State Department breaks down plan to deal with Columbia, Hamas, Rubio taking on NSA

Tommy Pigott, deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, outlines the war in the Middle East.

"We're guided by two principles that are guiding our approach to this conflict. The first is that we stand with Israel and Israel's right to defend itself. And the second is that Hamas must release the hostages," U.S. Department of State Deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital. "Those are the two guiding principles. And then we're looking at the long-term here in terms of what this is going to look like as a long-term solution to this conflict. Hamas cannot continue to exist." Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news.

A New York Times opinion article ran last week, titled "This Israeli Government Is Not Our Ally," just days before nearly 80 students were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York, illustrating that the strains between the two groups remain and the rise in antisemitism is still rampant. 

"When it comes to some of these protests, and I use that word even somewhat lightly in terms of I don't even know if that's the best way to describe them, the secretary has been clear, the president has been clear, there's going to be zero tolerance for people that are here on visas that break our laws, that support or promote terrorism in the United States," Pigott added.