the story with martha maccallum starts right now. martha: i m martha maccallum. think about this. a 3-year-old american toddler whose parents were killed in this attack has been confirmed to be among the nine americans being held by hamas terrorists. this child s parents were killed in the attack. jake sullivan said he will be speaking to the families of the americans. people are asking, why aren t we hearing more about the americans being held? we have talked to one of the families. it s a strange dynamic of all of this that they re not front and center all the time in these pictures with americans thinking about them and focused on them all the time. there s a lot going on. part of that are the protests that keep stealing the headline as the country s hot spots boil over against the white house pro israel policy. watch this. you have a whole generation of voters coming up that will be able to vote in this next election. if you don t stop this genocide now, you won t g
washington d.c., calling for cease-fire of the war and for support for israel. i m alicia acuna. griff: good to see you. president benjamin netanyahu. we have team coverage in rehoe bath beach and mike tobin in southern israel. let s kick it off with mike tobin on the ground. griff, you might have heard the artillery firing. as soon as the sun went down we saw the activity pick up out of the gaza strip. we saw a lone rocket usually where we don t see them go. usually they come out in a barrage. but the phone started we have rockets coming in right now. stick with us here. . griff: keeping a watch here with mike tobin and his crew. obviously, and an active situation there, artillery either outgoing or incoming, we hope he and his team are safe. we ll check back in with mike as we get that right now. alicia. and iran-backed terror group hezbollah, threatening to escalate in the israel-hamas war. warships entering the region will not scare us. chief national correspondent
that this front may escalate even further or turn into a full war. the enemy must calculate carefully. please understand the clock is ticking. my grandmother has no time. we are absolutely focused on getting hostages back. humanitarian pause could help that effort. is this the most complicated time of your presidency so far? thank you so much. thank you. nothing to it? john: secretary of state antony blinken back in israel to meet with that country s war cabinet as fears grow president biden may soon turn his back against israel s fight to defeat hamas. all this as just moments ago a rocket lands near foreign journalists in southern israel. trey yingst among them. john roberts in washington. so starts a friday afternoon. sandra: sandra smith in new york. in his third visit to israel since the start of the war, blinken telling reporters the u.s. stands in solidarity with israel s right to defend itself. also urged prime minister benjamin netanyahu to halt his gro
moments ago. as a result of these efforts an initial group of foreign nationals including u.s. citizens departed gaza through rafah today. and we expect exits of u.s. citizens and foreign nationals to continue over the next several days. we want to make sure we can get u.s. citizens and their family members out as safely as possible. a total of about 400 americans and their families are among the roughly 7,000 foreign nationals seeking to leave. some injured palestinians are also making it through to hospitals in egypt. you see there a long line of ambulances lined up near the rafah crossing. but as these evacuations ramp up, deadly israeli airstrikes continue. one in northern gaza yesterday hit the crowded refugee camp of jabalya. israel says the attack targeted a hamas commander who was behind the october 7th terrorist attacks. and today a second explosion rocking that camp. the idf just confirming it was another israeli strike. we have global coverage for you. we beg
[gunfire and blasts] hopefully it goes up, but our canadian embassy did not contact due to the bad network services. we have a little hope to leave and save our lives. john: any moment now, the state department will provide an update on israel s war with hamas as a crucial border crossing opens for evacuations from gaza, and president biden posting on x moments ago, he expects americans will be among the people getting out. hello, john roberts in washington. sandra, good to be back. sandra: i m sandra smith in new york. a lot should be developing in the next couple of hours as we see dozens of foreign nationals, many of them badly injured lining up at the rafah crossing between gaza and egypt, desperate to flee the fighting that has gotten more intense since israeli troops began moving in last week. john: the first batch of evacuations came after qatar officials secured a deal to allow people to get to safety. it is unclear when americans will be allowed to leave and