i'm happy to send you an email with the accomplishments. we have been working hard trying to get the middle east to be a more stable, prosperous region. obviously these attacks on october 7th were horrific, and the israelis have a right and responsibility to respond to those attacks. i think everybody understands that. and so we also understand that the focus of countries in the region, particularly israel, is going to be on that. it's our focus, too. but that doesn't mean we are going to give up. it doesn't mean we are going to walk away from it. we still believe in the promise of a two-state solution and still going to work for that. as a matter of fact, key to eventually getting a two-state solution and we are going t focus on that as well. >> the two-nation, i feel like enough to win the war -- knowing what the president was aiming to to bring normalization through two states, and that -- has been put down -- >> i just told you, sir. no change in our desire to see a two-state solution. no change to get normalization between saudi arabia and israel, but we are not blind to reality, israel is fighting against hamas terrorists and we are trying to help them do that. the focus of the region is what's going on and right now the president's focus, appropriately, sir, trying to prevent to widen and deepen the conflict, to deter a larger war so we can get back to the table and move forward on key diplomatic steps. >> thank you, thank you. try to keep john as long as we can. but the president is going to be starting his event pretty soon. if folks have additional questions, i'm happy to take them. >> on the state visit, was there any thought of postponing because of the war in the middle east and more broadly, any concern that such a celebration would come off as a little tone deaf considering all the suffering both in israel and gaza? >> appreciate the question and obviously we have seen some of these reportings. we believe there's no more important time than now to have the -- this state visit with the -- with the australians, and to demonstrate, of course, our strength and partnership and alliances, right, as we continue to have conversations with our partners, have conversations with our allies, right. as we are continuing to see the invasion that continues in ukraine. so having these conversations with one of our allies like australia is incredibly important. and so that's what you are going to see. you are going to see two leaders come together, to talk about the partnership they are hoping to put, continue to put forward. and so look, it doesn't stop the work the president has continued to do, whether it's these diplomatic conversations, these important bilateral visits or whether it's domestic issues here in the country. so the president as he has been doing is going to continue to do the work as the president, of the commander in chief. >> uaw expanded its strike today. is it time for gene sper ling and acting secretary su to be on the ground in detroit? >> they have been to detroit in the past couple of weeks. they have been closely engaged with uaw and the big three. that continues. obviously they are not part of the negotiation, they are offering assistance that the big three or uaw may need. we believe, the president believes collective bargaining is incredibly important to both sides to come together and have negotiations, those conversations, and we are here to assist in any way, and we have been. we have been doing that. but again, collective bargaining so there is, you know, hopefully there is a win-win agreement and if it's done it's in good faith. we have seen it in the past two years under this administration work out in different scenarios, and seas what we are hoping continues. >> will the president talk about the person in detroit stabbed to death? >> our hearts go out to the family there. it's devastating, devastating news story, the president obviously is just like everyone else is paying close attention and saw those reports. i don't have anything else to add. obviously the investigation continues and we are willing to assist in any way. i don't have anything else beyond that. >> what is the level of concern right now about potential rise of anti-semitism in light of everything that's going on in israel? >> so, a couple of things. look, we have not seen any credible threats. i know there's always questions about credible threats and so just want to make sure that's out there. but look, muslim and those perceived to be muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks and president biden understands loved ones and neighbors are worried about the hate directed at their communities, and that is something you heard the president speak to in his address just last thursday and so one of the things the president has done is directed his team, homeland security team to prioritize prevention and emerging threats to harm any community and that is something the president has sought to do and since day one, as you know, the president ran on bringing -- protecting communities, bringing people together, protecting the soul of the nation, and so that is something that the president takes very, very seriously. and we are going to continue to denounce any sort of hate towards any american here. and so that's what we are going to be steadfast on. he has advised, directed his homeland security team to make sure they are on top of this. >> are there specific deliver rables you are hoping to get out of the australian meeting or more of a consultation. >> we will have more on the agenda, i don't want to get ahead of the deliverables on wednesday, but we have the background calls nsc leads and we'll have more on the priorities and agenda and what we are looking to do. >> i know john kirby addressed the protests on college campuses and i appreciate that the president respects first amendment rights to protest. but does the president view anti-israel protests and sentiment on college campuses as anti-semitism? >> look, i'm not going to get into what's happening across the country at different universities. not going to get into the specifics as the admiral said, the first amendment right and peaceful protest is part of our democracy, being able for folks to be able to express their feelings. i'm not going to get into any specifics on that. the president has been very clear in wanting to make sure that jewish americans, wanting to make sure that arab americans, muslims are protected here. what he believes in, that they have the right to live their lives and feel protection and able to be part of a community. the president had been very, very clear on denouncing any type of violence and so as it relates to peaceful protesting, people have the right to do that. but we are just not going to get into blow by blows of what's going on across the country. the president has been very clear, very clear. >> not blow by blow but the president himself said silence is complicity. so anti-semitism letters sent by students or protests -- >> of course the president is against anti-semitism, of course. this is the president that you have heard me say is -- wants to protect communities. whether it's the jewish community, the arab american community, palestinian community, he is going to speak out against anti-semitism, too. you asked me about protest -- >> talk to the protestors you'll hear the anti-semitism comments -- >> we are always going to denounce anti-semitism but people have the right to peacefully protest. we in this administration are always going to denounce anti-semitism, any form of hate, any form of hate, whether it's against the jewish community, right, anti-semitism against the muslim community, arab american -- we are going to denounce any form of hate that comes towards those communities. peaceful protests, people have the right to do that, but this is an administration obviously, obviously that's going to be very forceful and clear about denouncing anti-semitism. >> new harvard harris poll came out which showed that a slim majority, 51% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the united states think that the violence in israel can be justified by the grievance of palestinians. i know you've been saying that the president is going to denounce anti-semitism. >> and he has. >> and he has. is there anything in particular the administration is planning to do to take this argument to those college students or those younger generations who seem to be open to the idea that there are two sides to this thing? >> i don't have anything to lay out on any specific conversations or outreach that the president is going to do to students. as you know, we have an office of public engagement here. we have other offices here at the white house that is constantly engaging with communities including the young community. i don't have any specifics to your question on the president's schedule to do that. >> way in the back. >> karine, when it comes to these different wars, admiral kirby made it clear, deterrence, right, and the strike groups in the mediterranean so no one else gets involved. but it seems like our deterrence in russia did not work, deterrence with north korea building up its stockpile didn't work. now here in the middle east our deterrence hasn't worked. what are we doing to make our deterrence actually have teeth? >> i mean, look, i would -- look, in ukraine, as you mentioned with russia, the first days of that war or of that invasion, russia was supposed to take down and take over kyiv. and it is because of what this president was able to do to bring together more than 50 nations, allies and partners and also to continue to provide the assistance that ukraine has been -- now to fight off, right, fight off what's going on in their country. it's been impressive. you've all reported how impressive the ukrainian people have been. and so that is going to continue. that is a continue to support to ukraine, we put forth the supplemental, the supplemental request last week to hopefully continue to give those security assistance to ukraine and look, as it relates to israel, the admiral spoke to that on what we are trying to make sure israel has what it needs to defend itself. and the humanitarian aid that has to go into gaza and that is something, remember the president and admiral said this, the president went to israel, had the conversation with the prime minister, also had conversation with president sisi and look what he has been able to do. we have seen multiple convoys go in and provide a humanitarian aid. look, we are going to continue as the commander in chief, leader of the free world, of course the president is going to make sure that we are there for our partners and allies. that will continue, that will not end, and that's what you are seeing the president do every day. >> i want to follow up. i understand you say he has rallied the troops and brought together, but the origin of my question is why aren't we doing a better job preventing these wars in the first place? >> what we are doing, and admiral spoke to this, of course as he talked about the middle east and of course our goal has always been a prosperous middle east, a peaceful middle east. he literally went into speaking about what the goal has been and what we are going to continue to do, make sure that there is peace, right, make sure we bring our allies and partners together. that doesn't stop. but at the same time, right, if russia is going to invade ukraine, we have to be there for ukraine, trying to take over their sovereignty, their democracy. we have to be there for israel as a fight, fighting off a terrorist organization. innocent people are being killed. and so the president is going to be there for that. and so look, it doesn't stop us, deter us from what we are trying to do more broadly, and having these diplomatic conversation. you saw as i mentioned to unwith of your colleagues, australia is coming, we are going to continue the conversation on ukraine and partners and allies, but look, do the job that is at hand, that's what the president is focused on. >> thank you. we haven't run really in this briefing, mainly covering foreign policy. the president's event he has coming up which is on a domestic investment part of his agenda, does the president see any frustration in the fact that so much of the attention is on foreign policy that the domestic agenda is sort of less in the news on a day-to-day basis, particularly with what's going on in the middle east, or is that just the reality of the way the world is? >> it is the reality of where we are and what's being reported by all of you, right. the reality of where we are. look, but it doesn't stop the president, like you said for today, right, making announcement that's important to the american people. the american people want us to see them delivering whether it's the economy, whether it's healthcare, whatever issues that is important to them. the president is going to make a big announcement in a couple of minutes that you all have reported, actually has gotten great coverage on what he's trying to do, and will be announcing today. and look, you know, it doesn't stop the president from doing the job he has to do every day and you've seen him do that, whether it's foreign policy, domestic issues, we try to hit that every day and you hear the president talking about that every day. incredibly important issues that are top of mind for americans the president is not going to stop talking about. and as you all know, the president has multiple things to do all at once. and that's what you are going to see him do today, what you are going to see him do on wednesday when he welcomes the australia prime minister, and that's what you saw him do last week when you went to israel, and not just that, had conversation with the president of egypt to make sure that things are moving forward and making sure that we are getting that humanitarian aid into gaza. none of that stops, none of that stops. i think i have to go. all right, thanks, everybody. we'll see you tomorrow. >> thank you, karine. >> sandra: hanging on for a beat there as she took a question as she was leaving the white house press briefing and in a moment, the president is expected to make remarks as well. we'll see if he comments on the ongoing war in the middle east when he begins to speak. off the top, john kirby a moment ago, the white house spokesperson making news talking about the american hostages being held. he would not give a certain number on american hostages. he still is classifying, about a handful. at one point he said it's as many as ten americans held hostage by hamas, and it's a complicated slow situation. >> bill: the u.s., he says is not dictating terms to israel on the timing of the gaza ground offensive, which goes a little bit against some of the reporting over the weekend the president was urging israel to go slow, be cautious and work on the hostage situation in the meantime. also the united states has sent a few military advisers to israel. that's notable. and while that was happening, sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister is in tehran, iran, and made a statement about calling for a ceasefire. watch how that story develops right now. >> sandra: and matt miller, spokesperson at the state department was also giving a briefing simultaneously, gillian turner was in the room, able t fire off a question. here is that exchange moments ago. >> what is the state department's assessment about, i guess, what is it in it for qatar, why is it their interest to secure the hostages. >> qatar is a long time partner of us i think they believe innocent civilians ought to be freed. >> sandra: that goes back to the release of the two american hostages last week, the mother and daughter, done through mediation, through qatar. this is -- these are huge questions at this hour, feels like a lot of the questions are unanswered. >> bill: the one thing we can answer for now, there is no ground invasion that has begun in a significant way in gaza. that's what we know at the hour. >> sandra: and john kirby was asked about that, if that is still going to happen and he said that's up to the israelis, they will decide. fox news alert, the white house has been at it, it's been about an hour i should say, hour by hour effort to rescue those held hostage by hamas, but unclear how many are held in gaza. >> ten unaccounted for americans and it's not clear to us where those ten people are. so i would categorize it as about a handful. and i know that's not the specificity you want, but that's really as detailed as i think i should get today. >> bill: he also talked about several hundred americans wanting out of gaza, they were there for work or see family or living there. the white house peppered with questions over the humanitarian aid flowing into gaza. kirby saying they are seeing no evidence that relief aid is being diverted by hamas. >> sandra: update with our fox team coverage right now, steve on the fight escalating at israel's northern border. but first, lucas tomlinson is live on the ground in tel aviv for us. lucas, what do we know about the hostage situation? >> sandra, unconfirmed reports hamas is weighing a proposal to release 50 hostages that possess dual citizenship. and this comes as israel's defense minister toured a navy base. he told his forces to be ready to assault gaza. >> keep preparing for our operation. it will come soon. we are preparing thoroughly for the next step. a multi-lateral operation in the air, ground, and sea. do your work. get ready. we will need you. >> earlier today the israeli air force says it filled five hamas commanders in a strike in gaza. forces have vowed to hunt down and kill all responsible for the october 7th massacre. and over the weekend, israeli forces carried out a rare airstrike in the west bank, followed by a joint raid, internal security agency, they say foiled a terrorist plot in a mosque in a west bank city. the mosque contained hamas and islamic jihad operatives organizing a "imminent terror attack." and over the weekend, lindsey graham brought senators. >> to hamas, if you are not a coward, give back every hostage. you would fight like a man, fight eye-to-eye, you would not need human shields to do the job. >> as you mentioned, ten americans unaccounted for. some may be held captive by hamas in gaza along with over 200 other israeli citizens. sandra. >> sandra: lucas, what do you anticipate the night to look like based on where you are? >> sandra, israel says it's ramping up the airstrikes in the gaza strip and ahead of the anticipated offensive. we don't know the scale of that. a large scale offensive, or more some of israel's elite units, like the delta force. so we anticipate more airstrikes this evening and close watch on the northern border with lebanon as hezbollah has been sending rounds repeatedly over. sandra. >> sandra: lucas, stay safe. now to detroit where a synagogue president was found stabbed to death outside of their home, leaders there expressing condolences for samantha wold. update from police now. >> she will be sorely missed. the purpose of this press conference is to bring clarity to the incident that has brought attention of our community, local and national leaders and even international outlets. i'm going to lay out what we know now. i'm going to bring up the deputy chief over our homicide unit and then we'll conclude with some comment from the fbi on this case. i hope everyone understands that we are limited on the information that we can share. it's an active investigation and there will be points we cannot share information. on the morning of saturday, october 21, 911 call came in to our 911 call center and the call was regarding an incident at the 1300 block of joliet place. it was described as a person laying on the ground unresponsive. responding emergency units made the location and declared that the victim was dead on scene. upon investigation, it was determined that that victim was in fact samantha wold. while at the scene, police officers observed a trail of blood leading officers to the victim's residence, where we believe the crime occurred. examination of the victim led to the discovery of multiple stab wounds on her body. what we know right now is that the victim was at an event friday evening. she left the event at 12:30 a.m. by all accounts, she was not in any discomfort, any distress, she was her normal positive and pleasant self as described by some people that we have interviewed. there was no signs of forced entry. no signs of forced entry at her residence. we believe that there are no other groups or anyone else at risk in regards to this particular incident. we believe this incident was not motivated by anti-semitism and that this suspect acted alone. again, that is what we know at this time. there are several factors that has led us to this conclusion. we are not in position to discuss all of them at this point. obviously there are parts of the investigation that we cannot get into again. it is germane to the closing of this case. there are certain factors that are only shared by the suspect and our investigators, so there are certain key points we will not be able to discuss. at this time i'll bring up deputy chief sloan to get into some of the areas that we can discuss with you. deputy chief sloan. >> sadly miss samantha wall was found deceased in front of the 1300 block of joliet street on saturday around 6:30 a.m., she was suffering from apparent stab wounds to her body. we are currently working with our partners as the chief mentioned from the fbi and michigan state police to establish exactly what occurred in the hours and days prior to miss wall's death. at this point in the investigation we are examining every piece of evidence we have uncovered to determine what exactly led to this incident. as well as following up on the extensive amounts of information that we have gained during our investigation. we have and are in the process of conducting countless interviews to learn everything about miss wall's life, including any possible motive or opportunity to harm her. what we do know again from what the chief mentioned is that miss wall did attend an event on friday evening which we know was a wedding. she did return home around 12:30 a.m. on saturday morning and we did discover no signs of forced entry to her residence. at some point between returning home from this event and in the early morning hours when she was discovered, miss wall was, unfortunately, fatally assaulted. by all accounts, miss wall was very well liked in the community, so it is clearly very shocking to her family and to her friends that this incident has occurred. i would like to extend our gratitude to the men and women of the homicide section, our partner agencies for the endless hours that they have dedicated to this investigation. we are committed to our continued work with our partners to identify the person responsible in this incident. again, the investigation is ongoing and we continue to ask for the community's assistance in solving this crime, either through 1-800 speak up, or rewards tv. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is cheyvoryea gibson. i'm special agent in charge here in detroit for the fbi which covers the entire state of michigan. i want to thank all of you for being here today and thank you chief for this opportunity. i want to express sincerest condolences to her friends, family and community. as stated by chief white, we are providing technical forensic and investigative support during this investigation and i will say if you have any questions with regard to the investigation or any facts thereof, i'm going to defer to chief white at this time. again, thank you guys for being here. thank you, chief white. >> thank you. again, i just want to assure the community that everything possible is being done to bring this case to a close. i ask for patience. there is a lot of evidence and information that has to be analyzed. again, we are very thankful to our partnerships with both the fbi and the michigan state police, access to crime lab, activity and things such as this moves this case along quickly. but we want to make sure we don't rush and we do everything to make sure that evidence is analyzed, search warrants, and we bring this matter to close with the appropriate person being held accountable for these horrendous actions. with that, i'll take any questions. >> chief, ryan marshall, cbs news, new york nationally. even though you did say that there isn't any anti-semitic motive here, how -- i would say how concerned r you that having this happen in, on saturday and now you guys coming on monday that maybe somebody that hasn't seen this would say hey, we need to have some sort of retaliation, given what's happening with israel and hamas? >> yeah, i mean, we are always concerned retaliation on any homelessed and certainly the international situation that we find ourselves in now bring us additional concern. but our goal is to be transparent with the community, transparent as to where we are to alleviate concerns those may have that others are at risk based on what we know right now with the information we have received and uncovered over the past few hours and certainly at the onset of this investigation. we are confident with our position, where we are right now today. >> and second question is given that that isn't the motive, can you speak to anything that could have been involved in why she was killed or murdered, a motive, can you speak to anything in that regard? >> yeah, you know, as i indicated, and you know, we certainly want to alleviate concerns, we certainly want to let others know, all know that we are actively investigating this, and that we have not discovered anyone else to be at risk. but in that we have to be very, very cautious as to what information we shared. there are some very intricate details about this case that if revealed could really damage what we are trying to accomplish. there are some facts that are known only to our suspect, and so i can't get into causation right now, or what he or she may feel was at. but more to come on that at a later date. right now what we want to do is get every bit of information we can clarified, analyzed, so we can put more information out to the community to help us identify and bring a suspect to justice. >> thank you, chief. >> alex brishea from abc news. thank you for taking ours questions. you have mentioned suspect a couple of times. i'm curious, do you have a suspect or suspects here? >> so in the process of an investigation the detectives, they work a number of different theories. we are working through what we have identified are some persons of interest and we are very confident on the track we are on but we are early, very, very early in this investigation, and once they're done with that level, each area of the work requires specific investment of time concentration and development on its own. and so to answer your question, the short answer is we have a number of people that give us interests, we are just short of calling one of the people a suspect, but we are working to that end. and we will be there. but it just takes time and again, i'm asking for patience as we work through every aspect of what we are doing. there is a lot of information to be analyzed, investigators have worked literally nonstop since we received this case, and i'm confident in the hard working men and women of the police department, they are really, really good at what they do, i just have to give them time to do it and we are going to get there. so yes, we are confident we are going to develop a suspect. we are not there right now as of this press conference. >> i understand. second question for you, sir, can you give any clarity or theory as to how miss wall ended up outside of her house, that trail of blood that led to the sidewalk. >> and we have worked on that, the detectives have worked on that, and we are working right now, and i will say some of what i'm going to say is somewhat graphic -- very graphic, and again, my heart goes out to the family who may be hearing this, and not be easy for them to hear. but we are working with the michigan state police and fbi on blood splatter experts to determine certain things about the event. what we believed to have happened, after she was attacked inside the home, she stumbled outside and collapsed in the yard. so that's where the blood trail appears to lead us and we are pretty confident with that assessment but confirm it through forensics and experts in that field. >> thank you. >> chief, nbc news, appreciate you doing this. you mentioned she left a wedding around 12:30 in the morning and attacked inside the home. we have heard from sources she did not have any defensive wounds. did she leave the wedding alone? >> i can't get into that, and your sources, you know, i'm not going to confirm or deny that at this time. again, a lot of what sources don't take into account is how it could damage a case and so i can't confirm or deny that. that's a very key part of our investigation that we are looking into. >> ok. and point of clarification for my second question here that you said persons of interest, no one is in custody at this point. >> no one is in custody. >> no one is in custody and you said you don't believe anyone else is at risk here, you stress you don't believe it was tied to anti-semitism, but obviously people have jumped to those conclusions, and you've got someone still out there who you say is responsible for this. what do you say to people still worried about their safety and the climate of what's going on in the world, particularly jewish, muslim and arab communities, what would you want people to know about their safety if they are jumping to conclusions? >> and so we certainly don't want folks to jump to conclusion but certainly understand how one could arrive at those conclusions absent any information to the contrary, and that's why we are here providing information on this particular case. we don't feel as of this press conference that there's anything that supports anyone else being at risk as relates to a hate crime. we certainly know this was a dangerous person and where we are working tirelessly to identify a suspect and get the right suspect off the street and once we get that development done we will immediately push that out to our media partners as well as to our community partners to help us identify and bring this person to justice. beyond that, we are going to continue to work hard and continue to push out transparent information so the community is aware. >> good afternoon, chief. i'm wondering, it seems as though the cause of death has been pretty well established, stabbing at this point. i'm wondering if an autopsy is completed and if you can tell us how many times she was stabbed or anything else about cause of death? >> this is going to sound like a rerun, apologize. i know you have a job to do and i hope you appreciate we do, too. that number is important for us to keep close. it could be the one piece of evidence that breaks the case open if we are talking to the right suspect that would know that, no one else but the police does so we are not going to release that information and the autopsy, yes, an autopsy was completed. i don't think we had the results yet. oh, we do have the post now, so, but i can't release any information on it. >> ok. i know the timeline is still being put together. i'm wondering how long she was potentially on the sidewalk or outside her home. >> yeah, and -- you know, i'm prefacing my comments again. i can only imagine the heartbreak that the family is hearing every time i open my mouth about this case. we are confident that she was there quite a while. we are working through our video assets in the area and a number of other things that we are going through right now with neighbors and you know, all of the digital doorbell systems and things such as that to identify when she was seen last, physically outside of the residence, and how long she may have been there. and we are -- it's a lot to go through, we are doing search warrants on ring door bells and things like that right now in the area but we are confident she was there quite a while. >> kind of leads to my last question, curious if -- i saw that there were ring doorbell cameras, and also wondering if there were green light cameras in the area, the condo neighborhood itself seems to be pretty self-contained. does that help you identify potential suspect, persons of interest. >> as you know, one of the provisions of the green light there, is no facing of residential communities. that was a concern early on. you may have been part of some of the conversation around that. but as it relates to routes of travel, they could certainly be useful. we have to get there, once we figure that out, we'll be looking at green lights and other video systems to see routes of travel. of interest to us is when she left the wedding, does a vehicle appear with her more than one stop. so we'll be tracking her entire route digitally that she took from the wedding to see if anyone was following her, and if you see the same vehicle in two different places near her, that would be of a concern and issue for us. >> and where was the wedding at? >> we won't do that. thank you. >> omar jimenez, cnn. thank you for taking the time. omar jimenez, cnn. thank you for taking the time. i know you said that at this point you haven't seen indications it was a form of anti-semitism. i guess my further clarification and question is if you don't have a suspect identified and you haven't shared what led up to this killing, what makes you so confident that this isn't, essentially, have you ruled it out despite not having found it just yet. >> well, you know, when we look at the case, there are certain tracks these types of cases take. when we talk about hate crimes, you know, there are certain tracks they take, and we have looked at this particular track and we are confident with the information that we have right now that this is not -- what we have right now, but this is a two-day investigation, ongoing, but you know, we were very cautious in making that declaration too early. we did a lot of work that gave us the confidence that we have now that it's not as we stand here right now. we are working, you know -- we have -- we are not ruling out anything. let me be clear. we are looking at every aspect of this case and we are going to take -- we are going to go where the information and the evidence takes us. and right now the evidence does not take us yet. we do have another working theory that we are looking at, and where the evidence has taken us to, and we are going to exhaust that and then if we get there and takes us somewhere else we are going to exhaust that and we may be back here having different conversation. about you as of this press conference, we are confident what we have seen and what we are saying. >> and my other question was i know you are looking at a variety of a number of people and interest, no one has gotten to that suspect level. is it your impression, at least among the people of interest that you have, that this is someone that may have been known to her, or are we talking about someone that may have come in from out of town, whatever it may be? >> we have not exhausted anyone as a suspect. anyone. the -- we are confident we are on the right track. but i am not prepared to tell you the relationship between her and the suspect as of yet. i think this would be irresponsible at this point. we have to give the investigators more time to detail out their investigation and pull evidence and we will be back here to update the case but right now i just -- i think it would be irresponsible for me to say that. >> ruben fenton with "the new york post." to continue off with what you were saying, and you said you are not ready to speak about the relationship. i assume, do you also mean or lack thereof. is it possible -- you are not saying whether they knew each other or not. >> exactly. i'm not confirming or denying what the investigation has revealed thus far. >> i'm going to do -- you spoke about, you know, you have a theory you are going with right now. i mean, is there -- and in regards to that theory, in terms of motive, maybe this is kind of a moot point because you didn't really speak on it. can you elaborate at all about the nature of the motive, if you know what i mean, like is it -- is it a motive pertaining to a desire one person had over another and i don't know, is there anything you can say about this working theory? >> and i know where you are going. and when i say theory, i don't want to characterize it as a cavalier assessment of information. i mean, it's beyond a theory. but what the investigators do is they look at the evidence, they look at all the evidence and a number of different things that we are not going to discuss today, and they begin to go down certain paths as to what is likely to occur, what possibly occurred throughout a course of events and it starts with literally investigating every aspect of who she's been in contact with, her course of travel, who she interated with, who was the last person we talked to, and all the way back and develop suspects. and in the course of doing that you look at certain things such as was this a home invasion, ok. and then you either make the determination that it either was, was not or maybe. what we have certainty with is that it wasn't, right. so now you start to shape the course of your theory. then you look at was this a hate crime. then again, use that same three-step method. is it possible, yes, is it no, and if so, what areas would you be looking for, and these are experts that do this, and we are confident -- any indication at this point that's the case, and then we go down the list of many, many, many things, from relationships to friendships to, you know, you name it. we don't rule out anybody without verification that they are not a suspect. and that includes neighbors and everyone, you know. and so that's where they are at right now. but as you do that, you build out a theory as to possibly what happened. but it's a very deliberate process. it's not done in a vacuum. these are trained expert investigators working with the fbi, the michigan state police and our other federal partners to ensure that we look at everything. so, that's where we are at. i know where you are trying to get me to go, but as i indicated, i can't get there. >> i see on the stripes on your arm you've been a cop a long time. in terms of what you have seen over the many years you've been doing this, how brutal was this, and the scope of things that you've experienced, and you've seen, i mean -- have you seen anything like this before? >> yeah, unfortunately i've seen similar things. you know, any time that you have a loss of life in our community is a tragic day for us. and certainly when you hear about her contribution to the community, to society, and the great loss, all the people that she's helped and literally everyone that i have heard from and that's been a lot of people, they start the conversation all the time, how wonderful of a person she was, so that's a great loss to our community and to our city. >> victor williams of local 4. you have a lot of people living on joliet place who may still feel unsafe with the killer out there still. what would you say to them first off? >> well, i've said -- you know, i don't feel that they're at risk. but if they saw anything, no matter how small they may think it is, if they saw someone that's not known to the neighborhood, may have been there earlier in the week, if they saw anyone lurking around the area, certainly let us know. any small moniker of information could be the break we are looking for in this case. check the video cameras on your home, share all the information you have with us. anything small or large, please make sure you share it with us. >> and can you at all reveal the location of the wedding at all? >> i'm sure it will be out. i'm not going to be the one who gives it. someone just got married and want to separate the two. the only connection it has is she was there. and we'll be talking to folks about that in the very near future. >> thanks. >> jeremy edwards with abc news. just wanted to see if you could speak to if she had her cell phone on her, any forms of i.d. >> she had her cell phone with her. i don't know if she had it -- both. >> and the person of interest that you have been working with and talking with, have they been cooperating with the investigation? >> well, as i said, we have not disqualified anybody yet. there are a number of people we are interested in. we have a number of people we are talking to, and as i understand it, everybody we have talked to has been somewhat cooperative. we have not heard they are uncooperative, let me say that. >> thank you. >> hello, rebecca rosenberg with fox news digital. so, i'm just wondering, you said you are working through multiple suspects. if you don't have a key suspect in mind yet, how are you able to exclude, for instance, a hate crime motive or anti-semitism? >> so if i misspoke, what i said a number of persons of interest. if i called them suspect, i may have misspoke. and as i indicated earlier, there's a process to, how we disqualify suspects, disqualify persons of interest that the detectives are engaged in, and certainly as i've talked about the steps we go through and identifying any crime, we are confident where we have arrived with this particular crime. we believe that the motivation is very different than a hate crime. it's horrific and it's tragic. and that's the focus of the investigation. but if something leads us down that path again or something comes up, we will engage our federal partners and look at that. we are not saying as we stand here today if we were to arrive at a space where that becomes something that we need to look at again that we wouldn't, we are just saying as we stand here today right now, that doesn't appear to be the motivation. >> and just another question, unrelated question. there was a couple near the crime scene whose car tires were slashed over the weekend. they had left town on friday, returned sunday, and it was an older couple, both their passenger, i'm sorry, driver's side tires were slashed. they said they alerted police on the scene to this. they are actually just had the tires replaced but nobody processed the car for evidence. it was probably 300 feet from the main residence. have you guys looked into that, do you think it could be connected? >> we certainly will look into it. i don't know if it's connected but we will certainly look into it. thank you for that information. >> thank you. >> is the federal, i'm sorry, is the reason the fbi is involved just to see if it was a hate crime, or some other federal nexus involved in this? >> as you know, our federal partners, as well as the state police, have worked with us on a number of homicides so this is not unusual. but certainly having them here on this one we'll be looking at all of those avenues. but we have worked together and have continued to work together on a number of homicides. >> sandra: that's the news out of detroit, michigan at this hour. on the detroit synagogue president that was found stabbed to death outside of her home, some pretty horrific details about her death revealed there and some confusion in the news conference to a message to the community that you are safe but no suspects are in custody. the police detailing a person of interest but the huge news there also is that the police seemed to be ruling out anti-semitism as the motivation behind her killing while still saying that they are very early in the investigation and have no suspects in custody. >> bill: we watched it for 30 minutes, they are intentionally vague, and vague for a reason. experts would be able to tell us why. the mystery continues in detroit. back on that story in a moment. while that was happening, sandra, there was significant news out of israel. >> sandra: two hostages have been released from gaza we are told through a well-placed israeli source. trey yingst has the news for us. what do we know, trey. >> yeah, sandra, good afternoon. this breaking right now, two israeli hostages that were being held by hamas inside gaza has been released, according to a well placed israeli source. another regional source confirming to fox news saying it was part of ongoing qatari mediation efforts. the two hostages names, talking about a 79-year-old and an 85-year-old. both of these elderly women are from the small kibbutz where where he brought the story earlier today, many of the community pulled into gaza, some of them slaughtered by the militants when they crossed into israel on october 7th. we do understand 25% of the population of neroz is missing or dead. this does come after the two ho hostages were released last week. israelis say 220 people are being held inside gaza, but the information we can bring to you right now according to a well-placed israeli source, two israeli hostages were released from gaza and in the hands of the red cross. >> bill: you have to imagine two weeks in custody at that age, that's got to be a very difficult 14, 15 days. do we know about their health condition yet? >> absolutely. l it has to be incredibly difficult having so many of these civilians inside gaza with a lack of medical care and supplies. we don't know about their conditions. we do know the husband of yohevid is still being held in gaza, and a sense of how families were taken into the strip. and we brought you a report of another elderly person taken into gaza. don't have any updates on his situation. but we spoke with his son outside of tel aviv, and he spoke about the concern that these families have regarding their elderly parents. he said his father, for example, takes heart medicine that he needs to survive and they have given a list of the medicine the hostages take to the red cross in hopes that that list will be delivered to hamas, but there's no indication they are getting these elderly people the medicine they need. so, certainly a glimmer of hope, the fact the first two israeli hostages have been released, according to the well-placed source. but still 220 people held inside gaza. >> sandra: and reports the families have been notified. as this is happening, any further word yet on the timing of this possible israeli ground invasion into gaza? what do we know at this moment. >> so we still know there are thousands of israeli soldiers staging along the border with gaza. we talked with some of them today. they remain in high spirits but are waiting for that call. the israeli military says they have finished preparations fo ultimately launch that ground invasion into gaza. still when we talked to colonels in the israeli army, they say it's not a matter of if, but when, and what exactly it will look like, an element in the north as the situation in the south unfolds. but we do know part of the reason for the delay has to do with the negotiations behind the scenes to get as many hostages out as possible. and initially there were conversations in israeli media about only foreign nationals could leave if the deal was struck but we are getting the information two israeli citizens were released from gaza. further illustrates we have to be careful with this information. it's part of the reason we had indication this was going to be announced later today and we waited on that information until we could confirm it, not only with this well-placed israeli source but another regional source involved and close to the negotiations. >> bill: coming up on 10:00 in the evening where you are, trey. john kirby earlier this hour, a focus on iran actively facilitating the attacks. i don't know how busy the northern border was today, perhaps you could shed light on that and based on the sources in the idf, israeli intelligence, how well or how difficult is it for them to track the location of hostages inside gaza? >> it's incredibly difficult t find the locations of the hostages inside gaza. and remember, when they were initially taken into the strip on october 7th, hamas released a statement saying they were keeping the hostages in the tunnel network in an effort to tell the israelis not to bomb the tunnels because there could be hostages inside them. but since then, we have gotten no information and pressed the israeli military and both israeli intelligence sources and american intelligence sources about this exact issue, and they have not been able to provide location on the information and where they might be held. >> bill: thank you, trey, 79 and another israeli national are now free. sandra. >> sandra: we will search for updates on their stories. morgan ortagus joining us on the breaking news, founder of polaris national security, thank you for joining us. great news on the release. however, we are learning those hostages' health is in poor condition. >> it's not surprising, sandra, after this many weeks and who only knows what type of conditions they were in. we still have like probably at least 218 more hostages still as you saw admiral kirby say, at least ten americans, potentially more. so it's a dangerous place for these hostages. and the older people, you are happy they get out. i'll tell you what i'm thinking about, sandra, the at least 20 children, including babies, 1-year-old babies, babies who are still in diapers that we know are being held in captivity right now. we have no clue if those babies are getting their diaper changed, if they are getting formula, so please don't allow hamas dribbling out two hostages here, two there, of some sort of sign that they are changing their ways. these are people that brutally raped and mutilated bodies of mothers, of children, and beheaded them, burned whole families alive. these are not people that deserve any sort of praise for letting a couple people go here and there. >> bill: and some reports today showing video of evidence earlier today, description is gruesome. another question of military action. john kirby said the u.s. is not dictating terms to israel for ground invasion, and we have been able to see in the past hour or so, the u.s. sent a few military advisers to israel. as you put that together now, knowing the assets we have in the region, what are you able to draw from that, morgan? >> well, i think it is surprising that israel has not responded yet, all we know from the reporting they have been held off for whatever reason from the u.s. i think what we can control more is not the israeli response, but the american response. and in just the past week alone, there have been at least nine attacks on u.s. bases or our military facilities, nine in one week and we have not responded yet. that's from the u.s. perspective. >> sandra: morgan ortagus, thank you. and that does it for "america reports." thank you for joining us. a lot of breaking news throughout the two hours. i'm sandra smith. >> bill: martha takes over for now. we'll see you a bit later. >> martha: thanks very much.