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On the day Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll in Israel’s war with Hamas has surpassed 10,000 in the enclave, exchanges along Israel’s northern border continued to raise fears of escalation.
The exchanges come as U.S. officials reported that military bases in Iraq and Syria with U.S. personnel have been attacked at least 10 times since Thursday, mostly via one-way drones and rockets, with no new U.S. casualties reported.
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his tour of the Middle East, one of the goals of his trip appeared to be staving off an expanded war that would have Iran drawn in via its proxy, Hezbollah, with the U.S. then facing a challenge to engage.
He also sought a symbol of possible peace in urging Israel to agree to humanitarian pauses that would allow aid to enter Gaza while civilians displaced by war could get out.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested that he was open to "little pauses" but has so far resisted any broader halt to the fighting.
Massachusetts family trapped in Gaza returns safely to the U.S.
A Massachusetts family that spent weeks trapped in war-torn Gaza is back in the United States.
Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda and their 1-year-old son, Yousef, arrived in Boston on Monday and are now safely back in their home in Medway, according to a statement from the family.
“The Okal Family continues to be incredibly thankful for their family and friends around the world who spoke up on their behalf, the Medway community, the media for sharing their plight and the plight of the hundreds of other Americans trapped in Gaza, their elected officials who fought hard for their return, and the State Department for providing them with safe departure,” the statement read.
The couple and their baby had spent weeks waiting to cross through the Rafah border into Egypt.
Rep. Sara Jacobs introduces privileged resolution to censure Florida Republican over 'inflammatory' comments
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., introduced a privileged resolution today to censure Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) for what she says are “inflammatory” comments conflating Palestinian civilians with Hamas terrorists on multiple occasions.
The measure marks the fifth censure resolution introduced by a House member in the past week.
Jacobs pointed to comments Mast made last month during a Foreign Affairs Committee markup where he urged a slowdown of humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as recent comments he made on the House floor.
“When we look at this, as a whole, I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as is frequently said, I don’t think we would lightly throw around the term innocent Nazi civilians during World War II," Mast said on the House floor last week.
Jacobs’ resolution must get a vote within two legislative days because it is privileged. It will almost certainly be tabled.
NBC News has reached out to Mast’s office for comment.
Tensions are rising in the U.S. over the Israel-Hamas war, including on college campuses, at rallies and at a sports event.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian supporters have protested across the country and around the world, calling for a cease-fire and an end to U.S. support of Israel as it continues its heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Poet rejects White House invitation over its Gaza response
Canadian poet Rupi Kaur says she’s rejecting a Diwali party invitation from the Biden administration over its handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
“I’m surprised this administration finds it acceptable to celebrate Diwali, when their support of the current atrocities against Palestinians represent the exact opposite of what this holiday means to many of us,” she wrote in a statement posted to her social media accounts. “I refuse any invitation from an institution that supports the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population.”
As a Sikh woman, Kaur, the author of “Milk and Honey,” said the holiday, known as Bandi Chhor Divas in the Sikh faith, makes her reflect on “what it means to fight for freedom against oppression.”
She implored other South Asians in the U.S. to do the same and hold the Biden administration accountable in the wake of Gaza’s civilian death toll, which has passed 10,000.
Netanyahu says shelling won't cease, but it may pause
Netanyahu maintained his stance today against a general cease-fire, but he said the door was open to humanitarian pauses in warfare.
Under pressure from the Biden administration to allow time for humanitarian aid and the safe passage of Palestinian civilians from Gaza's war-torn north, Netanyahu said in an interview aired on ABC's "World News Tonight" that "a cease-fire would be a surrender to Hamas."
But he acknowledged in his first interview with U.S. television since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 that there have been recent "tactical little pauses" in shelling, and he said more were possible.
"As far as tactical little pauses — an hour here, an hour there — we've had them before, I suppose," he told ABC's David Muir. "We'll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave."
And Netanyahu said a cease-fire would happen if hostages are released to allow them safe passage.
He spoke this morning with Biden about "the possibility of tactical pauses to provide civilians with opportunities to safely depart from areas of ongoing fighting, to ensure assistance is reaching civilians in need, and to enable potential hostage releases," the White House said in a statement today.
Yesterday, the IDF's international spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said there had been two humanitarian pauses for a few hours each day over the weekend.
"We stopped firing in certain areas of northern Gaza, which is the main combat area, and we called on Palestinians to move south," Conricus said on CNN.
Al-Quds Hospital’s generator not expected to last 48 hours
Fuel reserves for the power generator at Al-Quds Hospital in the Gaza Strip are expected to run out within 48 hours, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
The group was urgently appealing to “international health and humanitarian organizations to swiftly provide vital assistance and essential supplies” to the northern region, according to a post today on X, which called the matter a humanitarian crisis.
‘We’re the only ones left’: Twin brothers lose family members in Gaza City airstrike
GAZA CITY — Abdullah and Essam Qassem, 23-year-old twin brothers, say they and their father are the only remaining members of their household after an attack on their location in Gaza City killed their mother and three sisters.
"We are the only ones left out of our family," Abdullah said, sitting atop rubble with his brother.
When Al Shati refugee camp was hit yesterday by one of many strikes that have leveled the camp, the twins' father was out getting bread and Essam was at al-Shifa hospital, where many Palestinians have sought refuge from Israeli attacks.
Abdullah was at home at the camp when it was struck, he said. Before he was pulled from the rubble, he said, he could hear his mother beneath the same debris nearby, a wall between them.
"I scream, 'mom, mom!'" Abdullah said, according to an NBC News translation, "But my mom can't hear me."
Almost 100 humanitarian aid trucks arrive in Gaza from Rafah border
Nearly 100 trucks with humanitarian aid arrived today in Gaza, a humanitarian organization said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received 93 trucks with aid, including food, water, medical equipment and medications, from the Egyptian Red Crescent.
The aid arrived from the Rafah crossing, the Palestine Red Crescent said.
Since Oct. 21, 569 trucks have arrived in Gaza, averaging about 33 trucks a day, the group said.
Photos: Hostages' faces are projected on Jerusalem's walls
In a bid to call attention to the plight of hostages and their loved ones, the faces of those being held by Hamas were projected on the old city walls in Jerusalem this evening.
Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon exchange fire with Israel as tension rises on border
RMEISH, Lebanon — Hamas’ military wing said today it fired rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, triggering Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese side of the border.
The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that its militants fired 16 rockets on the town of Nahariya and the southern outskirts of the city of Haifa in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Gaza. Haifa is the farthest city targeted by rockets from the Lebanese side since the Israel-Hamas war started nearly a month ago.
Israel’s air force then carried out airstrikes on “Hezbollah targets” inside Lebanon, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, adding that details would follow later.
The exchange of fire came as Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah said its fighters attacked at least three Israeli military posts along the border around sunset today.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported a drone strike on the outskirts of the village of Aramta near the southern city of Jezzine — a Hezbollah stronghold that is about 12 miles north of the border. It is the third such attack since the latest round of fighting began.