underground and israel believes hostages could be there as well. i'll speak to the republican and democratic leaders of the house foreign affairs committee, chairman mccall and ranking member back from israel. all as president biden prepares for a critical summit with china's president xi jinping today. can they reset relations after a year of escalating tensions? and republican presidential candidate chris christie joins me, the first of the candidates to go to israel and learn more about the challenges, as well as the challenges we discussed. >> i will be on the debate stage in alabama, i will be on the debate stage. you and i know why donald trump is not on the debate stage. it's because i am. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. doctors say that israeli tanks are now at the er doors of gaza's largest hospital complex, as troops move room to room, building to building, in what israel is calling an ongoing targeted operation against hamas. >> inside the hospital there have not been fire fights between our forces and the terrorists. we have discovered weapons and other things. we entered the hospital on the basis of actionable intelligence. we are eager to show the world evidence, photographic evidence that we know for a fact and has been confirmed by the americans, by the administration, that hamas has used these facilities for its war machine. >> the top adviser to prime minister netanyahu, and the white house is confirming it has information supporting israel's claim that hamas uses the complex to hide its headquarters and hostages, potentially. we know the president spoke with prime minister netanyahu yesterday. after the raid began, the white house added, quote, we don't want to fee a fire fight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are trying to get medical care they deserve and are caught in the cross-fire. nbc's chief international correspondent keir simmons has the latest from tel aviv. this is a complicated situation. both sides have released video footage from the hospital. >> reporter: it is fast moving, it is complicated, it began, according to health officials, hospital officials, at 2:00 a.m. this morning flt it is now just past 7:00 p.m. here and we don't know very much more than we knew some hours ago, about exactly what is happening. we are hearing from, i guess, what you could call both sides, from the israelis and from the palestinians, the palestinian health organization, for example, which is run by hamas, putting out those details, saying that people in the hospital have been questioned for ten hours. they said that when the statement came out. there are 650 patients, 400 medical staff in the hospital, putting out that video that appears to show the hole of a shell in the wall of the intensive care unit, smoke and medical staff moving patients. and then, on the other hand, the israeli defense force putting out pictures of soldiers with their faces blurred, apparently carrying medical equipment into the hospital and saying that it has intelligence, actionable intelligence, you could call it, about what happened going on at al shifa hospital. none of these nbc news can independently confirm and that makes reporting on this very challenging. i thought it was fascinating to hear him say we are in there to show the world what this hospital is being used for. i think it's worth making the point, andrea, that for 75 years what's been happening in this region has been watched by the world and the world's opinion, europe, particularly america, has been absolutely crucial to how it has played out. and so while this is going on at the hospital, both sides are sending out messages as best they can, putting out video trying to influence, and at the same time you have so many families watching what is happening and worrying, not least, of course, those 239 hostage families, hostages held in gaza. there's a march here now to jerusalem. i had a chance to talk to one man who has seven members of his family being held hostage. his dad was killed in the terror attacks on october 7th. i spoke to him after all of this began at the hospital, and i asked him how he was feeling about it. >> it terrifies me that they're holding hostages there. i'm not a military man, i don't know the details. i trust what the military is saying. but, i mean, if they're there, i hope they're getting medical treatment. they're probably not there for their benefit, but i'm scared for them. >> reporter: so, andrea, aside from the humanitarian questions, which are, of course, very important, there's also a question about what the israeli defense force is finding. is it finding what it says it has intelligence about, which is the hamas or islamic jihad headquarters somewhere underneath that hospital. that is what they'll be looking for right now. >> keir simmons, as always, thank you very much. here with me is the editor-in-chief of the jerusalem post, we've spoken to you before, but always from over there. so welcome to washington. >> thank you for having me. >> what do you know, what else do you know from your reporters, or any other sources, about what is happening at the al shifa hospital? >> as we know, al shifa hospital has for years been used by hamas as a command and control post. we have a bunker they use to direct their activities, and so the forces that are in al shifa are there to cover the center, they've done so with compassion and they've given the hospital staff due warning they were about to come in. they've been advancing gradually. it's the largest hospital complex in gaza. they have found weapons and other indications that hamas does have their headquarters in that complex. >> the u.s. has now confirmed as of last night the israeli intelligence about what's happening under the hospital. it has also said in a statement today that there's nothing that justifies a fire fight inside a hospital where there are innocent patients, and we don't know that that is taking place. but there is a great risk to the patients, to the civilians. to the children we've seen, neonatal care interrupted, infants near death. so what more can you do, just given the world reaction to this? you have to be concerned about the risks and benefits of every step you take. >> i think israel does engage with tremendous care whenever it has to operate in areas in which civilians might be present. it has given tremendous warnings to those sites, including hospitals, schools and others in which hamas has embedded itself, that they are coming, that they need to operate, and that civilians should evacuate. that is much more difficult in a hospital. we know that virtually all the hospitals in gaza are being used by hamas for terror purposes. they have rocket launchers, underground bunkers, attack tunnels in these hospitals and israel has no choice but to operate in these places. >> people can't evacuate when there's no place to go. there is another of the problems, no place to get out because of the closure of the gates. do you know anything about a hostage deal? do we know anything more about what were promising negotiations, we were told? >> to the first point, israel has opened up evacuation routes for palestinian civilians. they have been prevented in many cases from escaping by hamas itself, which has fired on civilians trying to leave the conflict areas. hamas is attacking israeli civilians while endangering palestinians as well. >> we've heard it both ways. >> i think that is reprehensible here. we know hamas is a terrorist organization and we know that it is committed in word and deed to the destruction of israel and the murder of all jews. it says that it will continue committing massacres like that, on october 7th, on and on, until israel is destroyed. and so the fact that it engages in that is no surprise, but the fact that they cruelly use the people of gaza as a human shield is repulsive and should be repulsive to anyone who has a moral conscience and who views what happens there through that lens. as for the possibility of a hostage deal, we have heard those reports in recent days. we don't know exactly where they stand. there have been various indications that perhaps something could happen in the next few days. we've heard various reports that we're talking about 50 hostages or so who would be released within a matter of days in exchange for, perhaps, several days of a cease-fire. israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow a cease-fire to take place because that will simply enable hamas to regroup and continue its terror campaign. so we're certainly hopeful that hostages will be released as quickly as possible and we'll see what happens in the days ahead. >> thank you very much. thanks for being with us. safe travels. >> thank you. and a summit showdown. our preview of president biden's critical meeting with china's president xi, can they put superpower relations back on track? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports" is back in just 60 seconds. you're watching msnbc. & flu relf with more concentrated power because the only thing dripping should be your style. plop plop fizz fizz winter warriors with alka-seltzer plus. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. tide is busting laundry's biggest myth... that cold water can't clean. cold water, on those stains? ♪♪ cold water can't clean tough stains? i'd say that myth is busted. turn to cold, with tide. today in california, a critical meeting between president biden and china's president xi jinping. president xi arriving in san francisco yesterday, his first visit to the u.s. in six years. after the world's two remaining superpowers have clashed repeatedly for the past year after the shoot-down of china's spy balloon, u.s. sanctions, china's refusal to restore communications, and the export of fentanyl. president biden laying out his hopes. >> to get back on a normal course of corresponding, being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there's a crisis, being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with one another. we can't take -- as i've told you, we're not trying to decouple from china, but what we're trying to do is change the relationship for the better. >> joining me now, nbc news white house correspondent, monica alba, traveling with the president, and senior vice president for asia and korea chair at the strategic and international studies. jake sullivan outlined what the two leaders are expected to talk about. let's listen to what he had to say. >> including the continued importance of strengthening open lines of communication and managing competition responsibly so that it does not veer into conflict. the way we achieve that is through intense diplomacy. that's how we clear up misconceptions and avoid surprises. >> one of the top priorities is to reestablish military-to-military communications, that's kind of what the white house considers its bottom line. it became an issue during the balloon controversy as it was flying over the united states, the u.s. couldn't get china to answer the phone as to what the heck it was. >> reporter: absolutely, andrea. there have been other close calls since then in the south china sea, in the taiwan strait, where the lack of that military-to-military communication has been a major challenge and issue, and one that both of these countries would like to see reestablished with that resumption. that's one tangible outcome from this meeting. but that's not a major breakthrough because it's something they're trying to get back on track after it was derailed. beyond that, they would also like to talk about some other major key areas where there could be some common ground, but restoring something like that speaks to the intense diplomacy that has taken weeks and months just to get to this point. we know, of course, there have been key cabinet officials who have traveled to china in the last few months to lay the groundwork for this kind of meeting, but it's the first face-to-face, the first conversation for president biden and president xi since they met in bali last year. one of the other key things they're going to be discussing here largely is, of course, everything that's happening elsewhere in the world with the israel/hamas war and russia and ukraine. they'll also be talking about the role they're playing in the other major conflicts overseas, andrea. >> to that point, china has such close ties to iran. president biden would like to get president xi to pressure iran not to use its proxies in the israel/hamas war. is beijing going to listen? >> yeah, i think that's right, andrea. when we look at these two leaders talking about the globe, clearly for biden the priority will be china not supporting iran's efforts at encouraging hamas, and then also in ukraine, trying to get the north koreans to stop providing ammunition to the russians for the war in ukraine. how succe fube, i'm not very confident that we'll see any announcements of any new major agreements on either of these issues. it will really be about re-establishing communications after this long period of no communications, and maybe small progress on some of these issues. as you pointed out, military-to-military in case of some sort of accident, but also an antinarcotics, artificial intelligence, and climate. >> monica alba, a lot on the table right now. thank you. up next, my conversation with republican presidential candidate chris christie, just back from israel, about the war effort and the state of his campaign. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." 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yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. the first republican presidential candidate to visit israel after the october 7th attack is former governor chris christie who joins me now. you just got back from israel. let's talk about what you saw, what you learned about this war, which is now in its sixth week, and getting more horrific by the day. >> andrea, it's not just the inhumanity that was visited upon the citizens of israel by hamas, which is clear, but what i really learned was the joy that they took in visiting that inhumanity on the israeli people. i saw raw footage, 40 minutes of raw footage of the attacks themselves. >> i watched the footage as well. it's unbelievable, the savagery. >> it is. and two of the things that struck me were the young family, the father who brought his two young sons into the bomb shelter, fell on the grenade himself to save his children, killed. his children come out covered in blood and the two terrorists follow them back into the white house while the children are sobbing knowing their father is dead, and they go into the refrigerator and take coke out of the refrigerator and drink it as if they're inviting guests for a picnic. >> the 6-year-old was blinded by shrapnel. >> yes. and then the mother eventually came and had to see the body of her husband in the bomb shelter. and the call that was intercepted, a cell phone call from hamas terrorists, where he said to his mother, mom, your son killed ten jews with his bare hands, your son is a hero. and the parents were cheering on the other end of the phone. there is no moral equivalence here, andrea, between what hamas did and israel now defending itself in gaza to try to iminate that threat. i was at a kibbutz 600 yards away from the gaza border, and i can tell you, how could you as any responsible government official tell those people they can go back to their homes with hamas still as a viable military option? >> let me ask you about the fact that israel is losing support around the world because of the horrific pictures from the bombing of refugee camps, the government, the white house has been very supportive in saying that there is no justification for going inside a hospital and endangering civilians, that there are better ways to fight to get the terrorists out of the tunnels, which they now acknowledge is under that hospital. children, you know, ripped from -- well, children born by cesarean because their mothers have died, and infants no longer on ventilators. >> well, if hamas would stop using those hospitals and those civilians as human shields, then we wouldn't have this problem. the israelis care more about the lives of those palestinians than hamas does. and the proof of that is the hundreds of thousands of text messages that have been sent in to gaza. the leaflets that have been dropped, the advice that's been given for them to move away from the areas where the fighting is going to be. andrea, we cannot permit hamas to continue to operate gaza and their military capability needs to be wiped out. secondly, if you don't believe that this is a united front between iran, north korea and russia, along with hamas, i saw the weapons myself at the military installation. rpgs from north korea. north korean markings on them. iranian weapons. russian ak-47s. this is a united effort to try to disrupt the free world. >> how do you justify, then, house republicans stripping israel out of the supplemental, taking ukraine out of the supplemental, and then going to a continuing resolution bare bones? how do you explain mostly house republicans, not the senators, who are ignoring the threats as you describe them? >> first of all, i don't justify it. it's wrong, it's absolutely wrong. they're abandoning america's rightf