Tens of thousands of people, including from New Jersey, today, descended on the nation's capital, marching through Washington, D.C., in one of the strongest displays of solidarity with Israel's war against Hamas, now entering its sixth week.

Demonstrators are also calling for the release of 240 hostages captured by the militant group during the surprise October 7th attack.

President Biden today quickly addressed reports that Hamas may release up to 70 women and children being held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five day truce with Israel.

The president saying he's been, quote, talking with the people involved every single day and believes a hostage exchange will happen but wouldn't provide details.

Today's rally comes after large protests both here in New Jersey and nationwide, condemning the Israeli military for creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

As the Palestinian death toll climbs beyond 11,000 people with hospitals crumbling and little to no food or fuel left.

Demonstrators on the National Mall today said they're underscoring the right for Jewish communities around the world to remain free from hate and violence.

Local and federal agencies in New Jersey have been reporting a significant spike in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the war began.

For the latest on that, I'm joined by James Dennehy, FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge.

Special Agent Dennehy, thank you so much for joining me.

Obviously, we heard the FBI director come out and say that anti-Semitic incidents in particular have reached historic levels.

Why exactly is that?

I think what's happening in Israel and Gaza right now is bringing everyone's emotions to the edge, if you will, this war in the Middle East.

And that just brings everyone to a certain level of hate.

And the FBI tracks that.

We track it through local, state, federal reporting.

And since October 7th, we've seen a tremendous spike in biased incidents and hate incidents right here in New Jersey.

Not just anti-Semitic, but also anti-Muslim and Arab as well.

Probably about a 75 to 25 split between those that are anti-Semitic and those that are anti-Muslim.

So if we were looking at that data, would it jive with what we saw?

The Anti-Defamation League put out?

They said something like a 400% increase since the war broke out October 7th.

Care who represents Muslim-Americans, said somewhere around the 200% spike.

I mean, these are really big numbers.

Does that seem to be in sync with the data that the FBI is collecting?

It is.

So we're seeing since October 7th, a few hundred percentage points increase in those incidents.

And are these incidents from, let's say, homegrown extremists?

Are these incidents that are spurred by foreign groups?

I mean, what do they look like?

So when the war first happened, when October 7th, first happened, our number one concern in the FBI was foreign terrorist organizations.

Using that as a way of inspiring those extremist and radical radicalizing those individuals in order to now commit acts of violence, whether it's against U.S. interests abroad or here in the United States.

So that's, of course, a concern that then leads to a larger concern of the lone wolf actor.

That's very difficult for us to identify, to investigate and to disrupt, because that individual might look to attack soft, familiar targets, might have access to weapons, and most importantly, may not discuss that plan with anybody or be in communication with anybody else or kind of highlight what he or she is planning on doing before it happens.

So we have concerns in that regard.

So what is the FBI doing then to tackle this?

In New Jersey, there was just another incident reported where a synagogue had anti-Semitic graffiti painted on there just in recent days.

How does the FBI tackle these hate crimes when they arise?

Well, hate crimes is just that.

And it's a federal violation.

And only the FBI looks into it as a maximum potential sentencing guidelines of ten years in prison.

And we look at and we track those incidents, which might then be considered hate crimes, which is exactly that hate and the addition of a crime.

Yeah.

I mean, can you share some examples of what we've seen and I've heard from folks anecdotally who are feeling nervous about going to their places of worship, whether they be Jewish or Muslim, feeling like they may be targets.

What can you tell us to that end?

So I would say you still have to live your life.

We're not at the point where people should be building bunkers in their own yard in order to become shut ins.

You still have to go to religious services and beyond.

But just keep in mind that there is a spike in those types of bias incidents.

You have to be a little bit more vigilant when it comes to those things based on what's going on in the world today.

So see something, say something as we have come to know.

Special Agent James Dennehy, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for having me.