What we know
- Two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, were released by Hamas.
- Israel confirmed the release of the mother and daughter, who are from Illinois and family members of former NBC News correspondent Martin Fletcher.
- President Joe Biden thanked the government of Qatar for helping secure their release, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the two were receiving "necessary medical treatment."
- The 2 million residents of Gaza still await crucial deliveries of aid via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, amid two weeks of a "complete siege" by Israel and a dire humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has called for a cease-fire to allow an aid convoy to enter.
- More than 3,700 people have been killed and more than 13,000 have been injured in Gaza. In Israel, 1,400 people have been killed and 3,500 have been wounded.
- NBC News’ Lester Holt, Tom Llamas, Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez, Kelly Cobiella, Josh Lederman, Matt Bradley, Ellison Barber, Chantal Da Silva and Alexander Smith are reporting from the region.
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A Jewish-American woman from New York, Natalie Sanandaji, shares chilling details of her escape from the Hamas terrorist assault on an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7.
Frequent exposure to painful and shocking images of war can have a negative impact on your mind. Dr. Sue Varma discusses the impact of repeated exposure and how to balance happiness with being informed.
7 influential accounts are warping Israel-Hamas news on X, researchers find
A handful of influential but unreliable accounts, some of which have been promoted by Elon Musk, are dominating the flow of news on X around the Israel-Hamas war and easily outpacing established mainstream news outlets, according to research published Friday by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.
Researchers analyzed viral posts about the conflict during a three-day period starting from the beginning of the attack against Israel on Oct. 7. They concluded that the most popular posts about the crisis revealed how news on the platform is “faster, more disorienting, and potentially more shaped by Musk himself.”
The new work adds data to a swell of recent anecdotal accounts from researchers, academics and journalists who have noted a change for the worse in the way news and information moves and is incentivized on Twitter over the last year, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas crisis. A separate analysis published Thursday by NewsGuard, a nonpartisan company that tracks false narratives online, found verified accounts were responsible for nearly three-fourths of the most viral misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on Twitter.
More than words: Anti-Israel protests get physical across Middle East
Protests against Israel and the United States intensified today as crowds skirmished with authorities.
The protests also simultaneously came in pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah form and erupted from Bagdad to Bahrain.
A big fear for supporters of a cease-fire and long-term peace is the specter of a second war front between Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel, already focused on Hamas in Gaza.
Skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel have been taking place along Israel's northern edge, and the country plans to evacuate 20,000 from the northern city of Qiryat Shemona.
Biden: Hamas attacked in part to derail potential Saudi-Israel agreement
President Joe Biden tonight suggested that one of the reasons why Hamas attacked Israel was to stop the country from normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser, Biden said Hamas may have attacked Israel “because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis.”
“Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel,” Biden said, and "were about to recognize Israel."
Father of freed U.S. hostage says she sounded 'very good' during phone call
The father of a U.S. citizen who Hamas freed from captivity told reporters today that his daughter sounded “very good” during a brief phone call and he expects her to return home next week.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for two long weeks,” Uri Raanan, 71, said of Natalie Shoshana Raanan’s release. “I haven’t been sleeping for two weeks.”
Uri Raanan said he has not spoken to his ex-wife, Judith Tai Raanan, who was also freed by Hamas earlier today.
He said his daughter had gone to Israel for her grandmother’s 85th birthday when she was taken hostage. They did not speak about how she had been treated while in captivity, he said.
“I’m going to hug her and kiss her,” Uri Raanan said of her anticipated return. “It’s going to be the best day of my life."
'We cannot close for one month,' Ashdod restaurant owner says
ASHDOD, Israel — While in some parts of Israel, restaurants and bars have stayed open in the midst of the war, along Ashdod's coast, empty chairs and tables abound.
Yefet Sogaoker's family owns Namaste, which he says is the only Indian restaurant in the area, and he said it's already been affected by the war after shutting the doors for the first week after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Now, it's running only a delivery service, and he said orders have been few and far between.
Comparing the empty dining room and patio to his memories of lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, he said he hoped government support would come soon if the situation continues.
"We cannot close for one month," he said.
With the release today of two American women, U.S. officials’ focus remains on the 10 other Americans who are unaccounted for along with 200 others allegedly taken hostage by Hamas.
Death toll for journalists increases
The number of journalists killed in the war zone and areas of skirmishes following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel grew to 22 today, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
The new number includes the death of Mohammed Ali of Al-Shabab Radio, described by the committee as "youth radio." He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, it said. Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the Cairo-based newspaper Al-Dostor were cited as sources for the information.
Additionally, the committee said eight journalists have been injured and three are missing or detained. No American journalists have been reported as killed.
The committee said it's not clear if all the dead were actively covering the war when they were killed.
Video shot by Hamas shows release of two American hostages
Video shot by Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades captured the release of Judith Raanan and her daughter, Natalie, two American hostages abducted by Hamas militants.