Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is leading renewed calls for President Biden to support a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas over the ‘grave violations’ being committed against children in the war. 

‘We write to you to express deep concern about the intensifying war in Gaza, particularly grave violations against children, and our fear that without an immediate cessation of hostilities and the establishment of a robust bilateral ceasefire, this war will lead to a further loss of civilian life and risk dragging the United States into dangerous and unwise conflict with armed groups across the Middle East,’ the progressive lawmaker wrote.

Ocasio-Cortez and 23 other progressives wrote to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, asking for details on the U.S. plan to de-escalate tension in the region. 

They cited figures from both Israel and the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza about how many children have been killed or abducted since Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing hundreds of civilians.

Israel has responded by bombarding Gaza with rocket fire and a ground invasion.

‘We reaffirm our unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas attacks on Israel that took place on October 7th, in which Hamas killed over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, and captured over 200 hostages, who were subsequently taken to Gaza,’ the Democrats wrote.

‘While exact figures have not yet been released, Israeli authorities so far have confirmed the identity of 846 civilians killed, including 31 children, and at least 20 children who have been abducted by Palestinian armed groups.

‘We also share dire concerns with the ongoing Israeli response, in which the Israeli Defense Forces have killed over 11,078 Palestinians, nearly half of whom have been children.’

Among the signatories are Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.; and Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

‘We are profoundly shocked by the grave violations of children’s rights in the context of armed conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory,’ they wrote. ‘International norms require that all parties to an armed conflict protect children and prevent the commission of grave violations against them, including killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, recruitment and use of children, abduction of children, and denial of humanitarian access.’

They thanked Biden for pushing for an expansion of humanitarian aid to Gaza, though argued it had ‘limited impact on the ground so far,’ while criticizing Israel for its response to the Oct. 7 attack.

‘In addition to the threat of widespread Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, these children face further imminent threats due to Israeli government restrictions on food, water, fuel, and other humanitarian assistance being able to reach these children and their families,’ they wrote of young people in Gaza.

The letter concluded, ‘We understand that the Administration has serious concerns regarding the objectives and consequences of a large-scale ground offensive, and we urge you to press this case directly.’

Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-Ala., colleagues pleaded on the Senate floor early Thursday morning – from midnight until nearly 4 a.m. – to drop his objection to military promotions, which has placed more than 400 positions in limbo for nine months, over the Pentagon’s abortion policy 

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Todd Young, R-Ind., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, again tried to push a batch of distinguished nominees to top military leadership positions through the Senate just two weeks after their first attempt. 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a staunch supporter of Tuberville, objected. 

‘Senators Sullivan and Ernst are making some great tributes to generals and admirals whose confirmations have been delayed,’ Lee posted to X just before 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. ‘I wish they’d blame President Biden even half as much as they’re – quite unfairly – blaming Sen. Tuberville.’ 

The DOD’s abortion policy – which pays for some expenses incurred by an abortion procedure for service members – was implemented without approval from Congress after the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year.

Tuberville has argued the policy violates the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which limits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion services except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. 

On the floor, Graham appealed to Tuberville’s opposition to the policy and signaled his pro-life advocacy, but he opposed the blockade. Instead, he championed taking the policy to court. 

‘Generally speaking in America, when you get a legal dispute, you go to court,’ Graham said Thursday morning. ‘The DoD general counsel has a memo it doesn’t violate the Hyde Amendment. I think they’re wrong. But we’re not a court of law here.’

The GOP lawmakers took turns praising some of the military leaders awaiting promotions and reading their biographies, and argued they are being ‘held hostage’ by objections to a policy that they have no control over.

‘We need to fix the policy that – the abortion policy – that we all disagree with here,’ Sullivan said. ‘There’s a number of ways that we can do it. Again, I worked with Sen. Tuberville on ways to do that. And I do agree with my colleagues here. This was started and provoked by the Biden administration, but punishing these 450 members and their families is not the best way to go about doing that.’

Ernst said she and her colleagues are ‘all pro-life’ but appealed to Graham’s suggestion of changing the policy through the court. 

‘There has to be another way to overturn this policy,’ Ernst said. ‘That’s our jobs, it’s not the jobs of these nominees. It’s our job to make sure the policy is right.’

Tuberville remained seated at his desk while Lee defended the objection. The debacle occurred just after the Senate voted to pass the House’s bill to keep some government programs funded until staggered deadlines in January and February.

‘We’ve been asked the question over and over again, why punish the innocent?’ Lee said on the floor. ‘Indeed, why punish the innocent? You know who’s innocent? Babies. You know who doesn’t have a voice in the Senate? Babies. You know who can’t speak for themselves? Babies.’

‘How many future admirals are going to be aborted by this policy by the Pentagon itself?’ he added. 

Democrat senators on the Rules Committee advanced a resolution Tuesday to circumvent Tuberville and confirm the military promotions. The resolution heads to a full floor vote and will need nine Republicans to vote alongside Democrats to codify the measure.

The House Intelligence Committee is unveiling a series of proposals to reform a key surveillance tool that has been both credited with preventing terror attacks on U.S. soil and accused of being a vehicle for spying on U.S. citizens. 

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) lets the U.S. government keep tabs on specific foreign nationals outside the country without first obtaining a warrant to do so.

The 73-page report by Republicans on the committee’s bipartisan FISA Working Group was led by Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill. It defends Section 702, added to FISA in 2008, as a critical part of U.S. defense in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. 

‘[I]t is hard to find an adjective that adequately describes a tool that has done as much to safeguard American lives and liberty as it has,’ the report said. ‘We are unable to calculate just how many lives it has saved. It is worth noting that there has not been another 9/11 since Section 702’s inception, despite the persistent threat of terrorism.’

However, the report also acknowledges, ‘Section 702 has a number of problems requiring significant reform — from the need for increased penalties, compliance, and oversight, to the querying abuses by the FBI.’

Section 702 is set to expire at the end of this year, and is already facing an uphill battle for renewal. 

Critics of the program have accused it of being overbroad and susceptible to abuse. Members of Congress on both the extreme right and left have claimed it encroaches on Americans’ civil liberties, specifically if the FBI conducts warrantless surveillance on communications between Americans and foreign nationals.

Allies of former President Trump, including Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have claimed the program was used to improperly spy on the Trump 2016 campaign, including ex-aide Carter Page.

However, the Friday report sought to beat back those accusations. Lawmakers disputed the notion that Section 702 allows the intelligence community to access all of a U.S. citizen’s correspondence if they communicate with a foreign national.

‘If a U.S. person communicates with a target of Section 702 collection, only the specific correspondence in which the foreign target is a party is collected — this is referred to as ‘incidental collection.’ The government can never target U.S. persons whose communications are incidentally collected under Section 702,’ it said. 

The report also calls Section 702 ‘individualized and extremely limited’ to foreigners ‘who possess or communicate specific types of foreign intelligence information.’

Additionally, while lawmakers acknowledge that FBI abuses were found to have occurred in the FBI’s surveillance of Page and the 2016 Trump campaign, they maintained that those were separate from Section 702. 

Among the specific reforms to the FISA tool that the House Republican report offered were proposals to drastically limit the number of FBI personnel who can authorize specific instances of Section 702’s use, and strengthening warrant requirements for some instances of surveillance.

Lawmakers also proposed barring the FBI from getting Section 702 information that is not specifically related to a specific existing national security case.

Details on suggested heightened penalties for abuse of FISA and Section 702 were also included. 

They sought to give Congress greater oversight over the FISA courts as well, including allowing members of Congress to attend sessions as well as requiring court hearings to be transcribed and made available to lawmakers.

The report also included ways to expand Section 702 for what lawmakers argue is more effective use – such as ‘to expand the ability for the NSA to target international drug trafficking operations, including those distributing fentanyl and precursor chemicals, by including counternarcotics in the definition of Foreign Intelligence.’

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election in the wake of a House ethics report. 

‘If there was a single ounce of ETHICS in the ‘Ethics committee’, they would have not released this biased report. The Committee went to extraordinary lengths to smear myself and my legal team about me not being forthcoming (My legal bills suggest otherwise),’ Santos wrote on X. ‘It is a disgusting politicized smear that shows the depths of how low our federal government has sunk. Everyone who participated in this grave miscarriage of Justice should all be ashamed of themselves. We the People desperately need an Article V Constitutional Convention.’

‘I will continue on my mission to serve my constituents up until I am allowed. I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time,’ he wrote. ‘Public service life was never a goal or a dream, but I stepped up to the occasion when I felt my country needed it most. I will 100% continue to maintain my commitment to my conservative values in my remaining time in Congress.’

Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., plans to file a motion to expel Santos on Friday during session, Guest’s personal office told Fox News Digital Thursday.

The ethics committee released a damning report that accused Santos of having ‘used campaign funds for personal purposes’ and ‘engaged in fraudulent conduct,’ among other allegations. Guest filing the resolution tees up an expected vote on whether to boot Santos from the House sometime after lawmakers return from the Thanksgiving break on Nov. 28.

In the 56-page report, the bipartisan subcommittee unanimously agreed that Santos ‘knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House.’

That includes $50,000 in campaign donations that were wired to Santos’ personal account on Oct. 21, 2022, and allegedly used to, among other things, ‘pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at OnlyFans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking.’

On Thursday, Santos also said, ‘We are quickly approaching $34 trillion dollars in debt, the government is continuously on the verge of a shutdown, our southern border is wide open, our current President is the head of an influence peddling crime family, and all this Congress wants to do is attack their political enemies with tit for tat unconstitutional censures, impeachments, expulsions and ethics investigations. THE TIME IS NOW FOR THE STATES TO RISE UP AND COMMENCE AN ARTICLE V CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION!’

‘I’ve come to expect vitriol like this from political opposition but not from the hallowed halls of public service,’ he wrote. ‘I will remain steadfast in fighting for my rights and for defending my name in the face of adversity. I am humbled yet again and reminded that I am human and I have flaws, but I will not stand by as I am stoned by those who have flaws themselves.’

Santos, who flipped a Democratic House seat on Long Island red in the 2022 midterm elections, was thereafter exposed as having lied on his resume, namely over his Jewish heritage, business experience on Wall Street and attending college. He has long refused calls from his own Republican Party to resign, even after federal prosecutors charged him in multiple fraud schemes. Last month, federal prosecutors announced a superseding indictment accusing Santos of stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign. 

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

Top Democrats who have been pressuring the Supreme Court to adopt a new code of ethics appear dissatisfied after the court’s unprecedented announcement of a new Code of Conduct, saying the code alone isn’t enough. 

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said, ‘It is long past time for a code of conduct that explicitly applies to the justices,’ adding ‘the lack of any way to enforce the code should any justice decide to ignore it is a glaring omission.’

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the new rules ‘fall short’ of what Congress ‘could and should expect,’ despite several Republicans saying Democrats’ efforts would be unconstitutional. 

‘I’m still reviewing the court’s new code of conduct. For now, I will note that the court’s adoption of this code marks a step in the right direction,’ said Durbin.

‘It may fall short of the ethical standards which other federal judges are held to, and that’s unacceptable And if it falls short, the American people will ultimately have the last word, and the integrity of the court is at issue,’ he said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., echoed that sentiment in comments via a video on X, formerly Twitter, calling the code a ‘first step’ and pushed for congressionally imposed enforcement rules.

But a Republican Judiciary Committee member, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, said, ‘It’s the court’s role – not Congress’ – to set out how they operate as an independent, coequal branch of government.’ 

‘The efforts from Senate Democrats – including with their recent subpoena authorization charade – are nothing more than an attempt to delegitimize the court as an institution, simply because they disagree with its recent decisions,’ she charged. 

Blackburn added the committee should focus its efforts on ‘protecting the safety’ of the justices and their families ‘given the threats from the far left’ they’ve faced in recent months. 

Last week, Democrats on the committee attempted to authorize subpoenas of private citizens for their connections to some of the justices on the court, but after Republicans countered with threatening to request subpoenas for things like Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet manifests, Democrats appeared to sour on the idea.

On Tuesday, the nine justices issued an unprecedented Code of Conduct, along with a statement that said, ‘For the most part these rules and principles are not new: The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules, that is, a body of rules derived from a variety of sources, including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice.’ 

‘The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,’ they said.

‘To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct,’ the justices added.

The code is a set of five ‘canons,’ including two new provisions that appear to be in response to reports over travel arrangements for private trips taken by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas paid by others, and use of court staff for book promotion – referring to a recent report on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff urging colleges and libraries to buy her latest book.

But Durbin responded with thinly veiled criticism, saying, ‘After years of refusing to act, a series of scandalous disclosures involving several justices on the court, and the Senate Judiciary Committee passing legislation sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on ethical reform, the Supreme Court has finally responded.’

‘Today, for the first time in history, the Supreme Court of the United States is at least saying to the American people: ‘We hear you,” he declared.

Durbin said he will ‘carefully review this proposed code of conduct to evaluate whether it complies with our goal that the highest court in the land not languish with the lowest standard of ethics in our federal government,’ adding that it ‘begins a dialogue which can end with restoring integrity of the court. 

Carrie Severino, JCN president and a former clerk for Justice Thomas, predicted Tuesday that she doubts the code ‘will satisfy Senate Democrats and their liberal dark-money backers, as their campaign has never really been about ethics but rather intimidating a court that it despises for being faithful to the Constitution.’

Democrats on the committee have pushed to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, which would have required the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, update disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the court, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.

But it was met with sharp criticism from Republicans, including Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who said the measure would be ”as dead as a fried chicken,’ indicating that he did not believe the measure would earn the 60 votes needed to advance on the Senate floor. 

He also said the legislation is meant to be ‘a court-killing machine.’

‘It would allow any jackaloon out there in America in a tinfoil hat, whose own dog thinks he’s an utter nutter, to file a motion to recuse a United States Supreme Court justice.’

‘Now, what could possibly go wrong? And my Democratic colleagues know that,’ he said. 

Kennedy said the bill is ‘dangerous, but it’s unserious.’ 

The U.N. special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territory claimed this week that Israel does not have a right to self-defense against Hamas under international law and accused the country of committing ‘war crimes.’

The comments from Francesca Albanese came Tuesday during an address to the National Press Club of Australia, when she deemed Israel’s right to self-defense ‘non-existent’ under international law as she took aim at the war-torn country for its ‘unrelenting bombardment of Gaza’ and other actions.

Israel, according to Albanese, cannot claim a right to self-defense because they are not under threat from another state.

‘Israel cannot claim the right of self-defense against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies, from a territory that is under belligerent occupation,’ Albanese said from the event in Canberra, Australia.

‘What Israel was allowed to do was to act to establish law and order, to repel the attack, neutralize whomever was carrying out the attacks and then proceed with law and order measures … not waging a war,’ she added.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, slammed Albanese’s comments, saying they go ‘hand-in-hand with all her other legally-indefensible claims’ surrounding the conflict.

‘Starting from October 7th until now, no major U.N. actor has said plainly that Israel has a right of self-defense. This is despite the fact that the U.N. Charter unambiguously declares every U.N. member has the inherent right of self-defense,’ Bayefsky claimed in an email to Fox News Digital. ‘In the deafening silence, anti-Israel and antisemitic extremists hiding under the titles of U.N. ‘experts,’ have gone on the offensive and proclaimed that Israel has no U.N. Charter right of self-defense against the barbaric Palestinian terrorists who slaughtered and butchered their people. The Nazis said the same thing of their Jewish victims.’

‘Albanese’s abhorrent remarks go hand-in-hand with all her other legally-indefensible claims, such as defending a Palestinian ‘right to resist’ that ‘requires violence.’ Likewise, Navi Pillay, head of a U.N. so-called ‘Commission of Inquiry’ against Israel created back in 2021, has repeatedly spoken since October 7th of a Palestinian right of ‘armed struggle.’ These aren’t misguided lawyers. They are champions of hate, of antisemitism, of lethal violence against the Jewish people. It is an atrocity that they are given U.N. titles and a global platform of any kind at all,’ Bayefsky added.

Albanese claimed Israel’s actions toward the Palestinian people in Gaza, which have been relentless since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, are ‘wrong.’

‘How many more people need to die,’ she questioned at the event.

Albanese also expressed concern over the potential that Israel ‘might commit the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people’ and took aim at the international community in her speech, claiming most state governments are almost ‘completely paralyzed’ amid the unfolding crisis in the Middle East.

‘In the face of all of this, the international community is almost completely paralyzed,’ she said. ‘I am being generous when I say the U.N. is experiencing its most epic political and humanitarian failure since its creation.’

‘Individual member states, especially in the West, and Australia is no exception, are on the margins,’ she added. ‘Muttering notable words of condemnation for Israel’s success at best or staying silent in fear of restraining Israel’s … claimed right to self-defense. Whatever that means.’

The international community’s positioning on the issue, Albanese claimed, ‘epitomizes’ how governments around the world have ‘so ethically failed to promote peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis, premised on international law, the end of Israel’s 56-year-old patient and the realization of Palestinian self-determination and freedom.’

Additionally, Albanese called for a cease-fire and the return of Israeli hostages, among other things.

She also used her speech to defend the Palestinians, saying they had been subjected to a ‘violent structure of dispossession, confiscation of land, and forcible displacement.’

‘When it is widespread and systemic, [it] is not just a war crime, it is a crime against humanity,’ Albanese said.

Following Albanese’s comments, Austrian Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, condemned on Thursday the rights violations in the Israel-Hamas war and concluded an international investigation was needed.

‘Extremely serious allegations of multiple and profound breaches of international humanitarian law, whoever commits them, demand rigorous investigation and full accountability,’ Türk said in a briefing to U.N. member states from Geneva.

In response to the U.N.’s growing anti-Israel actions, Lior Haiat, Israel’s spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Fox News Digital that, ‘Israel and the IDF operate under international law, if there should be an investigation it should be under war crimes and crimes against humanity that Hamas terrorist organization on the Oct 7 massacre and since then, including the massacre of over 1200 people and kidnapping 239, among them babies, children that have seen their parents murdered in front of their eyes, entire families, Holocaust survivors and an investigation on the use Hamas using the Palestinian people as human shields and the use of hospitals, schools and mosques as cover for their terrorist activities.’

Late last month, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan urged António Guterres to resign, ripping into the U.N. secretary-general for ostensibly rationalizing Hamas’ murder of some 1,200 people, including Americans, on Oct. 7 in Israel.

Guterres said Hamas’ attacks ‘did not happen in a vacuum’ and that the ‘Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.’ Guterres’ claim was rejected by Erdan, however, who insisted Guterres’ comments were ‘pure blood libel’ and said, ‘This is false. It was the opposite.’

Guterres responded to the criticism against him by noting in a statement outside the U.N. Security Council, ‘I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statements yesterday in the Security Council. As if … as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite.’

On Wednesday, the United States allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a pause in the fighting within Gaza to pass despite a lack of condemnation for Hamas.

Fifteen members of the security council passed the resolution Wednesday, which calls for a cease-fire for a ‘sufficient number of days’ in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. The resolution also calls for the ‘unconditional release’ of hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Twelve members of the council voted in favor of the resolution, while the U.S., Russia and Britain, who have veto power, abstained from the vote.

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health claimed last week that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which is now in its sixth week.

Fox News reached out to the United Nations secretary-general’s spokesman for comment.

Fox News’ Adam Sabes and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.