[ yelling ]. Hamas should be treated exactly the way isis was treated. They should be spit out from the community of nations. No view, you cant see anything. I never imagined Something Like this would have been ever in a Music Festival and the rockets started and gunshots everywhere. A loved one, a friend, a classmate, a neighborhood, a colleague killed, maimed, missing. Missing. Sandra that was just a few moments ago and now a live look, screen left at the White House Briefing room where a Press Briefing is set to begin any moment now. National Security CouncilSpokesman John Kirby will be joining press secretary Karine Jeanpierre at that podium and this will be the second straight day as the war between israel and hamas rages on the the question is how President Biden plans to rescue the american hostages being held by hamas as 25 u. S. Citizens are now confirmed dead and 17 others are still unaccounted for at this hour. Welcome to all of you as our coverage continues here on the fox news channel. Hello and welcome. Im sandra smith. Good to have you, bill. Bill im bill hemmer as john is on assignment. The entire area around gaza is a closed Military Zone as they plan for an expected ground invasion. Sandra the threat of regional conflict is growing and Secretary Blinken is in israel as you just saw on a mission to prevent a wider war from happening. Best of my recollections also the Death Toll Climbing and casualties topping 1300 on each side. Sandra coverage from across the globe over the next two hours and Breaking News from the war in israel. Get straight to trey yingst live on the ground in Southern Israel for us with his continued reporting from there at this hour. Trey, to you. Reporter sandra, good morning. We returned from the location of the tribe of Music Location took place and the devastating aftermath of 260 people were slaughtered by Palestinian Militants and we saw where authorities were collected burned body parts underneath a bus. Also in the distance you could see where camp sites were set up and as we were working through this area, it was very clear something went terribly wrong and i want you to take a look. We heard a gunshot and theyre yelling at people to get out of the area. Get down, get down. Lay down flat. Lay down. Lay down totally flat. Reporter you can see things are very tense here. Two gunshots and now they have someone on the ground. Go back right now. Reporter very tense right now as the soldiers appear to be arrested a Plastein Indian Man palestinian man and hes in handcuffs and theyve blindfolded him and they are taking him away. You can see here theyre leading him away. Theyve blind folded this man and it appears they have camtured yet another militant who entered from the gaza strip and gives you a sense of how unpredictable all of this is. They dont know where people are hiding. They could still be in the tree lines here near the gaza border. I spoke with a Senior Commander that confirmed it was a palestinian militant that crossed from gaza or here since the massacre on saturday. Theyll investigate what happened and question that man they found in the woods, but a very tense situation at that site where the Music Festival took place. Bill trey, that is extraordinary. Bill hemmer again. I have a couple questions, its been reported a thousand and 1500 hamas militants crossed into israel. Do we have a clear picture of that ultimate number . Just to clarify here, did they believe that hamas militant was hiding in israel and has not since cross that had fence because the israelis said 48 hours ago they have full control over that fence yet again. Reporter yeah, thats what they said publicly and we talked with soldiers in the area and separate kibbutz yesterday and they were engaged in fire fights along the border and questions about specific territory they maintain and whether or not there are fighters crossing into Southern Israel. In terms of the amount of hamas militants and others that crossed during that tragic saturday morning, the israelis tell us they found 1500 o bodies of militants and thats not including the people who could still be in Southern Israel along the border or who crossed back into gaza so the true numbers are likely much higher and theyre wrapping their minds around what took place, bury the dead and get to work prepared for the possibility of those orders coming in at any moment, any time to enter gather s. Bill, sandra. Bill extraordinary report. Thank you. Trey yingst, Southern Israel back to you in a moment. Thank you. Moments ago watching here with us, Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken addressing questions about that 6 million in funding and that was recently unfrozen for iran. Jack Jim Jordan Heinrich live from the Jackie Heinrich is live from the north lawn white house. Where is that funding standing right now . Reporter good afternoon, bill. Theres an agreement with Kansas City Chiefs far to qatar to stomp down any disbursement of the previously frozen funds made accessible to iran via withdrawals and thats a notable development because if you recall on tuesday, i asked Jake Sullivan if refreezing these funds was even underconsideration and he punted entirely on that question, but my colleague at fox business, edward lawrence, just moments ago got this Washington Report confirmed and saying the Deputy Treasury Secretary told House Democrats this morning in a closed door hell meeting in agreement does exist to prevent the disbursement of the funds to iran for indefinite period of time and ma mirrors what i was told after all senators got a briefing on tuesday that the u. S. Planned to leave requests for withdrawals pending indefinitely and essentially achieving the same outcome as if they were to refreeze the funds. The Secretary Of State was asked about this report, and he did not give a whole lot of detail. He kept it pretty vague, listen. None of the funds that have now gone to qatar have actually been spent or acespedessed in any assessed in any way. Way bye rhinoand theres strict oversight iran and we have straight oversight of the funds and retain the right to freeze them. Reporter weve been hearing in all along on the issue and being we have this report con if i wered and theres an agreement with qatar to stop the funds from being disbursed and thats notable and if you recall also on october 7, the day that israel was attacked. Qatar, thats supposed to be neutral and i want to read you a piece, the ministry of Foreign Affairs hold israel responsible for the ongoing violations of the rights of the Palestinian People. So thats a notable statement coming from qatar but obviously they are working with the u. S. To prevent the funds from getting into iranian hands and iran, saudi arabia and qatar amade statements pitting blame at israel for the attack. You have to ask why the administration so far does not want to talk about plans to refreeze the money. Theres some consideration that perhaps it would make future negotiations to get hostages home. It would complicate those negotiations but of course, that would have already existed the minute we made these funds available. We dont yet have clear answers to those questions on why they dont want to just come out and say that we dont intend to let iran get this money, bill. Bill might be the First Question of the briefing. Well stand by for that when it begins. Thank you, jac jackie. Now to sandra on the touch screen. Sandra bill, i want to bring our viewers along for what were learning about the u. S. Involvement in this ongoing conflict in the first u. S. Weapons that have arrived in israel. Were in the two minute window in the briefing and bringing the leafing inside the white house as soon as that begins. Meanwhile, the uss gerald r. Ford careerer strike in israel. This is the newest and most advanced Aircraft Carrier. The size and scope of the capables, this particular carrier can carry 5,000 sailorss and 90 aircraft longer than three Football Fields for a big picture over what this looks like Sitting Autoout of the coast of out off the coast of israel. As far as thats concerned and the exact geographic location and thats unknown but theres a general idea. Idf spokesperson who joined us on this program about this time yesterday said he believes the uss gerald ford will be relatively positioned off of Northern Israel and obviously this gives us a good idea of where it could be sitting. Along the lebanese coast, what he described as a safe and tactically wise distance. Thats pretty much giving us this vicinitity where that would be located. According to u. S. Central command, the head general, the arrival of highly capable forces to the region is a strong signal of deterrence and any actor hostile to israel consider trying to take advantage of this situation. Youve got to wonder how hezbollah is responding to the sight of that calling the u. S. Responsible for the attacks in israel and Lebanon Hezbollah group said yesterday blasting the unit for its support of israel. Saying that sending an Aircraft Carrier to this region will not scare our people or the resistant movements ready for confrontation. I believe the briefing is now underway okay. Okay. Were waiting the briefing to start again. As soon as thats underway, well get there. Continue to show you what we are hearing on the ground here in the United States. Now, this is pulling that we polling that we began, fox news polling that we started the day the conflict began on saturday and went on for two days and clearly Shows Growing support for the israelis here on the ground in the United States. We asked the question, in the middle east conflict, who do you side with more . That number has now grown to 68 . It was at 59 as of may 2021. Declining support for the palestinians dropped from 2418 and n those that say neither, fl into 7 and people are more involved now and were told the briefing is underway and go live to washington inside the briefing room. Fbi director chris wray and randall and president , Vice President and National Security teams discuss steps theyre taking to safeguard the homeland of the people of the United States including jewish, arab, and muslim communities. Following the hamas Terrorist Attacks in israel. Where he in touch with faith leaders and communities across the country to provide support, listen to their concerns, and offer the full resources of the federal government during what is a very difficult time for many people in the Jewish Community, but also people of all faiths. As you all have seen, the president continues to be highly engaged on this subject between the briefing today and his meeting yesterday with Jewish Community leaders. He and the entire Biden Harris Administration are committed, committed to doing all we can to protect against antisemitism and other forms of hate in the aftermath of this weekends horrific Terrorist Attacks and to discuss these events and answer your questions, admiral john kirby is here from the national Security Council. Admiral. Good amp, everybody. Just a couple of small things here from the top. Ill start with the saddest of news we can update the number of americans we know have been killed to 27. And the number of unaccounted for stands today at 14. Were obviously doing everything we can to support and inform the families now sadly five more families have now gotten the worst possible news that any family can conceive of getting. Were going to stay in touch with them as appropriate. Same goes for those physically abuse of those unaccounted for. We mean that, we dont know where they are, they dont know where they are. Were going to stay in touch with them as well and work with israeli officials to make sure were getting as much context and information as possible that we will share with them. Also as you, i think realize, we are all acutely aware of limited availability right now on commercial flights out of israel. And the Demand Signal by u. S. Citizens who may want to depart. President has asked his team to ensure we have assists u. S. Citizens who do want to leave israel and providing them with a safe means of doing that. Beginning tomorrow, United States government will arrange Charter Flights to provide transportation from israel to identities in europe. Theyre still working through some of the details of that to assist u. S. Citizens and their immediate peaks who have for whatever reason not been able to provide commercial transit out of the country. And i would add that were also exploring other options to expand the capacity of doing this including exploring whether its possible to help americans leave by land and by sea. So again, were working hard to meet the Demand Signal. I would encourage any american citizen in the need of assistance complete the intake form you can find on travel. State. Gov. Its very simple. Go right to that site and theres an intake form and fill it out and helps the State Department process these requests and helps us get a sense of the scope of the need. Im sure youre going to ask me that and i dont have hard figures with me and theres certain american citizens that want to go. Its all available through the State Departments website and id encourage them to go there. Thanks for taking my question. Gazas main power plant has run out of fuel and the humanitarian situation is quite dire and im wondering if theres communication of allowing shipments of food, fuel, electricity to lessen civilian casualties and suffering there . Yes, theres ongoing conversation with our israeli counter parts about the need for continued flow of humanitarian assistance. I had a couple of questions on the american hostages on is it still the case that the administration doesnt know anything about the condition of the american hostages and is the number still believed to be less than a handful . Yes and yes. I know youve been pretty open about the fact that information about the hostages very hard to ascertain at this moment. The limited information that you do have is that coming namely from the israelis and qatar or is there another source of information . The families too. As i mentioned yesterday, some of these families actually saw their loved ones being abducted and taken away so they have been a significant source of information as well. One other quick thing. The assumption that the hostages may not necessarily be in one place, with their specific intelligence to point the administration to not make that assumption or is that based on Something Else . I wont speak about a specific intelligence matters, but it is a common tactic in the hamas play book to break up hostages and move them around and sometimes small groups so we have nothing that would indicate to us that they would follow a different set of protocols, but i cant stand here before you and prove to you that is exactly whats happening. We have to in order to think about our policy options, you have to make some assumptions and we cant rule that out as a possibility. John, what is the status of the 6 billion that iran was sent to have access to . Its still sitting in the qatar bank, all of it. Every dime of it. Is there an agreement now to in essence withhold from iran should they ask for it . None of that money has been spent and i have no updates to provide today. Was it a decision to reach a quiet understanding with qatar about whether or not it would be accessed by iran made because of the attack or political pressure recently . Im not talking about diplomatic conversations One Way Or Another, ed. What i can tell you is every sin l dime of that money is still single dime of that money is sitting in a qatar bank and not one dime has been spent. I would remind because in certain audiences, inconvenient facts are easy to forget. Regime was never going to see a dime of that money. This account all though its moved from South Korea To Qatar was set up by the Previous Administration for this exact purpose and back in 2018 the former Secretary Of State mike pompeo talked in some detail about how this money and these accounts could only be used for humanitarian purposes and there