Is that enough to refreeze the 6 billion to unlock to exchange the prisoners . We have not had a dollar of that 6 billion spent, and i will leave it at that. Will you refreeze it based on this activity that you just laid out all of the ways that they are complicit in this . The administration said if we see them going in the wrong direction that we would stop that down. I understand the position that you guys have that not a dollar of this has been spent. So im not going to get ahead of the president s request and the director who will present the request that we send out, but the president was very clear today that we will be making a request to the congress, and it will include a request for funding for support to israel and he made clear that we will renew the question for congress for aid to ukraine. What exact form that all takes that will be worked out and presented by others and not by me and the notion that we will go up and ask for israel aid and ask for ukraine aid, thats unequivocal. We are going to do that. The iron dome and ammunition, were there any other requests made that we could expect to be a part of that . As i mentioned in my opening comments he did make specific requests with respect to other capabilities and im not going to get into the details of that from this podium and he is the president discussed that, and i spoke with lloyd austin who was on his way to the nato defense ministerial about those requests and Secretary Austin is following up on that, and as i said in my opening comments you can expect american planes flying into israel to deliver military capabilities to support israel. To follow up on iron dome, how effective has it been in deterring the attack and you mentioned in term of the interceptors did israel ask for interceptors on an ongoing basis in light of the situation . You ask how effective its been deterring, i cant say that its deterred because a huge number of rockets were fired, because it has been effective as it typically is in taking a lot of those rockets out of the sky and saving countless lives by doing it and of course, some rockets have gotten through to tragic cost and that has been the pattern that we have seen in previous conflicts, as well. Now israel will have an ongoing need for interceptors because an air Defense System is only as good as your ability to put interceptors in that can take out the rockets that are coming in to kill civilians and rain down terror on the cities and we are committed to making sure that we are working with israel to produce and supply the requisite number of Iron Dome Interceptors who can keep those systems going on an indefinite basis Going Forward because we cannot say how long this will be going on. How can we make sure that israel will go after hamas and infrastructure in gaza. [ Inaudible Question ] reaching 850 so far and the former ambassador to washington. How will we make sure . The president said today the difference between countries like the United States and israel is that we do not deliberately target civilians. We are strongest when we are committed to the rule of law and we work to make sure that all Military Operations are conducted consistent with the rule of law and the law war. That is something that President Biden and Prime Minister netanyahu have discussed not just in this context, but in previous context, as well. That is something the United States has always stood for and always will continue to stand for. Sorry, Egyptian Intelligence has gotten information to the israelis that the attack was imminent . I cannot confirm that. Prime minister netanyahu tweeted on saturday telling residents of gaza to leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere. Where does he think people in gaza will go . This is something also that we have been discussing with our counterparts in israel and with our counterparts in egypt and without getting into the specifics of safe passage for civilians and so forth, i would say its something that the u. S. Government is with in supporting how we do that operationally, but the details of that is something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and i dont want to share too much of that publicly. Ill leave it at the fact that we are focused on this question and there are consultations ongoing and ill share more when i have an update for you. And the Prime Minister of democracies and the laws of war. Was that a warning for the Prime Minister and why did the president feel that was necessary to bring it up in the call today . It was not a warning. The call today was not President Biden warning Prime Minister netanyahu about anything. It was two leaders talking to one another. One who is leading a nation that has suffered unfathomable attack and another nation who is standing behind them in the defense their country and the conversation carried on in those terms and the two leaders spoke in a collaborative fashion as they always do. So, no, i cannot accept the characterization of your question. [ Inaudible Question ] also iran is complicit in this attack. Are you trying to down play any role . What are you waiting for to take an action . And my second question, what assessment do you have on where other militia stand now whether in iraq, and can you give us an update on the u. S. Troops in the region . The first question, i laid out our view which is the broadcom blissity based on the longstanding support that hamas has on iran and we dont have specific information that ties iran to this attack. At this time we dont have that information. We may gain that information in the hours and days ahead, but we dont presently have it and thats the answer to your first question with respect to intelligence. With respect to the various Militia Groups across the region, we do believe that they pose an urgent threat and that it is certainly distinctly possible that they choose to try to exploit or take advantage of the situation and we have been sending warnings that doing so would result in a firmer spot than consequences from the United States and that goes across the board, and we have been clear also in sending a message of deterrence through the movement of the care your strike group through the Eastern Mediterranean as well as through the assurance that we will sustain f16s, f35s in theater to be able to deal with any contingency that the United States might have to deal with in the days ahead. Yeah. You said that you oppose the total siege of gaza. What is the u. S. Position on that . I have seen those reports, but my understanding is that is not the concept of siege is not something that, in fact, is going to be perceived by the Israeli Government, but we are consulting with the Israeli Government about their actions in this regard and like i said before to a previous question, President Biden and Prime Minister netanyahu had the opportunity to talk between the difference of going full boar between Hamas Terrorists and how do we distinguish between innocent civilians. Thank you very much, jake. Will they detract from the indopacific and have they communicated about what happened in israel and schumers comments said he was disappointed by president xis response. We are not entirely surprised by the response based on their history of commentary on these kinds of issues. We believe that the United States is capable of supporting ukraine and europe, supporting our allies in the indopacific and supporting our close ally, israel, in its hours of need and we believe we have the tools and capacities to be able to effectively do that and part our onis to make sure were working across these theaters and thats precisely what were doing each day. Lawmakers say the u. S. Cant support two wars and can you explain that and tell us how they will make the case that the u. S. Needs to invest, maybe not with boots on the ground, but military and economic aid in both israel and ukraine . Standing for ukraine so that russian aggression does not prevail in europe, the amount of resources that we need to put into that compared to the amount of resources we would have to be if russia were, in fact, to conquer ukraine and have it continue across europe. It is so much more Cost Effective to pay the price now as opposed to pay the price as it ultimately has in the past require troops to combat. So better to support the ukrainians as they stand firm against russian aggression and do so on a sustained basises and we have the Budget Wherewithal to be able to do that and provide israel with what it needs and we reject the notion that the United States of america cannot support the freedomloving people of the state of ukraine and support the state of israel. Is the administration trying to ensure that it is possible and also, i know that you have been in conversations with leaders and a complete siege is something that they are attempting to do in gaza, but is there any restraint . So, on the first question, in reference to a previous question, i spoke about our consultations with the israelis and the egyptians about how to deal with the challenge of civilians who would want to leave gaza. Im not going to get into the specifics of that, only to say that is something we focused on and what we want to focus on and when we have more to offer on this i will to so, and again, at at podium as well as Precease Messames that we talk to the israelis as the way we always do as good friends and honest friends and we will continue to do that. , that, jake. On the home front, over 150 people who are a Terrorist Watch List have been seized along the border this fiscal year and there are 1. 5 million of them got away since the Biden Administration took office. Is this something that the American People should be vigilant. We continue to remain vigilant and something that we very much working on and that we are seeking to secure the resources and continue to work through and any time we see any threat street involving a Terrorist Threat we utilize every asset and resource of the u. S. Government. [ no audio ] and we need to take steps to pursue a humane, orderly Border Policy and we will work with the congress in the weeks ahead to continue to get the resources we need to be able to do that. I would point out that in the last supplemental we actually sought additional funding for the border which was not forthcoming and the ultimate package that went through, so the Biden Administration has said to Congress Already were looking for more resources to be able to deal with the continuing challenges that we have at the border. Yeah . There is not a confirmed ambassador to israel at this point and what are you doing about the nomination that was sent to the senate in late september. Whats the plan to get him on the ground . The senate is coming back into session next week. Second, when we do, we will work with both democrats and republicans and particularly the leaders on both sides and the senator of the Foreign Relations committee and get them out to the region immediately thereafter. When Congress Returns the aid request that youre talking about . Its hard to answer top priority and it is going to be the full spectrum of needs that israel has. Some of that is related to the support that were seeking from congress and then, of course, having highlevel diplomatic representation is going to be critical, as well. So we will move urgently on that the minute that they come back. Yeah. [ Inaudible Question ] so we are right now focused on dealing with the immediate challenge that we are confronting and that israel is confronting and so im not going to give the characterization on the state of plan or normalization. Its not on hold, but obviously over the last four days, all of my attention with respect to our support for israel has been focused squarely on this conflict, on this heinous, brutal attack and on helping israel be able to defend itself. We will continue to try to do that. You and the president compared hamas to isis. What does that do Going Forward . Well, we have Labled Hamas A Terrorist Group for years, if not decades and we have consistently supported israel to undermine hamas and we will continue to do so. In the immediate term, what it means is working with israel to go after that hamas threat in gaza, relentlessly and to the point where they feel that their security and deterrences have been fully restored. Yeah . Mr. Sullivan, are you concerned at all that those who are here in the u. S. , terrorists who are here in the u. S. May be by what happened now and do you know if there are people lurking here . Is there a concern there may be a player . The president Put Out A Written Statement Yesterday with multiple elements to it. One of those elements was about the focus that we have right now on protecting americans here at home against anyone who would seek to exploit or piggyback on what has unfolded. These groups and events that have unfolded in israel. Part of that is protecting places of worship, synagogues and ensuring that we dont see a violent form of antisemitism sparked by what has just happened and part of that is about ensuring that any Terrorist Threat here in the United States or to the United States or to americans anywhere in the world that we are in a heightened state of vigilance to deal with that and thats something the president spoke to yesterday in the statement and its something that he would be convening his National Security team this week because it remains a high priority. Next question . With iran [ inaudible ] the United States does not regret bringing home american citizens who have been detained abroad. As i said before, the president has no higher pray yo Pryority Get Americans home from afghanistan, from venezuela and other places, as well and we stand by bringing those people home because that is the toot of the duty of the commander in chief is to get innocent americans out of captivity in places where they are being unjustly detained. Thank you. They are being unjust detained. Thank you. Youve been hearing from Jake Sullivan at the white house, a wideranging Detailed Press conference. He is now confirming at least 14 americans have been killed after the Terror Attacks began by hamas on israel saturday morning. Sullivan said its believed that there are 20 or more americans unaccounted for, unaccounted for doesnt necessarily mean kidnapped. It just means not sure if they are dead, wounded somewhere, they are simply unaccounted for and missing. Theres a number of things he spoke to and i just want to quickly dig through them. He talked about the highest priority of trying to get americans who are in captivity get them out and get them home. He talked about the importance of communicating here in israel and thats been some of the complaints that you heard that they have not had enough communication with u. S. Officials. Hes talking about the effort and the Biden Administrations, forts to augment israels Defense Capabilities and in particular the Iron Dome System providing and funding more interceptors for that Iron Dome System. As you know theres been a large number of incoming rockets into israel. As this continues getting more of those interceptors for the iron dome will be important. About the role of iran, he said that iran is broadly complicit in this attack even though long support for hamas as well as islamic jihad. He did say that they have not seen proof that iran had advanced warning of this. He was pushed on whether theres been any consideration by the Biden Administration to unfreeze some 6 billion of iranian assets to the iranian regime. He would not answer that question. The u. S. , he said, did not see this coming when asked about the intelligence. He pointed out u. S. Intelligence agencies did not see this attack coming. He also reiterated the importance of the rule the rules of of operating under the rules of war. When asked, this is a particularly interesting question and well talk about this with ben wedeman and clarissa ward, whether asked about the statements of the idf that citizens in gaza and the palestinians in gaza should leave areas the question was where can they go . He would not get to specifics, but he said theyre being discussed and focused on this question. He said hes not going to get ahead of the diplomatic discussions that are going on and not getting into details of specific potential specific Border Crossings or crossings and he talked about the importance of a heightened state of vigilance by u. S. Law enforcement domestically within the United States and also u. S. Citizens and u. S. Government abroad. I do want to bring in clarissa ward, she is in ashkelon and ben wedeman is in jerusalem for us tonight. Ben wedeman, in particular you lived in egypt and there is a Border Crossing to egypt. When you hear about Jake Sullivan talk about the diplomatic discussions about where civilians in gaza can go and as you pointed out, there are many civilians who do not like hamas, do not like to be ruled by hamas or dominated by hamas. What do you when you hear about that idea about Border Crossings, is there a precedent for that . Where can they go . There are only two borders, israel and egypt. The egyptian border, the main point is hafa. The egyptians were not very open to any sort of flood of Palestinian Refugees coming out and in pfact, this time its similar and there is not any willingness by the egyptian authorities to allow this to happen. They dont want Hundreds Of Thousands of palestinians flooding into the sinai peninsula. In January Of 2008 i was in gaza when hamas actually blew up a long stretch of the wall that had been constructed between egypt and gaza, and what i saw was Hundreds Of Thousands and more than half of the population of gaza left gaza simply because they were cooped up in that place. The egyptians panicked. They didnt know how to deal with it. Eventually they had to bring in extra forces and bring the area under control and force the palestinians back so they dont want the gazans to come out and there is nowhere else to go. The israelis obviously arent going to allow people of gaza in. So im not quite sure what sort of diplomat being solution there is to allow the people of gaza to leave. The egyptians simply dont want them to come in. Anderson . And ben, in terms of gazans living in the city and trying is there some sort of solution of having residents leave gaza city Somewhere Else . Obviously, the gazan strip is small, but is there some other place to go outside of gaza city . Well, theres gaza city. Theres han unis and the city of fasa on south and all of these areas are being struck. Hamas has infrastructure in all of these areas and really, were not talking about a very large area. Its perhaps twice the size of washington, d. C. So you might be northwest to southeast and there is nowhere to go. It is a very small, cramped place and the israelis believe they have targets in most of gas and theres nowhere to go, and i think this point has been made vividly before, unlike israel, there are no Bomb Shelters in gaza. There are shelters for hamas and its leaders, but for ordinary people, the best they can do is perhaps hide in the basement and as weve seen from some of the intense israeli strikes, the buildings arent very solid. Anderson . To your point, hamas has built according to israeli authorities, hamas has built a network of tunnels running underneath gaza city. Thats not for them to hide. That is for gaza fighters and others to move about. Is that correct . Thats correct. These are not sort of like the Kyiv Subway System where the population can go and take cover. These are secret tunnels and, in fact i was in gaza im trying to think, in 2021 when there was a fairly intense round of attack and counterattack between hamas and israel and what we saw in some of the areas that there were very suspicious sort of cracks in the roads where it would appear there were tunnels underneath. So theres a very intricate and extensive Tunnel System under gaza, but its not for ordinary people. Anderson . Yeah. Not for civilians to be able to hide for their lives. Clarissa, President Biden has said tonight or today in the u. S. That the administration is sending aid and Military Equipment to israel, particularly for iron dome. Just talk about how critical that resupply for Israeli Forces will be. Absolutely critical, anderson. It has been a crazy afternoon and evening here in the city of ashkelon. There has been a very steady stream of volleys of rockets pounding into the city. Most of them, however, being intercepted by that iron dome. Some of them, though, making impact. We spoke to one woman whose home had taken a direct hit. She was in her shelter which as ben correctly and importantly points out that people on this side of the border has them and very different story on the gaza side of the border, but you know, rockets are not the only threat that they are contending with here at the moment and the reason im wearing my helmet again and it is required is that we just had a situation. The hotel told everybody to get inside their rooms and reports of a gunman potentially on the streets. There is a lot of police activity. Weve been Hearing Helicopters in the sky as well, Apache Helicopter gunships. We heard some bursts from a machine gun. Again, not clear at all. I want to stress whether there is a gunman on the streets, whether there is, in fact, a significant incident taking place it seems fairly quiet for the moment, but what it goes to show you is that when you are in this situation, when youre facing so many different kinds of threats, it very quickly can get chaotic and confused and so in that sense you can understand were hearing some jets going overhead in the skies. In that sense you can understand that the israelis are appealing to the americans for all of the help and coordination and cooperation that they can get as they go about plotting the next steps may be. As we talked about last hour, anderson, with regard to President Bidens remarks, i think it was less about what he didnt say than what he did say. What he didnt say was calling for restraint. Again, raising the specter and the possibility that we may be looking at a more significant escalation possibly in the form of a Ground Offensive as many had been speculating in the last couple of days with the military hardware, anderson. Clarissa ward, thank you. Ben wedeman, as well. We continue to go to both of you throughout this evening. Joining me now is former israeli ambassador to the u. N. And knesset member. I appreciate you being with us. You heard President Bidens speech and you heard Jake Sullivan, as well that the u. S. Is offering assistance and israel is trying to negotiate the release of hostages. What do you make of President Bidens statements and the support that the u. S. Is now offering. I am very grateful for President Biden. At a time where we are still counting the number of victims, we are very happy to see the support. We appreciate that, and we believe that President Biden actually intends to stay to support israel. We dont expect to see american troops on the ground, but the support and the clarity was very strong and we appreciate that. President biden did not urge restraint. He talked about operating under rules of war which is what a democracy is supposed to do. He also warned other countries not to try to exploit the crisis. How concern rded are you about potential involvement of hezbollah and others . Our goal is to punish hamas, to destroy hamas, to eliminate hamas. That is the goal. The picture of babies that were held captive and burned alive. The real problem is punishing hamas and we will hunt them down and pay a heavy price for what they did. We have no intention to stop with hezbollah in the north or anyone else, but if someone would try our resilience, we are ready for that. Just in case someone would try to pick up again. Jake sullivan, the National Security adviser was asked and talked about diplomatic efforts to try to figure out something for civilians in gaza, some place for them to be able to go to escape to. Is that possible at all . Well, we never target the civilian population unlike hamas which committed a double war crime. Target civilians and then go and hide behiend civilians and use them as human shields. We do not want any civilian casualties and we have to try tone courage them to move out. I had a discussion earlier, gaza is big enough to move out. If we are targeting a neighborhood, then we send the message to the population to get out of the area and move south of the location and we are hoping they will do that and i take the opportunity to move away from Hamas Headquarterses and from hamas militants because we are coming to get them. We will come from the sea, from the air and the land and we will come, we will find them and we will kill them. Ambassador danny danon, i appreciate your time. Our special coverage continues after a quick break. Stay with us. Just a short time ago President Biden insisted America Stand Shoulder to shoulder with israel in the wake of the Surprise Attack by hamas that killed at least a thousand israelis. Biden said it was pure, unadulterated evil. Listen. We must be crystal clear, we stand with israel. We stand with israel. We will make sure it will have the means to take care of its citizens, defend itself in response to this attack. Theres no justification for terrorism. Theres no excuse. Hamas does not stand for the palestinian peoples right for selfdetermination. The stated purpose is the annihilation of the murder of jewish people. Lets talk with barack ravid for axios who also writes for israel and the senior columnist for the jerusalem post. A Senior Fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and author of the group shadow strike. Inside israels secret mission to eliminate power. Lets start with you, your reflections on President Bidens comments. How do you think israelis are receiving the response from the president of the United States . Israelis were blown away even by the speech that was strong, made it clear that there is no daylight between the United States and israel right now. He made it clear that the president of the United States is doing everything that he can to stand by israel and takes the situation as seriously as possible and made a Shot Across The Bow by saying to hamas that america will not tolerate this and hezbollah, dont you dare think of doing anything and thats what israel is concerned about and the murderous rampage, that happened already and israel is embarking on an offensive and what israel is also concerned about is whether there it will be attacks by lebanon and we will beef up and replenish your interceptors and the weapons that you need and we will stand by you in Warning Hezbollah and iran, thats important for israel. Barack, can you part of your new reporting in axios details Prime Minister netanyahu telling President Biden that israel has no choice, but to execute the Ground Operation that yaakov just alluded to. Do you have any details about the potential timing, when its imminent and when we can expect it . I think that the main thing we need right now when it comes to the Ground Operations is what is happening politically in israel. I think that as we speak Prime Minister netanyahu is meeting one of the leaders of the opposition in an attempt to form some sort of unity government. I knew that there would be a Ground Operation before those efforts are exhausted because a Ground Operation means a lot of casualties. Its a big decision, and its the kind of decision that the israeli public, although the public supports this decision, i think people will expect it much more if there is a unity government. Yaakov, there is an interesting angle with some of the political divisions that weve seen recently in israel. You actually wrote in september that netanyahu was weakening the country. How do you think the current political disagreements in israel will have to do with the timing of these attacks by hamas . Its tough to tell. On the one hand israel was distracted for the last nine months since the Netanyahu Coalition brought forward this program of a judicial overhaul, and to reshape the Balance Of Power in israel bringing up a quarter of a million of israelis every week to protest and it was a part of Civil Society and israel is completely focused on that, and they were the government who was attacking the army and back ask forth. . What this did is it created this and they were able to take advantage of and people know about this and we know it happened in the past in jewish history. This isnt the for the time. Happened thousands of years ago during the time of the second temple. It happened when israelis and jews took advantage of the situation and we had no intelligence of what hamas was going to do. They took us completely by surprise. A thousand hamas fighters crossed into israel and the exalted, amazing Israeli Intelligence agencies dont know a single thing . Its unimaginable, but it happened on saturday and one of the reasons i think it was is because we were distractioned. Barak, the attacks were also coming as theres this potential deal to normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia, something that the National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said was still moving forward. He said he is not on hold each though the last three days focus has been elsewhere than israel. Are you reading these attacks that its hamas trying to sabotage progress on that front . Sure. One of the goals of hamas in general, but i dont think that this necessarily was the main plane, it was what he said and beg picture here is what happened to israel the weekend Israel Society and you know, in a way, Israeli Services over the last nine months they warned again and again and again that the israel and the society make israels enemies think about trying to challenge israel and to attack israel. And the government disregarded it. So while there was an Intelligence Failure tactically, because of the domestic and internal political crisis that was man made. Okay, it was man made by the government. Because of that israel is in a security danger. Barak ravid and yaakov katz, we a prppreciate your time. Thank you. Our continuing coverage of the war in israel continues after a quick break. Were talk victims of the Terror Attacks that started on saturday. But i want to talk to you right now about a hero who died in this attack. A 21yearold american israeli citizen, a soldier who stood the line with his Band Of Brothers to try to help civilians survive. His name was yuron, his father joins me now. Im so sorry for your loss. You have just buried your son just a few hours ago. You could talk to us about your heroic son. Yes, thank you, anderson. We just returned back home from im a veryroud father of a hero who saved the lives of probably dozens of civilians if not more. He was a part of a special unit which was stationed in the area of shall om, which is the south border of the gaza strip. It is a kibbutz, a settlement from the border and he was in charge of guarding the area and keeping peace around the borders. On saturday morning, they were attacked by hundreds, may maybe more. Maybe thousands of terrorists, part of the special hamas units who want to kill and this is what they were targeting. Early morning on saturday, they were surrounded, his unit by hundreds of terrorists and they realized, once they realized that their standing on the last line of defense between those terrorists and civilians. Who at that time were still sleeping at home because it is saturday morning in israel. The unit immediately mobilized in order to try to respond to this unexpected attack. That attack was also accompanied by rockets from air and all kind of other hightech ammunition at this attack. They were highly outnumbered by this very significant amount of hamas to and to slaughter the people who lived in that kibbutz, which is what they did in other areas. It is a long story, but were focusing on they eventually found a team of three people which included the Commanding Officer of the unit, and him and another soldier. They found us fiercefully fighting against their enemy. At a certain point, we counted 50 to 70 people surrounding them, attacking them with automatic guns, with heavy machinery and other elements. We know from the debrief we got now from a person who survived this attack, that during this heavy exchange of fire between the two sides, again, one of them a team of three Israeli Soldiers and on the other side the presence, they managed to kill probably 30 to 40 terrorists. But they got injured. They got attacked by an rpg rocket, which heavily wounded one of the soldiers. And then the officer, the Commanding Officer was wounded by yet another rocket, an apg rocket. And then yavon was woundedals with. The three of them kept fighting and continues to fight and when we asked the one soldier that we were able to talk to about this, this event, we asked him yesterday, what do you have in mind . How come you were able to to continue going . He said, look, we realize that there was nothing between these band of terrorists and the civilians, the children, the women, the old people that were just behind our back. If you have maybe a thousand feet behind him, they had civilians hiding in their homes preparing for the worst, which, by the way, proved to be the case and many other people were they were able to talk on and slaughter children, babies, women and so on. So eventually somehow the other team connected to them, they were able to take a team of three away, yavon was listed by a helicopter and reached a hospital in jerusalem and was pronounced dead on arrival. Im so sorry for your loss. Your son sounds like such an extraordinary young man. And there are so many people who will be glad to hear his story and know