Netanyahu vows to restore security in the north, warns Hezbollah it made a 'mistake' launching attacks
TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with soldiers in north Israel today to show support and "to send a message to Hezbollah."
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, has been firing rockets into Israel over the border with Lebanon since Oct. 8 in solidarity with Palestinians. Netanyahu referenced Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, saying that the organization made a “mistake” then and continues to make one now.
"We will do everything to restore security to the north and allow your families, because many of you are local, to return home safely and know that we cannot be messed with," Netanyahu told the troops. "We will do whatever it takes. Of course, we prefer that this be done without a wide war, but that will not stop us."
5-year-old girl in critical condition after Doctors Without Borders shelter hit by shell
The 5-year-old daughter of an aid worker is in critical condition after a shell hit the wall of her shelter in Khan Younis this morning, according to a statement from Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders.
The organization said the daughter of a staff member is among four people injured at the building, where 100 people were sheltering at the time. Doctors Without Borders did not assign blame for the attack and said it was working to learn more.
"The staff and their families have moved to another location," the organization said. "We’re trying to understand what happened. MSF had informed Israeli forces that this was an MSF shelter. We did not receive evacuation orders."
This incident is just the latest example that "no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza," Doctors Without Borders said.
Blinken visited Saudi Arabia ahead of Israel visit
Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia today as he continues his visit to the region and the war in Gaza goes into a fourth month.
The U.S. diplomat is there to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and will travel from there to Israel. Blinken has already made a stop in the United Arab Emirates, where he met with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupt Biden campaign stop
President Joe Biden was visiting Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on a campaign stop today when a group of war protesters interrupted his speech.
“If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a cease-fire in Palestine," one protester shouted.
A pro-Palestinian group began chanting “cease-fire now” but were shortly drowned out with boisterous calls for "four more years." Biden thanked the group but then addressed the demonstrators.
"I understand your passion," Biden said. "I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce significantly and get out in Gaza."
Only 5 U.N. health facilities remain operational in central and southern Gaza
Only five of the U.N.'s 22 health centers remain operational in central and southern Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said today on X.
The post added that there have been 200 incidents impacting its premises in Gaza and displaced people sheltering in them since the Israel-Hamas war began. This included 63 direct hits on its installations in the enclave, it said.
The post came after UNRWA said in a situation report yesterday, that more than 300 people have been killed in its shelters and more than 1,100 had been injured.
Anti-U.S. opinion in Arab countries grows over support for Israel, Middle East leaders tell Blinken
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United States is being blamed by the Arab public along with Israel for the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza, leaders in the Middle East have warned Blinken on his diplomatic tour this week, according to multiple senior administration officials, diplomatic sources, and congressional officials.
Arab leaders delivered the same message to a Senate delegation visiting the region this week according to those familiar with the discussions. They said that the strong popular feeling is being fueled by catastrophic images of the devastation from Israel’s military campaign, the sources said.
And although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of months of fighting ahead, a senior administration official traveling with Blinken told NBC News that the U.S. expects the fighting to end in a matter of weeks. Blinken is expected to tell Israel in meetings this week that it needs to wind down its military campaign as soon as possible and employ better targeting to reduce the number of civilian casualties.
That message comes as outrage grows across the region.
Public opinion in Jordan, for decades America’s closest Arab ally, appears to be particularly negative. According to several senators, officials in Amman told them a recent survey found 70% of those questioned said they supported Hamas. A veteran Jordanian diplomat told NBC News that anti-U.S. sentiment is now so high that American-branded local franchises such as McDonalds and Starbucks have seen business drop dramatically, with many closing.
Still, two senior administration officials told NBC News that while Arab leaders are publicly demanding an immediate cease-fire, they are privately telling Blinken that they are prepared to help with one of his top priorities for this trip: supporting post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza. But they, and the administration, are adamantly against any Israeli reoccupation of Gaza or displacement of Palestinians, as some hard-line ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition have proposed.
Blinken rejected those statements as “irresponsible” and “inflammatory” at a news conference in Doha on Sunday after meeting with Qatari leaders. “Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. They cannot and they must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” he said. Blinken has been focused intently on the humanitarian crisis, and his other top priorities on the trip are getting U.S. and other hostages out of Gaza and preventing the conflict from spreading to other fronts.
Multiple State Department officials have told NBC News that they are eager to hear what Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, says about U.S.-led efforts to combat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea.
After meeting with the crown prince in the kingdom later today, Blinken will head to Israel for talks, followed by final stops in the West Bank and Egypt before returning to the U.S. on Thursday.
Analysis: Israel taking a calculated risk with attacks on Lebanon
What started as tit-for-tat attacks across Israel’s northern border is ratcheting up fears among Middle Eastern leaders that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah will be drawn into a wider conflict.
Today’s news that Wissam Hassan Tawil, one of the Iran-backed militant group’s commanders, was killed will undoubtedly fuel fears further. He is the most important Hezbollah officer to be killed in months.
A number of diplomats have told NBC News that Middle Eastern leaders do not want the conflict to escalate and this is the message they have been conveying to Blinken during his tour of the Eastern Mediterranean region and the Middle East.
While Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has condemned both Israel and the U.S. in a series of recent fiery speeches, no major offensive has materialized, even after the death of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, last week.
“Nasrallah is not interested in a full scale war,” a former IDF general told NBC News last week. The general, who was not authorized to speak publicly, added that Hezbollah had “plenty of chances” to launch that.
Those behind the strike on al-Arouri, which Israel has denied carrying out, “were smart enough not to hit any Hezbollah terrorists,” the general added.
The message from Iran also appears to be that it does not want to get involved in a war.
While Israel is taking risks, it believes they are calculated.
IDF and Hezbollah trade fire over Lebanon border
The IDF said in a statement today that it had struck “a number of areas” in Lebanon after an anti-tank missile was launched from the country toward northern Israel.
An Israeli fighter jet also struck a number of targets in the country, including military sites operated by Hezbollah, the statement added.
Meanwhile, in several statements over the course of today, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli soldiers and military installations.
NBC News could not independently verify the claims from either side.
Israel’s 'brutal' war creates generation of Gaza orphans, Jordan's King Abdullah says
Jordan’s King Abdullah said today that Israel had created a whole generation of orphans with its “brutal” war in Gaza, where he said more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed or were missing as a result of the conflict.
In remarks at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where the monarch spoke of “unspeakable crimes” during that African conflict, Abdullah said a lesson to be drawn was that Israel’s “indiscriminate aggression” in Gaza would never guarantee its security. His remarks were carried on state media following a statement by the royal palace.
“More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year. Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents, an entire generation of orphans,” he said.
“How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they are build on hatred?,” Abdullah said of Israel’s war against the militant group Hamas.
Medical teams forced to withdraw from hospital in Gaza
Emergency medical teams have been forced to withdraw from Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, the International Rescue Committee said yesterday in a statement.
Along with IRC teams, staff from Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British charity had been unable to continue working at the facility, the statement said.
"The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific, and with a huge reduction in the number of staff able to come to the hospital there is even less capacity for treating them," said Nick Maynard, a surgeon and the IRC's clinical lead.
Many local health workers have been unable to access the hospital even as hundreds of patients need care, the statement added.