Negotiators agreed on new hostage deal framework to put to Hamas, source tells NBC News
Negotiators from Israel, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar agreed in Paris on a framework for a new hostage deal, a source familiar with the talks tells NBC News.
The deal would see the release of the remaining American and Israeli hostages in phases starting with the women and children, accompanied by phased pauses in the fighting and aid deliveries to Gaza, along with the exchange of Palestinian prisoners, the source said.
A draft is being presented to Hamas today, they added. In the past, the militant group has been insisting on an immediate permanent cease-fire first, which would be a deal-breaker.
The negotiators were the prime minister of Qatar and the leaders of the other countries' intelligence agencies. The Qatari leader will be interviewed by Andrea Mitchell and The Washington Post’s David Ignatius at noon today, his first interview since arriving in Washington from the Paris talks.
Austria joins growing list of countries suspending UNRWA donations
Austria suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency today, over “deeply shocking and extremely disturbing” allegations that some of its staff were involved in Hamas Oct. 7 attacks.
“We call on UNRWA and the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive, rapid and complete investigation into the allegations,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that possible participants in the attacks “must be held accountable.”
“Until all of these allegations have been fully clarified and the consequences drawn from them are clear, Austria, in coordination with international partners, will temporarily suspend all further payments to UNRWA,” the statement said.
The U.S., Canada, the U.K. and other countries have also paused donations to UNRWA.
Israel strikes area in southern Damascus where Iranian fighters based, state media and war monitor report
Two people were killed by an apparent Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, when Iran-backed fighters have a presence, Syrian media and an opposition war monitor reported today.
The Al-Sayidah Zeinab area “is considered one of the headquarters of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Separately a military source told Syrian state media that civilians were killed.
NBC News could not independently verify these claims.
Earlier, Syria’s national news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that Israel launched “an air aggression” on a number of targets to the south of Damascus resulting in “a number of martyrs and wounded civilians, in addition to some material losses.”
Separately, Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Israeli forces launched an attack on an advisory center belonging to Iran in Syria.
Biden is working through retaliation options after attack on U.S. base in Jordan, Kirby says
Biden is working through his options after he vowed to retaliate for the deaths of three U.S. troops who were killed in a drone attack on a U.S. base in Jordan, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, told "TODAY" this morning.
“We’ve got to do what we have to do to protect our troops in our facilities. What the options are available to the president — we’re still working through that, he’s still working his way through that,” Kirby said. “And I don’t want to close down any decisions based on it on his behalf
Stressing that the administration doesn’t “want a wider war with Iran,” he added that the U.S. knew Tehran was backing militant groups in the region.
“We know that they are resourcing, they’re supplying in some cases, they’re providing information that allows these groups to do this,” he said.
“We’re taking that very seriously. We don’t want a wider war with Iran. We don’t want a wider war in the region, but we got to do what we have to do,” he added.
Protesters try to block Gaza aid at Kerem Shalom border
Israeli protesters, including relatives of the hostages held in Gaza, wave national flags and hold placards during a demonstration aimed at blocking aid trucks from entering the Palestinian territory through the Kerem Shalom border crossing with southern Gaza today.
Vital services have 'collapsed' at Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, Doctors Without Borders says
Vital medical services at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis have “collapsed,” Doctors Without Borders said today on X.
“Hospitals need to remain protected spaces,” the international aid organization said. “People and medical workers must be allowed to access and provide healthcare.”
No hospital in Gaza is currently fully functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
Gaza operations will cease after February if funding does not resume, UNRWA says
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency warned today that its humanitarian operations in Gaza and across the region will have to cease beyond the end of February if its funding is not resumed.
Almost a dozen countries including the U. S., the U.K. and Germany, have paused their funding to the aid agency in the wake of allegations that 12 UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
“If the funding is not resumed, UNRWA will not be able to continue its services and operations across the region, including in Gaza, beyond the end of February,” a spokesperson for the agency told Reuters.
Man seriously injured in car ramming attack near Haifa naval base, paramedics say
A man was seriously injured in a car ramming attack in the city of Haifa today, Israel's Magen David Adom paramedic service said in a statement on Facebook today.
“When we arrived on scene we found the casualty conscious, lying by wall, with serious lower limb injuries,” Hanan Zohar, a paramedic, said in the statement.
The statement said the incident happened near a naval base in the northern port-city. It added that the man was in serious condition and was taken to the city's Rambam Hospital for treatement.
Anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian incidents in the U.S. rose 180% after Oct. 7, advocacy group says
Complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate in the U.S. rose by about 180% in the three months after Hamas Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war on Gaza, an advocacy group said today.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it had received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023.
The figure is a 178% rise from complaints in the same period from a year earlier and came amid what CAIR called “an ongoing wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate.”
Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League said that in the three months after Oct. 7, U.S. antisemitic incidents rose by 360% compared to the prior year. However, the group also said that the data since Oct. 7 includes 1,317 rallies that were marked by “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.” The group said such rallies held before Oct. 7 were “not necessarily included” in its earlier data.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they launched missile at U.S. warship
Yemen's Houthi militant group said today that they fired a missile targeting a U.S. Navy ship when it was sailing in the Gulf of Aden near the Red Sea.
The decision to attack the ship USS Lewis B. Puller last night came in defense of Yemen and in support of the Palestinian people, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement.
The spokesperson added that the group would carry on targeting Israeli ships and vessels bound for Israel until the war with Hamas in Gaza ended.
NBC News has reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment, but a defense official, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said there had been no reported attack.