What we know
- As Israel pushes forward with its deadly assault on the southern Gaza Strip, the United States has warned that Israel must "put a premium on civilian protection" while it battles Hamas. In a rare criticism of its close ally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "there does remain a gap between ... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground."
- The Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza is set to be reopened in the coming days for inspections of aid trucks, a move seen as a much-needed boost to humanitarian operations in the Palestinian enclave as supplies of food, water and medicine run short.
- The United Nations Security Council met to vote on whether to urge an immediate cease-fire, after Secretary-General António Guterres invoked a rarely used power to warn an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza risked a total breakdown in public order. The U.S. vetoed the resolution.
- About 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, where health officials say the death toll has now surpassed 17,000 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, Hala Gorani, Hallie Jackson and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
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Kirby: U.S. working to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza
The National Security Council's spokesperson today stopped short of agreeing that Gaza is on the brink of collapse.
Asked if he agreed with the assessment of a United Nations' official who said Gaza is "on the brink of full-blown collapse," John Kirby said, "I would just say we’re mindful of the extreme humanitarian suffering inside Gaza, and we're doing everything we can to help alleviate that."
Thomas White, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said today civil order in Gaza was breaking down and much-needed shipments of aid were being looted if they make it through at all.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said today aid was being choked off, with only 69 trucks with vital supplies making it into the enclave yesterday.
Kirby, speaking aboard Air Force One en route to Las Vegas, said "dozens" of trucks carrying aid were being held up by Israeli inspections, and the United States would like to see about 200 such trucks reach Gaza each day.
U.S. official says Israel scaled back northern Gaza incursion over civilian casualty concerns
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby today said Israel scaled back its military operations in northern Gaza over concerns about potential civilian casualties raised by the United States.
"They have, in fact, taken some steps to try to be more careful," he said during a news conference aboard Air Force One. "For instance their movement into Gaza, north Gaza, was smaller than originally planned. And some of that is based on some council and perspective that we shared."
U.S. military advisers with experience in Iraq, described as urban warfare experts, helped advise Israel on "deliberate and precise targeting," Kirby said en route to Las Vegas.
The time frame for the scaled-back operation Kirby described wasn’t completely clear.
Gaza health officials say at least 17,000 people, including children and civilians, have died in the war between Israel and Hamas following the latter's Oct. 7 attack. Israel, which said it has all but dismantled Hamas in the north, is now focused on southern Gaza.
It was Israel's targeting of caravans and hospitals in northern Gaza — military officials said they were used to shroud enemy operations — that prompted calls for a war crime investigation, which is under way.
World Food Program director describes chaotic scene in Gaza
The World Food Program's deputy executive director, Carl Skau, visited Gaza today and he said nothing prepared him for the "fear, the chaos, and the despair" he saw.
"Confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms," Skau said in a statement. "The dull thud of bombs was the soundtrack for our day."
Skau said one woman told him she lived with nine other families in an apartment where they all took turns sleeping at night because they can't all lay down at the same time.
Skau's said his team got stuck at the Rafah crossing at the start of their mission, which he said is "a reminder of how cumbersome it is to get critical aid and staff into Gaza and the critical need for more border crossings."
The deputy director said he visited WFP staff in Gaza, where the breakdown of law and order prevented any meaningful humanitarian work from taking place. Gazans are desperate and living in packed, unhealthy shelters or on the streets in the cold, and have little food, Skau said.
"A WFP survey taken during the pause in hostilities, showed that Gazans are simply not eating. Nine out of ten families in some areas spent a full day and night without any food at all. When asked how often this happened, they told us that for up to 10 days in the past month, they had not eaten food," Skau said.
Skau called for more than one crossing and safe passage for Palestinians in order to continue their humanitarian operations, Skau said.
"This will only be possible with a humanitarian ceasefire and ultimately, we need this conflict to end," he said.
U.K. mission abstains from U.N. resolution over lack of condemnation of Hamas
The United Kingdom said it has abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote on a Gaza cease-fire because the resolution failed to condemn the terror group Hamas.
The United States vetoed the resolution, put forth by the United Arab Emirates, that called for a humanitarian cease-fire in Israel’s war against Hamas and its military campaign in Gaza.
“We are gravely concerned about the desperate situation in Gaza,” the U.K. mission said, adding that the civilian casualties and displacement can’t continue.
“But we cannot vote in favour of a resolution which does not condemn the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent Israeli civilians on the 7th of October,” the U.K. mission said in a statement.
“Calling for a ceasefire ignores the fact that Hamas has committed acts of terror and is still holding civilians hostage,” it continued.
The U.K. mission to the U.N. also said that Israel has a right to address the threat posed by Hamas but must do so in accordance with international humanitarian law. The U.K. had also expressed support for an eventual two-state solution.
IDF arrested civilians, forced them to take off their clothes and handcuffed them, Gaza media office says
The Israel Defense Forces arrested civilians in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and forced them to take off their clothes, according to the Gaza Media Office.
The civilians were then blindfolded, put in trucks and taken to the seashore and left in the cold, the media office said.
"They ordered some of them to return to their homes and kept others under arrest, torture, and interrogation," the media office said in a statement. "One of the eyewitnesses who lived through these harsh hours says: 'We returned to our homes while we were walking naked, and we were surprised that most of the homes that we left from were burned and stolen by the Israeli occupation soldiers.'"
Dozens of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and made to kneel while detained by Israeli soldiers in Gaza can be seen in images that emerged on social media yesterday.
The IDF said in a statement that it worked with the ISA to apprehend what they called "hundreds of wanted suspects throughout the Gaza Strip."
The photos and videos were circulated widely. NBC News was able to geolocate some of the footage of the city of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. It was unclear exactly when and in what circumstances the detentions depicted in the images occurred, although it appears to be the first time that such images have been shared online and by Israeli news media.
In one photo shared on social media, men can be seen wearing nothing but underwear as they kneel in a line, surrounded by soldiers in full combat gear wielding guns amid shoes and clothing that are lying scattered on the ground.
Wharton advisory group calls for resignation of Penn president over antisemitism testimony
The Wharton Board of Advisors, the governing body of the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious business school, joined a growing chorus demanding the resignation of the university's president over testimony she gave this week at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
In the undated letter to Penn President Liz Magill, the board wrote that the Ivy League school "requires new leadership with immediate effect." The board is largely made up of business and finance industry executives.
In a five-hour House hearing Tuesday, Magill and her counterparts at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were grilled over how their institutions have responded to a rise in anti-Jewish hate since Oct. 7.
In their testimonies, the three university leaders each condemned antisemitism. The outcry centered on a contentious exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who asked whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" would violate each school’s code of conduct.
Instead of directly replying to Stefanik’s yes-or-no question, Magill said that decision would be "context-dependent." She said: "If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment."
Magill's testimony has been sharply criticized by a White House spokesperson, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, lawmakers in both parties and Jewish advocacy groups.
In a two-minute video message posted Wednesday night on the social media platform X, Magill elaborated on her answer and condemned calls for the genocide of Jewish people in more unequivocal terms.
“I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” she said in the video.
The letter from the Wharton advisory board was first reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the university's student newspaper.
U.S. blocks cease-fire resolution at U.N. Security Council
The United States once again blocked the U.N. Security Council from demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, vetoing a resolution by the United Arab Emirates less than one hour before the top diplomats from the League of Arab Nations met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
“Although the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said shortly after the vote. The U.S. also accused the council of a rushed process that resulted in an “unbalanced” resolution that was “divorced from reality.”
Of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, the U.S. was the sole vote against the resolution with 13 voting in favor and the United Kingdom abstaining.
“Mr. President, the United Arab Emirates is deeply disappointed with the outcome of today’s vote, regrettably, and in the face of untold misery, this council is unable to demand a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UAE’s deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Mohamed Abushahab said. “Let me be clear against the backdrop of the Secretary General’s grave warnings, the appeals by humanitarian actors, the world’s public opinion, this council grows isolated. It appears untethered from its own founding document.”
Two soldiers injured during operation to rescue hostages in Gaza, IDF says
Two soldiers were seriously injured during an operation to rescue hostages in Gaza last night, according to the IDF.
The IDF raided the site and killed members of Hamas they believe took part in kidnapping and holding hostages, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. No hostages were rescued in the operation, he added.
Hagari also said that the IDF has arrested more than 200 "suspects" in the last 48 hours to be interrogated, which include Hamas commanders.
Images of dozens of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and made to kneel while detained by Israeli soldiers in Gaza emerged on social media yesterday.
NBC News has not independently confirmed if all those detained have connections to Hamas or the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Video: Mother of teen kidnapped by Hamas speaks out
The mother of a teen kidnapped by Hamas who was seen across the world in one of the first videos following the Oct. 7 attack says she could "see the terror in her eyes."
“It’s so difficult for me to even think and speak about it … I don’t even know what words to use," Ayelet Levi said.
Gaza is 'reaching a point of no return,' UNRWA says
The U.N. agency in Gaza said today that the strip is now "reaching a point of no return," adding that international law was blatantly being disregarded there.
"An end to the fighting is imperative if we are to avert the decimation of #Gaza and contain the spillover of this crisis," it said in a post on X.