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What we know
- Israel's military said today it was intensifying operations around Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city. The assault has forced thousands of civilians to flee the area, although many remain trapped in the encircled city. Around 850 patients were still inside the city's main Nasser Hospital, according to the aid group Doctors Without Borders.
- Overnight, the U.S. said it struck Houthi missiles, radar sites and weapons depots in Yemen that had been prepared to attack cargo ships and American assets in the Red Sea. The military said it also carried out strikes yesterday against Iranian-backed militia facilities in Iraq.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday that his forces would not stop fighting until “absolute victory” was achieved. His comments came a day after 24 soldiers were killed as a building was being wired for demolition with explosives. It was the deadliest day for his country's forces since the war began.
- More than 25,700 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 63,300 have been injured, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
- Israeli military officials said at least 221 soldiers have been killed during the ground invasion of Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed and about 240 hostages were taken after Hamas launched multipronged attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
- NBC News’ Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez, Matt Bradley, Chantal Da Silva, Anna Schecter and Ali Arouzi are reporting from the region.
IDF says its aerial forces and artillery didn't strike U.N. facility
The Israel Defense Forces has ruled out the possibility that a strike against a United Nations facility in Khan Younis came from its aerial forces or artillery.
Nine people were reported killed and others were injured in the strike at a facility of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which an agency official said came from two tank shells.
“After an examination of our operational systems, the IDF has currently ruled out that this incident is a result of an aerial or artillery strike by the IDF,” the IDF said in a statement. “A thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway.”
“The IDF is also examining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire,” the statement said.
Sisters’ story of survival as they escape war zone
Two Palestinian sisters and their father were able to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Turkey. NBC News has been tracking their dramatic story for months, after their family’s home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. NBC News’ Richard Engel reports.
U.S. State Department condemns deadly attack on U.N. facility in Khan Younis
The U.S. State Department “deplores” an attack on a United Nations facility in Khan Younis earlier today that killed at least nine people, a spokesperson for the agency said.
Two tank shells struck the building in Gaza’s second-largest city, Thomas White, director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, said on social media platform X. The facility sheltered 800 people, he said.
“We deplore today’s attack on the U.N.’s Khan Younis Training Center,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a briefing.
“You’ve heard me say it before, you’ve heard the secretary say it before, but civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of U.N. facilities must be respected,” he said.
He added: “We continue to raise with our Israeli partners the need and the responsibility that they have to protect U.N. facilities and to protect humanitarian workers.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his organization is assisting in caring for the injured.
“The ongoing heavy bombardment, evacuation orders and killing of civilians in Khan Younis, Gaza is just horrendous,” he said on X.
Israel will carry on fighting until there is no threat from Gaza, Netanyahu says
Israel will carry on fighting in Gaza to defeat Hamas with “determination,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today.
"We will bring about the collapse of the Hamas regime, return all our abductees home, and ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel," he told lawmakers at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
His comments came two days after 24 soldiers were killed as a building was being wired for demolition with explosives. It marked the deadliest day for Israel's forces since the war began.
Israeli National Police will lead investigation into Palestinian American teen's death in West Bank
The Israeli National Police will lead an investigation into the death of a Palestinian American teen who was fatally shot last Friday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters today.
Vedant Patel, the State Department spokesperson, said the U.S. has been in "close touch" with the Israeli government to "understand the circumstances" of the death of Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, who was born and raised in the Louisiana city of Gretna.
"It's been communicated to us that the investigation will be led by the Israeli National Police, and we expect a thorough and expeditious investigation," Patel said. He added that the U.S. has kept in contact with Patel's family.
Tawfic's family has said he was a victim of mounting settler violence in the West Bank, which has been on the rise since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Biden again interrupted by protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza
WASHINGTON — Biden was interrupted by anti-war protesters for the second time in as many days this afternoon during a United Auto Workers conference in Washington.
At least two protesters stood up during remarks from Biden, whose re-election campaign received the UAW's endorsement today. The protesters were immediately drowned out by UAW workers, who chanted their union's acronym.
The protesters did not budge, however, refusing to move as Biden's speech continued. Eventually, though, they were removed from the room as they tried to shout over the president's remarks.
Biden has faced ferocious criticism from anti-war protesters in the U.S. for standing firmly with the Israeli government amid its aggressive military campaign in Gaza.
White House spokeswoman on cease-fire protesters: They made themselves clear
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the protesters who repeatedly interrupted Biden's rally yesterday with calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and a change in U.S. policy toward Israel, telling reporters that the demonstrators made their voices heard.
Jean-Pierre did not directly answer a question about whether Biden would meet with the protesters who broke into his remarks about abortion rights during a rally in Virginia marking the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that was overturned in 2022.
"I can't speak to any opportunities to engage with the protesters," she said, "but obviously they made their voices very loud and clear, and I'll just leave it there."
National Security Council spokesman says Israel moving to 'targeted operations'
John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters at the White House this afternoon that the Israeli military has "taken steps to transition their operations," moving toward "more targeted operations" against Hamas leadership rather than bombing campaigns.
"They have removed a division of troops. That’s a lot of troops. That’s thousands of troops," Kirby told reporters, referring to Israeli forces. "They are pursuing on-the-ground, more targeted operations ... particularly against the leadership [and] they are relying less on airstrikes."
Israel has drawn intense international criticism for airstrikes that have killed thousands of people across Gaza, most of them women and children, according to health authorities in Gaza.
The comments came hours after the United Nations agency focused on Palestinian refugees reported that nine people were killed and another 75 wounded after two tank rounds hit a building sheltering nearly 1,000 civilians. Kirby told reporters that he did not have "any information on this particular event" but promised to look into it after his news briefing.
Iranian, Turkish leaders say they'll continue 'safeguarding our Gazan brothers and sisters'
The leaders of Iran and Turkey today vowed to continue their “efforts aimed at safeguarding our Gazan brothers and sisters’ security, welfare and future,” according to the Turkish president’s office.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reaffirmed their commitments to the Palestinian people during a meeting in Ankara, a statement added. Raisi’s office said the Turkish government has sent humanitarian aid to civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, but it was otherwise not clear how either country would support the Palestinian people.
Iran has long armed and financed Hamas and does not formally recognize Israel, with past leaders threatening to “wipe Israel from the map.” For decades, Turkey and Israel maintained close ties, but relations have been strained to the breaking point under the rule of Erdoğan.
How Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar stays one step ahead of the Israeli military
TEL AVIV — Where is Yahya Sinwar? As the four-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel approaches, the elusive Hamas leader believed to be the architect of the assault has managed to stay one step ahead of Israel’s military and intelligence services.
Israel Defense Forces recently found cages where they say hostages were kept deep under Khan Younis, Sinwar’s birthplace and a densely populated hub for Hamas’ political activity, current and former Israeli officials told NBC News. They say Sinwar and other Hamas leaders have likely been hiding nearby, carefully protected by layers of Israeli captives and lower-tier Hamas fighters.
“It is a fair assumption that Sinwar and Hamas leadership were close to where those hostages were kept — and then they all moved on,” said Jonathan Conricus, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli reserves and former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based policy institute. “I think being close to hostages has saved his life more than once.”
Hamas has also taken great pains to keep Sinwar’s communications with its political leaders in Doha, the capital of Qatar, undetected by Israeli intelligence, current and former IDF officials said, including during the cease-fire in November that led to the release of around 100 hostages.