julie: more americans coming home, nearly 80 of the u.s. citizens stranded in gaza making it out safely so far. hundreds more, though, are still trapped. the biden administration meantime pushing for what it calls a humanitarian pause, a stop in the fighting to get aid in and out to foreign nationals to get those out. this is the faulkner focus. i m julie banderas. good afternoon. i m in for maris today. blinken met with president netanyahu today. before the meeting he talked about possible pauses as we mentioned and the concerns around them. watch. we believe that each of these efforts would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses. a number of legitimate questions were raised in our discussions today including how to use any period of pause to maximize the fuel humanitarian assistance. how to connect a pause to the release of hostages and secure hamas doesn t use these to their own advantage. julie: senate majority whip dick durbin, the highest ranking democrat to back
attacks by hamas. i m pamela brown in washington. we are also following breaking news in the united states including former vice president mike pence s stunning campaign suspension and new details about the horrific mass shooting in maine that killed 18 people. we start with what prime minister netanyahu called this evening a new long stage in the israel hamas war. israel s military says its troops and tanks are inside gaza now in what promises to be a bloody and complex battle in order to rid the gaza strip of the terrorist group responsible for the horrific october 7th attack that killed at least 1300 is israels. inside gaza, palestinians are trying to shelter and they are mourning in darkness amid a near total communications blackout. as the hamas controlled palestinian ministry of health is estimating hundreds of gazans have been killed by israeli air strikes in just the last two days. meanwhile, the families of israeli hostages held in gaza are growing more terrified