Coverage on this live blog has ended. Please follow the latest updates from NBC News here.
The hate crime arrest of a suspect in the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian America boy in Illinois reverberated across the nation, with President Joe Biden weighing in with somber words.
“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family had come to America seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” Biden said. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America.”
His remarks came after Pennsylvania Capitol Police alleged another hate crime took place Friday when a man pointed a gun at pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the steps of the capitol in Harrisburg. In fact, law enforcement across the country is focused on rising threats from antisemitic and religiously extreme voices, NBC News investigative correspondent Tom Winter said.
The Israel-Hamas war may be coming home, but it still logged devastating numbers in Israel and Gaza, where the dead numbered 1,400 with 3,500 wounded in Israel, and 2,670 dead, and 9,600 injured in Gaza, officials said.
The death toll for Americans in the region stands at 30, a State Department spokesperson said. An additional 13 Americans are missing, and many were presumed to be kidnapped by Hamas militants and held in Gaza, U.S. officials said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “demolish Hamas” in Gaza as he spoke to Israel’s expanded emergency Cabinet for the first time today. Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian of Iran, a longtime foe of Israel that has waged attacks via Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy fighters, warned today that his country “cannot remain a spectator to this situation” as Israel escalated its counterattacks in Gaza.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., vowed to take Iran out of the oil business if it entered the war. “Iran, if you escalate this war, we’re coming for you,” he said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Pope Francis renewed his calls for Hamas to release Israeli hostages and for Israel to spare Gaza civilians as it unleashes ordinance on the northern region of Gaza.
Amid tension over that expected massive incursion by Israel, a crossing for foreigners was set to open Monday, a Palestinian Embassy official said. This would allow Americans stuck in Gaza to get out. However, officials have teased the opening of the crossing before.
The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, said U.S. nationals with valid travel documents can leave Israel from the northern port of Haifa on Monday.
Water supplied by Israel to southern portions of Gaza was also opening, at least according to Israeli officials. The supply was shut off following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Israel said it is reopening the supply, but aid workers in Gaza told The Associated Press they had not yet seen evidence the water was back, and a Gaza government spokesperson said it was not flowing,
The challenges of evacuations at the Rafah crossing amid the Israel-Hamas war
Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff at the CIA and the Defense Department, explains what could happen when large numbers of people try to move through the only crossing available to foreign nationals hoping to leave Gaza. With NBC News’ Kate Snow.
Alana Seitchik talks to NBC News’ Stephanie Ruhle about her family’s anguish at seeing video of her family being kidnapped last weekend.
“My family is warm, generous loving; they’re the best,’” she said. “These are like my sisters. … They are my soul, as we say in Hebrew.”
She said the IDF told them that their relatives are alive and now in Gaza.
Biden expresses shock at Muslim child's stabbing death in Illinois
Biden said tonight in a statement that he and first lady Jill Biden were "shocked and sickened" by the murder of a young Palestinian Muslim immigrant in his home in Illinois.
The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, age 6, was stabbed 26 times yesterday in his family's home in Plainfield. His mother also was stabbed and critically wounded.
The family's landlord, Joseph Czuba, 71, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of committing a hate crime.
"The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace," the statement said. "This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are."
Senators express U.S. support to officials in Tel Aviv
Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, talked to NBC News' Tom Llamas today in Tel Aviv about their meetings with Israeli officials.
"I wanted to tell Israel's leaders, 'We have your back,'" Schumer said. Romney called the violence in photos shown to him a "level of depravity you haven't seen since the Middle Ages."
FBI warns of increased threats of U.S. violence in wake of Israel-Hamas war
Law enforcement across the country is focused on the rising threats from antisemitism and religious extremism, NBC News investigative correspondent Tom Winter tells anchor Kate Snow.
Disabled children in harm's way of possible ground attack
Nearly two dozen children living in the Mabarit Rahme orphanage in northern Gaza could be among the most vulnerable civilians in a possible ground attack.
Of the 22 young residents there, 12 have special needs, and they're under the care of just two adults as staffers fled from what could be a devastating invasion.
Despite Israeli warnings to leave northern Gaza, many Palestinians have been reluctant move out of fear they could be bombed on the roads. The concern is rooted in an incident Friday, when 70 Palestinians were killed, medical officials said, when an Israeli airstrike allegedly hit a convoy of civilians.
The Israeli military today denied any involvement in the carnage and accused Hamas of planting roadside explosives to frighten civilians to stay put in the north and act as human shields.
IDF spokesman says convoy fleeing northern Gaza wasn't intentionally ‘targeted’
Asked this evening whether Israel is responsible for the bombing of a convoy of people trying to flee northern Gaza, killing 70 Palestinians, IDF Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that Israeli forces had not specifically targeted the location and that “it may have been an incident of fire around it.”
“We’re in a war zone, and when in war, lots of things happen at the same time,” Conricus said, quoting another official as saying, “Clearly we have not targeted any convoy, any civilians on that road, specifically on that road and nowhere else in general, but specifically to that location. Clearly no purposeful targeting.”
He added, “It may have been an incident of fire around it, but that is very unlikely.”
Pressed by NBC News’ Tom Llamas, Conricus then explicitly said Hamas was responsible.
“We assess that it was Hamas who staged these explosions,” he said. “But I want to be on the safe side and say, you know, things can happen in war. But there was definitely nothing purposeful. And I think that the investigation should be looking at who would stand to gain from such a convoy being attacked, specifically on the route that we made sure would be open for evacuation. And the answer is clear. The organization that stands to gain from this is Hamas.”
Conricus also addressed whether the Israeli government would negotiate for hostages, saying: “I don’t think that Israel is looking to negotiate. What we are going to do is to dismantle Hamas, its military leadership, its military capabilities.”
A Los Angeles native who now lives in Israel and serves as an IDF reservist praised "resilient" survivors of the Hamas attack who want to rebuild their ravaged communities.
The reserve staff sergeant named Ben, who asked that his family name and exact location not be disclosed, has been working this week at a kibbutz attacked by Hamas, helping survivors gather up belongings and pets in the aftermath of last week's terror attacks.
"It's really, really hard, difficult to even put into any words," Ben said of the carnage he has seen. "But at the same time, these families are so resilient. And the fact that some of them have been able to come back just under a week after the terrible attacks that took place here shows the resilience. And I talk to them and a lot of these people are saying, 'We can't wait to come back and rebuild this community,' which is very hard for me to understand. But I have so much respect and pride in my country and being an Israeli at this time."