that's it for us. the news continues, the source, with kaitlan collins. starts now. tonight, straight from "the source," breaking news, as israel says it is carrying out a targeted operation on the largest hospital in gaza. the latest from the ground in just a moment. a government shutdown likely averted and apparently a few fist fights as well. tempers were flaring on capitol hill today and the congressman who says he was sucker punched by mccarthy is here and there was audio. a new trial prediction that the trial could drift into 2025. this is "the source." we do start tonight with breaking news, as israel says right now its troops are ko carrying out what it describes as a precise targeted hospital at al-shifa in gaza, the largest hospital in the gaza city, and israel says there's a hamas command strip underneath it and the white house says it has its own intelligence to back up those assertions and that they are using it to store up weapons and ammunition. jeremy is live in israel. what do we know about this? this is the largest hospital in gaza. what exactly does the israeli military say it is doing right now inside that complex? >> reporter: kaitlyn, this is an extremely difficult moment in the israeli force against hamas. we have been watching for days as they bring it closer and closer to gaza city and the al-shifa hospital. tonight, they say they are carrying out a precise targeted operation not only an entire hospital complex but specified area of the hospital they say is being driven by operational necessity, designed to target hamas and rescue our hostages in this statement. they also note there will be medical teams and arabic speakers as part of this and the units involved have undergone specific training to try to minimize potential harm to civilians who may be at that area of the hospital. we heard from an idf spokesman. listen to what he said. >> we're not over running the hospital but are conducting a very precise targeted operation against a specific location where we have intelligence and indeed operational necessity in order to defeat hamas and perhaps rescue hostages. >> what's really important to note here is the fact there are still thousands of people inside this hospital complex. an estimated 1500 patients and medical staff and thousands more who are sheltering on the grounds of the complex, many of them already displaced from other parts of the gaza strip. tonight, our team spoke with a journalist for the palestinian news agency that says saw tanks in the hospital complex active gun firefighter heard across the hospital yard and a doctor across the complex also told cnn hospital staff were given about 30 minutes warning before israeli troops began moving into the hospital complex to carry out their operations. we don't know for sure whether or not there are haeerjs there. you -- hostages there. but the idf spokesman said there may be on this complex and that may be part of what's being carried out right now. >> what did you make, hearing from the white house, john kirby, from the national security council backing up those assertions from israel saying there is u.s. intelligence that the u.s. believes proves hamas is using the al-shifa hospital as a command center and a place to store weapons and store ammunition. >> the timing is really interesting because israel has been making these allegation force weeks about a range of hospitals, but most of all, talking about al-shifa hospital saying hamas operates a massive control complex below its grounds. we cannot independently verify at this stage but interesting today john kirby, the spokesman for the national security council for the first time publicly confirm this u.s. does indeed believe there is a command node below al-shifa hospital that hamas operates and also uses hospitals for its operations and maybe stashing weapons and may also be holding hostages there. that being said, president biden said he believed israel should make sure to protect these hospitals, carry out less intrusive actions at these hospitals and today saying that means not carrying out massive air strikes from the air on these hospitals and instead carrying out, as we said tonight, a more precise operational and we will know more when we are able to speak to people inside. >> i want our audience to know we are just learning this, prime minister netanyahu and the president did speak on the phone. they have had a lot of conversations since october. jeremy, we will continue to check back with you as news is happening. but the military and what it could be looking like on the ground i want to bring in retired air force colonel cedric leighton, who is here with me, you just heard from jeremy of the idf spokesperson and do you believe there could be hostages there and why they're calling it a precise specific operation? >> i think so. there's no guarantee the hostages are there but seems as if based on the idf press release and how they phrased things and how the white house is phrasing things, it does seem they believe hostages either were there or were in the al-shifa hospital compound. if that's the case they want to get those hostages out as quickly as possible and a hospital rescue operation, if that is what this is, requires precise caution and intelligence and go in precisely. >> my question is, i was just texting with an idf spokesperson, were there evacuations of either patients inside that hospital because yesterday there were or thousands of people were sheltering? he said they couldn't comment publicly. could you carry out part of an operation on a hospital and everyone else is fine? what does that look like? >> it depends on the hospital. we know the al-shifa compound has multiple buildings. there is certainly the possibility you have honed in from a military perspective on one particular area if they believe the hostages are there or believe the command center is there for hamas. if that's the case, yes, it is possible for other people to stay in that area without being harmed but it is, you know, certainly risky. there are situations where if there's an overflow of personnel from let's say the command center or overflow of hostages from one area to the other could complicate things. it's a very risky situation. we don't know yet where the people are and the building and what they used for each speck activity but at least the intelligence folks know where the operations are for the hospital and maternity ward and things like that. those are the kinds of things that would be part of a preparation until preparation of an operation like this. >> given that, what does that look like? it's 4:00 in the morning in gaza right now. how does that factor into the fact it's night time, we know they're going in. we know there's armored evacuees and heard from a doctor they could hear some firefight but that's basically the extent what we've been able to learn from the ground in gaza. >> special operations is usually in night because it is the friend. they use systems to basically penetrate the darkness. they are banking on the fact they might gain surprise and have the hamas fighters not be able to grab any night vision goggles they might have, so they're hoping for surprise and basically take them out while they can. >> do we know if hamas has night vision goggles? do they have that capability? >> they don't have an indigenous capability but it can be purchased on the open market and something they suppose they have and be prepared for it. >> to look at this, is this something that can be carried out where they go and look at this where the white house says we don't want fire fights from these hospitals or strikes from above, what's their option here? >> their option is what they're doing right now, a commando raid. it's a very precise very targeted operation. if you bomb something it's going to be much less precise even with precision guided munitions. what the white house is basically telling the israelis, be as precise as you possibly can be and if you have the intelligence to go after a target leak this where they think there is a command center, use as precise a method they can. >> colonel, thanks so much for your expertise on this, highly needed at this moment. also, access reporter, brock, i'm curious what you heard about what the purpose of this operation is. >> good evening, kaitlyn. right now, i think all we know is what the idea is publicly said. i don't have anything for you other than that because i think this operation is taking place as we speak right now, and i have to say, i don't think the idea to go into the hospital and to carry out such an operation if there wasn't high value target inside, either a very senior hamas official who's hiding there or hostages. i don't think they would go in for any other reason. okay. that could be really important here. they say this is a precise operation and that seems to indicate they are going after a pretty specific target here. >> yes. definitely. look, it's a high risk operation. all eyes are on shifa hospital for several days now. if this thing arrives at the white house daily briefing, this means everyone are looking at the hospital and what's going on there. there are thousands of people there, people who are just taking shelter, palestinian civilians. if you go on such an operation in the middle of the night it means you know there is something there that is worth it, worth the risk. if you do it and manage to do it you will get a lot of benefits out of it. >> what do you make of the timing given john kirby from the white house bringing this up earlier air force one with reporters, we now learned president biden and netanyahu had specific conversations about the warnings and what could happen inside the hospital. >> right after this operation started, like an hour ago, i approached the white house and i asked white house officials whether the fact that john kirby said what he said in the briefing, whether that can insinuate they had any early notice about what was going to happen. they said it's not the case, but i think we will know more details about that as things develop. i think if this is really an operation to release hostages i'm pretty sure that the us got some sort of early notification. >> they seem to be saying they hadn't, you believe they had. there's a question here whether or not there are hostages potentially inside that complex. i should note we don't know. president biden sounded very hopeful today about the potential for a deal being made, barack. what are you hearing from sources? are they any closer to a deal for hostages or just as far apart as they were last week? >> i think what describes it best is that for several days now, we have been in this situation of almost almost, not good enough, meaning we are very close but every time everyday, there's something else that comes up, sort of the last minute, and show there's are still gaps between the parties. i think that what they're trying to find now is this balance between the number of hostages hamas is willing to release and the number of days that israel is willing to give for some sort of temporarily cease-fire. i don't think they found this balance yet. the israeli war cabinet convened earlier tonight for several hours. i still don't know the results of that meeting. i think we will see more developments in the coming days, president biden's senior advisor will be in qatar on sunday and israel tomorrow. i think things are moving but i'm not sure we're there yet. especially, by the way, if what we see now at the al-shifa hospital is indeed an operation to release hostages that opens up the whole story and we start from scratch. >> barak ravid, great reporting, thank you very much. it looks like on capitol hill the federal government wis not going to be shutting down three days from now but decorum may have been disintegrated. one person accused the former senator of hitting him in the back. then the leak of the confidential videos you saw here last night in the trump p electn interferenence case. it appears all hell has broken loose on capitol hill today. the government passed a bill and looks like they will avert a shutdown. that is the basic duty of keeping the government open and funded. but tensions are everywhere. speaker mike johnson seemed to call it today. >> members have been here, as leader scalise said, for ten weeks. this place is a pressure cooker. >> ten whole weeks, a pressure cooker and maybe wwe steel cage match. just moments before we heard that assessment from the speaker anger came from the old speaker and one of those who went to oust him and claiming he was sucker punched by kevin mccarthy. we have audio of this entire incident so you can hear for yourself what happened. >> i think it went all right. >> sorry, kevin, didn't mean to elbow you -- why did you elbow me in the back, kevin. kevin, you got any guts? jerk. >> what kind of chicken move is that? the reporter said it right there. you are pathetic, man, you are so pathetic. what a jerk. you need security, kevin. >> it did not end there. mccarthy later denied hitting him saying quote if i didny punched someone they would be on the ground. >> a clean shot to the kidneys. you just don't expect a guy one time three steps away from the white house to hit you with a sucker punch in the hallway. >> i would not elbow, i would not hit him in the kidney. i did not kidney punch him or anything like that. >> you did not shove him? >> no. >> these are taxpayer funded lawmakers. congressman is here live and we will speak to him. >> what if i told you that a sergeant challenged a witness at a hearing to stand his butt up and fight? would that offer accepted only to be broken up before it came to blows by senator bernie sanders. >> you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here. >> fine. >> you want to do it now? >> stand your butt up then. >> you stand your butt up. >> is that your solution? >> no. sit down. you're a united states senator. >> no, you are not imagining things. you just saw that. that was republican senator mark wayne mullin from oklahoma picking a physical fight with a teamster's president shawn o'brien on what was supposed to be a hearing on labor unions. that's not even all of it. there was more blowing over in that congressional pressure cooker today. i present to you james comer, the republican chairman of the oversight committee and democratic congressman moss sco pitch. >> that is bull. you look like a smurf going around in all this stuff. >> why should they believe you? >> you've already been proven a liar. >> who's proven me a liar, you? >> yes. >> all of that actually happened just today within the span of a few hours, in congress, the people's house, not a junior high school. let's go straight to the source now with tennessee. >> reporter: congressman tim burchett. you just heard congressman mccarthy there denying what you said. what's your response to that sglment. >> thank you for having me on. i notice when he got to that part his voice got a few octaves higher, i don't know if you caught that or not, that's a pretty good indicator. >> i never said in the beginning, it was claudia of npr, if you follow her on twitter, she actually documented the whole series of events pretty well. i was called by reporters about it when i was on the house floor because i was a little shocked there wasn't any reporters around when it happened, just her. it was in the hallway outside of the republican conference meeting. i was standing there and i got somebody hit me in the back and i leaned forward a little bit and she was -- she said, i've been here a long time or something like that and i have never seen anything like that. i turned to kevin and i said something to him and he, of course, as he does he had his little security detail and he marched off. i went and confronted him about it. i think that really shows to america why the eight of us did what we did. this was the man that was three steps from the white house. i wish we could get back to talking about a balanced budget or building a wall between us and mexico or talking about helping folks in israel but niece are the kind of things folks like that do and it's a big distraction. >> just to be clear you're saying he's lying when he says he didn't hit you? >> yes, ma'am. all you have to do is read what the lady from npr said. npr, ma'am, you know my voting record, or if you don't, it's every conservative rating agency in the country rates me in the high 90 percentile. i dear say i would not be the friend to a lot of the npr listeners so she has no reason tokov for me. >> you were saying he purged you in your kidneys. are you in pain tonight? have you seen a doctor? >> no. it doesn't really matter. that's not the point at all. even if i was i wouldn't talk about it. i'm not filing an ethics complaint on him. it's just a sad asterisk on the end of his career. things are spiraling out of control. >> you seem to think that this -- do you believe this had something to do you did vote to oust him as house speaker? >> absolutely, ma'am. there's only 8 of us, 435 congressman, standing in a hallway and he gave at least four definitive explanations. one, he said he was brushing me aside, another he said he didn't see me, i wasn't there. another one he said something else and the final one, if i'd have hit him he'd have known it. that kind of thing. it's pathetic what it is. i haven't commented on it on twitter and haven't put it on my twitter account. it was done by a lady at npr and i was just answering the questions by reporters like yourself about it, an or not situation. >> he said if he kidney purnche someone they would be on the ground. we had you on before. republicans did not exactly cover themselves in glory between this playing out, what happened with senator mullin and chairman comer and calling a fellow congressman a smurf in a hearing. this is juvenile and is it not embarrassing for the republicans. >> i can't speak for kevin mccarthy. he's shown who he is and he made fun of me for praying over my decision and today the lady from npr put it on twitter with over 4 million views, if you can believe that, pretty much viral. he denied it then said he would call me and talk to me about it. >> did he call you? >> heck no, he didn't call me. >> would you pick up if he did? >> absolutely i would. it's disappointing that's the way he will end his career spiraling out of control and disappointing because we should be dealing with the budget and all these other things i said that are really in a crisis stage right now and people like himself, it's all about them and their childish activities. >> you're pretty blunt, congressman. you often seem to speak your mind on this program. if he did call you, what would you say to kevin mccarthy? >> i forgive him. i've said several prayers for him today, ma'am. something is really inside his heart right now and he's going to continue doing these type of activities, and it's going to continue causing him embarrassment upon his family and his district and frankly the republican caucus. it shouldn't, it should just be on him but that seems to be the way it goes. i would hope he can find some peace in his life because going out bitter like this is not the way to go. he was three steps away from being in the white house and that's the way he's going out. need a sad commentary on him, nothing else. >> congressman tim burchett, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me on again, ma'am, always a pleasure. >> as i mentioned that was not the only crazy thing to happen in washington today. we barely touched on the senator who challenged a committee witness to a fight or committee chairman calling not only the smurf comment also a liar, to break down what is going on in capitol hill or at least tr