoke to him as this raid at al shifa hospital was under way and i asked him about what it was like to see that happen. take a listen. >> i mean, it terrifies me that they're holding hostages there, you know. i'm not a military man. i don't know the details. i trust what the military is saying. but, i mean, if they're there i hope they're getting medical treatment. probably not for their benefit, but i'm scared for them. i'm scared for the palestinian people that they don't have hospital. >> reporter: well the hostages are is a question, whether they are at al shifa, you got to think they aren't by now, jose. raf sanchez has been with the israeli defense force in gaza today and he says still huge numbers of people are flooding from the north of gaza to the south, a moment that is historically very disturbing for many palestinians. he says israeli defense force are calling out in hebrew asking whether there are hostages amongst the crowds that need help and looking out for potential hamas or islamic jihad leaders. >> keir simmons, thank you so very much. appreciate it. joining us now ambassador mark regev, senior adviser to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who previously served as israel's ambassador to the united kingdom. thank you for your time. so what is the status at this hour of the operation inside that hospital? >> it is still ongoing. and so i can't give you a more specific information and i apologize. i can tell you so far inside the hospital there have not been fire fights between our forces and the terrorists. we have discovered weapons and other things. we entered the hospital on the basis of actionable intelligence. hamas, as you know, as has been announced by the administration in washington, by the white house and the pentagon, hamas uses the hospital as a shield for its military machine. and what we're trying to do is deal with those hamas targets and safeguard, of course, the civilians who are using hospital. and we're trying to once again differentiate between our enemy hamas and between the civilian population, who are ultimately we hold no grudge. >> the fact is that hamas is not wearing uniforms. so when you go into a hospital, which, according to the pentagon and to you, that is utilized, the hospital, where they have weapons stored and that there is actually a command and control center underneath that hospital, my question is how do you differentiate between the civilians that are in that hospital, the doctors, the people that have gone there to seek some kind of protection, and then hamas that is not wearing a uniform that is possibly among the people? >> well, it is difficult and it requires good intelligence and it requires a professional army. thank goodness we have both good intelligence and a very highly trained military. if you see a doctor who acts look a doctor, you presume he's a doctor. but you're right, it can be very difficult. and this is what hamas has done, it is a war crime. the international law is very, very clear. you can't use a hospital for a military machine. that's in the protocol of the geneva convention, which is accepted, i think, internationally as the basis for the rules of war. what they have done is a crime. they have shielded their military terror machine under a hospital, deliberately and unfortunately it is not just the shifa hospital. we found tunnels, we have seen evidence of hamas using hospitals to shield its terror machine. it is abominable behavior that has to be condemned. we're dealing with it as surgically as we can, trying to reach out and find the enemy and at the same time safeguard those who are civilians. >> and ambassador is there a commitment that there will be the possibility of independent observers to go in and witness what is or is not happening inside that hospital? >> i understand that we're embedding journalists with our forces. obviously in a dangerous combat situation, there can be reservations about that. but we are eager to show the world evidence, photographic evidence that we know for a fact and is being confirmed by the americans, by the administration, that hamas has used these facilities for its war machine. but can i tell you, if this is supposed to be secret, it is not really. it is the worst kept secret in all of gaza city. i think all the gazans who live in that part of the gaza strip know for a fact that hamas has these underground military facilities underneath and around the hospital. they all know it. >> and i think some of those tunnels may have initially been built by israel in the 1980s. those tunnels may have been expanded since then. >> i think israel helped build a basement to the hospital of when we helped refurnish the hospital and we used the basement for storage and so forth. i think hamas built under that a network of tunnels leading to bunkers, leading to arms depots, leading to rocket launch sites and the main command and control of hamas' military in that area is directly under the hospital. and we have to deal with that military machine. we have to destroy it. and we will. and we're going to do so in a way where we do minimum damage to the civilian hospital and minimum harm to civilians. that's our challenge. >> ambassador, are these military operations in some way holding up or putting a pause on hostage deal that israel could be getting? >> i think it is the opposite that by putting pressure on hamas, we're expediting the release of hostages, that's our belief, that's our hope, that's our understanding of the situation. hamas is holding almost 240 people of them 32 children and of the children they're holding a baby. i think he's 9, 10 months old. they're holding toddlers, 3, 4 years old. normal people don't kidnap babies and children. we're dealing with a particularly gruesome and brutal enemy. and we have no illusions about hamas. and they're not going to release hostages because they suddenly become humanitarian, they're only going to release hostages that are facing enormous pressure and we are applying that pressure today. >> ambassador, what is your message to the families of the hostages that await just some resolution. >> so we can only imagine the pain they're going through. it is 40 days now since their loved ones were abducted and for most of them we haven't had a sign of life. so our message is we're doing everything we can to bring about the release of hostages, that's our goal. it is an integral part of our military operation. and we believe and we'll see this in the next few days by applying and increasing the pressure on hamas and that's what the israeli defense forces are doing, we're beefing up the pressure on hamas, if that can bring about a movement on the hostage issue, we hope and pray that's the case. >> 40 days since they were taken hostage, 40 days since more than 1,200 israelis were killed in their homes and a concert. it is a date that changed so many things. ambassador mark regev, thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for having me. coming up what is at stake when president biden and chinese leader xi jinping meet in person, just hours from now? you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 15 past the hour. now to california and preparations for today's high stakes summit between president biden and chinese leader xi jinping. about three hours from now they will sit down for their first face to face meeting in a year. tensions have escalated since then, including a breakdown in military to military talks, shootdown of the chinese spy balloon, revelations of a chinese spy base in cuba. president biden says he's wants to stabilize a relationship that reached its lowest point in decade. with us now to take a closer look at this, nbc news white house correspondent monica alba in san francisco, shihoko dodo, senior associate for northeast asia and the asia program at the wilson center. monica, what is on the president's agenda for this meeting? >> well, jose, for president biden and the u.s., a real priority here is to restore a little bit of predictability to a relationship that has been anything but over the course of the last year, since the last time that president biden and president xi were able to meet face to face and, of course, that took place in indonesia on the sidelines of the g-20 summit. now we're here in san francisco where the two leaders will come together on the sidelines of the apec summit. so much has changed over the course of the last few months that these two will certainly want to discuss. number one, potentially, at the top of the list is trying to re-establish military to military communications. something that broke down after then speaker nancy pelosi's visit to taiwan. and then, of course, when the u.s. shot down that chinese spy balloon in february, there was no conversation that could take place because of where those communication channels were. so, re-establishing, resuming those, that is something both countries are looking to do. and then there is also going to be a conversation about fentanyl specifically. stemming the flow of that into the u.s., we know so much of that comes from china, through mexico here, so that is something that the president is looking to get the commitment of china to work on. and then there are some other, of course, important conversations about u.s. establishing partnerships, alliances in the indo-pacific as this competition is the back drop to all of it. there is a lot of optics and theatrics that goes into a meeting like this, where the americans have been accommodating some of the chinese officials' requests. president xi coming here with students who have been bused in from other areas, waving chinese flags. he will be wooing some top u.s. ceos at an important dinner this evening that president biden won't attend. we know after their talks president biden will have his own solo press conference to read out how this meeting goes. but really the significant thing here is the fact that they are meeting and, again, trying to restore this with the intense diplomacy that we have seen take place over the course of the weeks of preparation that led to this moment in san francisco. jose? >> monica alba, thank you so very much. so, the u.s. and china are the world's two biggest economic superpowers. are there any possibilities that they could put some of that competition aside to maybe work with one another on issues that are of importance to the world? >> right. well, the goal of this meeting is going to be to manage risks. as you said at the beginning, relations between the united states and china are at a -- the only way from that is to go up. the fact there is an in person meeting that xi is coming to the united states after concerted efforts by senior u.s. government officials from the treasury secretary to the commerce secretary and the like visiting beijing themselves, we are seeing a reopening of dialogue, which is good. however, after the summit meeting there is not -- we are not expecting any breakthrough. but we should actually see a continuation in the line of communication that there should be continued regular dialogue between the world's first and second largest economies. i do want to point out, though, that the rest of the world, beyond the united states and china, are watching as well and for them, they do not want to consider decoupling from china. it is about managing risks and derisking for countries across asia, which make up the bulk of the apec member countries in san francisco today. they really do want to emphasize the fact that they want to continue to have good relations, good economic ties with china, but also to be able to hedge and manage the risks that they have as well. and also manage and hedge risks against the u.s. political risks as well. >> yeah, and, i mean, you talk about, you know, derisking or managing risk, peter, taiwan is expected to be a major topic of discussion during the meeting today. china has been aggressive toward the island, it claims it is part of its territory. the president said several times u.s. would defend taiwan in the event of a chinese invasion and he's kind of managed that definition throughout the years. is there a way both leaders could break the tension surrounding taiwan? >> well, i wouldn't expect any breakthrough on taiwan today. i think the goal here is to simply not exacerbate things on taiwan today. we got an election coming up in taiwan. a lot of attention being paid to that. the american side would just assume lower the temperature when it comes to taiwan and i think the chinese may want to as well. american officials who have been to beijing in recent weeks have said when they came back was how struck they were that the chinese were welcoming to them and seemed eager to, you know, basically tamp down some of the tensions that we have seen over this last year. and that taiwan, of course, would be number one in terms of that source of tension, the chinese know that any kind of aggressive action against taiwan will disrupt any sense of normalcy in the relationship if that's their goal. and they understand that obviously they have to, you know, avoid any kind of provocative move at this moment. doesn't mean that over time that won't flare up again, it most certainly will, i think today you'll see them try to minimize the differences without any kind of big breakthrough. >> presidential election in taiwan is up for the 13th of january. peter, china is increasing its footprint, it has been in latin america, places like argentina, elections on sunday, brazil, honduras, it deals with iran and russia, china also north korea's main benefactor, why is -- and how is china been so successful in these fronts and is the united states doing anything to mitigate that? >> they are, yes. you see the biden administration lately has been emphasizing strengthening and bolstering partnerships and alliances itself around the indo-pacific region. the president had the leaders of south korea and japan at camp david, brought them together, which is a fraught relationship between the two since world war ii. on monday he met with the president of indonesia and elevated the relationship to a higher partnership kind of basis, same thing in vietnam recently. he has courted the indians. and all this, of course, is -- they will say outright that this is meant to counter china, but it is establishing a lattice work of partnerships and alliances around the region of countries that are worried about chinese aggression. in the south china sea and throughout the region. so you see sort of an emerging block if you will, more informal in some ways, but led by the united states with the message it is trying to send that these countries in the area have friends and the friends include the united states. >> thank you both so much for being with us this morning. we're going to have a new warning, by the way, about how the israel-hamas war is raising threats here in the u.s. to a whole other level. what you need to know next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. r diaz-balart re