MUNICH — Applicants for German citizenship in the state of Saxony-Anhalt will need to declare in writing their support for Israel’s right to exist, a press release from the state’s Ministry for Interior and Sport said.

Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 constituent states of Germany and has a population of 2.17 million. The state’s minister for the interior and sport said the new requirement is intended to prevent foreigners with antisemitic attitudes from obtaining German citizenship.

The decree recommended the following wording for applicants:

“I expressly recognize the special German responsibility for the State of Israel and the right to exist of Israel and condemn any anti-Semitic tendencies. I neither pursue efforts that are against the right to exist of the state of Israel, nor have I pursued such efforts.”

Representatives for several international humanitarian groups rang alarm bells about conditions on the ground in Gaza, which they described as "not survivable" in a press call with international journalists on Thursday.

Groups including Oxfam, Action Against Hunger and Save the Children participated in the call. Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead, echoed U.N. comments that "the situation in Gaza is not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic."

Khalidi shared her sister-in-law's messages from Gaza on the Zoom call.

"She said since the bombings resumed, every thought is on our next forced displacement. Our previous evacuation was marked by panic, terrifying the children. My son, only 7, asked for a separate emergency bag, knowing that I might not make it with him," Khalidi said of the messages she received from her sister-in-law.

"The scarcity of aid has led to desperate struggles over water tearing at our social fabric," she added.

A Palestinian man who is known to have mental disabilities was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers in Hebron in the West Bank, his brother told NBC News.

‏"My brother wanted to pass the checkpoint. The army stopped him and asked him where is your ID? His ID was at home," Amer Abu Aber, 30, said. "He wanted to continue on his way, and the soldiers shot him at the checkpoint. My brother is known to everyone as having special needs."

Aber said that his brother, Tariq Ghazawi, was taken to the hospital and has a bone fracture from the shooting. He added that his brother's wife gave birth yesterday to a baby girl.

NBC News has reached out to Israel Defense Forces for comment.

A Palestinian man grieves while carrying the body of a child outside the Nasser Hospital morgue, ahead of the funeral prayer in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, today.

The State Department said it is holding 13 individuals and entities responsible for funding the Houthis in Yemen through a network of exchange houses and companies. Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the funds were generated through the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities.

"The Iranian regime’s support to the Houthis has enabled unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure in Israel and on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden," said Miller. "Attacks launched from Houthi-controlled areas have also threatened U.S. warships operating in international waters."

The Houthis are a rebel militant group with a history of funding from Iran. Over the past couple weeks, they have launched multiple ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel. Yesterday, a U.S. warship shot down an unmanned drone from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

Miller warned that Houthi attacks risk broadening the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading Muslim advocacy group in the U.S., received more than 2,000 requests for help and reports of bias over the last 57 days, according to new data released today.

In the eight weeks between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2, the organization's national headquarters and chapters logged a total of 2,171 complaints — a 172% increase over a similar two-month period last year, according to the organization.

“It’s staggering to see this kind of spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate in less than two months,” said Corey Saylor, the organization's research and advocacy director.

The organization said that First Amendment violations were the most-reported issue during the eight-week period, representing 33.94% of all complaints. The other top issues included employment problems (22.38%), and hate crimes and hate speech (16.7%).

Jewish advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League have tracked a concurrent rise in antisemitism since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, including an uptick in violent threats and hate speech.

The death toll in Gaza has now reached 17,177, with more than 46,000 people injured, said Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“We are facing difficulties in counting the martyrs and wounded due to the continuous bombing and the cutting of communications,” he said on Al Jazeera.

Al-Qudra added that 350 dead bodies and 900 injured people arrived in the region's hospitals within the past 24 hours, contributing to the already overwhelmed health care system in the Palestinian enclave.

Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has been struggling to operate over the past month because of scarce power, fuel and supplies. "The liquidation of health services in northern Gaza will have serious and disastrous repercussions for the wounded," Al-Qudra said. “We face great difficulties in operating the Shifa complex and need the support of international institutions.”

Israeli forces have been allowing some wounded civilians to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt to get treatment, but Al-Qudra said that those who left make up less than 1% of those injured.

Israeli soldiers prepare ammunition onboard a gunship at the Israeli naval base in Ashdod, before setting out to the waters around Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea today.

Israeli strikes killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six others in south Lebanon on Oct. 13, in what was likely a direct attack on civilians and should be investigated as a war crime, two rights groups said today.

Amnesty International said in a statement that it had come to that conclusion after verifying more than 100 videos and photographs, analyzing weapons fragments from the site, and interviewing nine witnesses.

“The findings indicate that the group was visibly identifiable as journalists and that the Israeli military knew or should have known that they were civilians yet attacked them anyway in two separate strikes 37 seconds apart,” it said. The strikes “were likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime,” it added.

Human Rights Watch also released similar findings, as did news agencies Reuters and AFP.

An Israeli government spokesperson said he was not aware of the findings. “We do not target civilians,” spokesperson Eylon Levy said in a televised briefing.