What we know
- Israel says its troops are operating “in the heart” of southern Gaza’s main city, Khan Younis, in an intensifying assault on an area that is thought to house Hamas leaders but is also crowded with civilians, many of whom fled bombardment and battles in the north at Israel's urging.
- The ground operation is fueling an increasingly "apocalyptic" situation for Palestinians in the south, a United Nations official said. Food, water and medicine are running short, and civilians are running out of places to flee for safety.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that his military must retain security control over Gaza after the war, even as he faces growing pressure internationally and at home. Families of those still captive had a "chaotic" meeting with his war Cabinet, according to a participant, as they urge him to prioritize the return of their loved ones.
- Both Netanyahu and President Joe Biden decried alleged sexual assaults committed by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack and urged greater global condemnation. NBC News has reviewed evidence that suggests dozens of Israeli women were raped, sexually abused or mutilated during the terror attacks.
- About 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, where health officials say the death toll has now surpassed 16,200 after weeks of Israeli attacks. The Israel Defense Forces estimates 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack, with around 140 people still held captive in Gaza.
- NBC News’ Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez and Hala Gorani are reporting from the region.
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‘We want to see the civilian death toll lower,’ State Department spokesman says
The U.S. State Departments wants to see the number of civilians killed in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza reduced, and is having “frank discussions” with Israel about the issue, a spokesperson said.
“Too many Palestinian civilians have been killed” and continue to be, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing today.
“A good component of this is the problem presented by Hamas embedding in civilian sites,” he said, but added, “That doesn’t lessen the burden on Israel to do everything it can to reduce civilian harm.”
“We had some very frank conversations with the government of Israel about that,” Miller said, noting that the U.S. continues to have those discussions.
‘Everyone in Gaza is hungry’: World Food Programme, WHO heads again call for cease-fire
Voicing support for the U.N. secretary-general’s calls for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, the heads of the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization said there are dire conditions in the territory.
“The humanitarian system is collapsing. Everyone in Gaza is hungry,” Cindy McCain, the WFP’s executive director, said on social media.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, used similarly stark terms.
“Gaza’s health system is on its knees and near total collapse. We need peace for health,” he wrote.
He said he supported U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ move to invoke Article 99 to urge the Security Council to declare a cease-fire.
Palestinian student paralyzed in Vermont shooting is released from hospital to applause
Hisham Awartani, who was paralyzed from the chest down after he and two other Palestinian college students were shot over Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont, was released from a hospital today to rousing applause.
In a video shared by his family, Awartani, 20, was strapped to a medical stretcher and covered by a red blanket as he waved waving to onlookers standing in a hallway at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.
Israel’s ambassador to U.N. calls Article 99 threat ‘a new moral low’
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, criticized U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ decision to invoke Article 99 as reaching “a new moral low.”
Erdan said invocation of the article, which gives the secretary-general the power to refer matters to the Security Council, is designed to pressure Israel and “is more proof of the Secretary-General’s moral distortion and his bias against Israel.”
“The Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza,” Erdan wrote on X.
Guterres wrote earlier today on X that he was invoking Article 99 and urging the Security Council “to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe [and] appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.”
Senate fails to advance Israel aid over GOP border demand
The Senate today failed to begin debate on Biden’s national security package, which includes aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Republicans unified to filibuster it because of a lack of immigration limits that they have demanded as a condition to win their support.
The failed vote leaves U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel on life support on Capitol Hill, even as Biden makes a dire plea to approve it to stop Russia from conquering Ukraine.
Even if the Senate reaches a deal and passes it, there’s no guarantee it would pass in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is under pressure from conservative hard-liners to insist on a far-reaching border and immigration package, known as H.R. 2, that Democrats say is a nonstarter.
Freed hostages rage at Israeli government, demand more action on rescues
Audio recordings of an Israeli war Cabinet meeting reveal hostages recently freed from Hamas demanding the government take more action to rescue the remaining hostages. A participant of the meeting has confirmed the recording are authentic.
Newborn triplets were ready to go home to Gaza, but war trapped them in Israel without their parents
JERUSALEM — As with most parents of newborns, Hanan and Fathi Beyouq’s faces light up when they see their triplets’ faces.
As the small face of their daughter Najwa emerges from under a pink blanket, their voices rise with excitement as they blow kisses and coo her name.
But unlike other parents, Hanan and Fathi can see their babies only through a cellphone screen.
Hanan’s pregnancy was considered high-risk, so Israel allowed her to leave Gaza briefly in August to give birth at Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. The three girls were born premature, at 31 weeks, on Aug. 24 and put on respirators. But Hanan, 23, had to return to Gaza when her travel permit expired three days after she delivered and leave the newborns behind.
See how a rabbi and an imam work together amid war
“It was important for us to be proactive and make a point in our community that we are not at war with each other.” Longtime friends Rabbi David Fine and Imam Mahmoud Hamza explain to José Díaz-Balart how they have joined forces.
Israel drops leaflets in Khan Younis quoting Quran, residents say
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Residents of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza and the latest focus of the Israeli military’s ground offensive, say the army has showered the area with leaflets quoting a verse in the Quran.
Palestinians deciding whether to flee Khan Younis as Israeli tanks draw closer viewed the quoted verse, “The flood overtook them as they were wrongdoers,” as an ominous portent.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about the leaflet drop. Journalist Aamer Tabsh in Khan Younis said he saw Israeli planes drop thousands of the fliers. Tabsh said residents are convinced the reference to the epic flood of Noah in the Quran and the Bible “means that something much worse is coming.”
Some link it to Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7 attack against Israel, Al Aqsa Flood Battle. Others pointed to recent reports that the Israeli military was considering flooding Hamas’ subterranean tunnel network with seawater to force out the militants.
Israeli military says Hamas leader is hiding underground
JERUSALEM — An Israeli army spokesman says Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar is hiding underground and it is the mission of the Israeli military to “find Sinwar and kill him.”
Israeli forces have pushed deeper into his hometown, Khan Younis, over the past two days, heightening the focus on Sinwar, the Hamas leader seen as the mastermind of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Sinwar grew up in the refugee camp of Khan Younis, which over the decades evolved into a crowded neighborhood of the city. Mohammed Deif, the shadowy military leader of Hamas, is from the camp, as well.
Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.”
Asked later whether that meant troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, as some media had reported, an Israeli army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.”
“Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” Hagari said. “I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.”