What we know
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as he tries to advance the cease-fire talks and pushes for a larger postwar settlement for the Gaza Strip. The meetings came after Saudi Arabia said it would not engage in diplomatic relations with Israel without recognition of an independent Palestinian state and an end to the assault on the enclave.
- Hamas has proposed a cease-fire plan that would include the release of 1,500 prisoners, including 500 people serving life sentences, an Arab source has told NBC News. The proposal also includes developing a three-year plan, with a road map to rebuild homes and other infrastructure destroyed in the war, the source said.
- A Kata’ib Hezbollah commander was killed in a U.S. drone strike today in Baghdad as part of the country's response to an attack on American forces in the region two weeks ago. The U.S. first launched retaliatory strikes in both Iraq and Syria last week following an attack on a base in Jordan, which killed three U.S. soldiers.
- Iran-backed Houthi militants fired six anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a U.S. defense official told NBC News. Three of the missiles were attempting to hit a bulk carrier transiting the Gulf of Aden. Earlier, the Houthis released a statement threatening to "escalate more and more" unless the "aggression" against Gaza ends.
- More than 27,700 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 67,000 have been injured, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
- Israeli military officials said at least 224 soldiers have been killed during the ground invasion of Gaza.
- NBC News’ Keir Simmons, Raf Sanchez, Courtney Kube, Matt Bradley and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
A drone strike in eastern Baghdad targeted the leadership of the Iranian-backed militia Kata’ib Hezbollah and reportedly killed Abo Baqir Al-Saadi, described by U.S. Central Command as being directly responsible for attacks on U.S. forces in the region.
White House officials to visit Michigan to meet with Muslim and Arab American community leaders
Senior Biden administration aides will travel to Michigan tomorrow to hear directly from Muslim and Arab American community leaders on their top issues and concerns, including, most notably, the Israel-Hamas war and civilian casualties in Gaza.
The White House teased the upcoming visit to Michigan when President Joe Biden traveled to Detroit last week for a labor-focused event with the United Auto Workers union.
The meeting with Muslim and Arab American community leaders in Detroit is a White House-driven event. Biden campaign officials are not planning to participate at this time.
Stabbing of Palestinian American man in Texas was motivated by bias, police say
A Palestinian American man was stabbed in the back in Austin, Texas, after he attended a protest in support of Gaza in what police are calling a “bias-motivated incident.”
Zacharia Doar, 23, was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend’s car Sunday when a man opened his door and dragged him to the ground, his father, Nizar Doar, said today.
In the scuffle, the victim saw the man charging his friend with a knife. When he went to protect his friend, he was stabbed in the upper left side of his back, a few inches from his heart, his father said, adding that the knife broke his son’s rib.
“He is really, really in a lot of agony and a lot of pain at this moment,” the elder Doar said. “It’s sad to be here. Seeing my son suffering is sad to see.”
The attack happened around 7 p.m., police said, hours after the protest had ended and after the victim had gotten food with his friends.
Nizar Doar said he believes his son was targeted because the car had a distinctly patterned Palestinian kaffiyeh, or scarf, tied to a door handle.
Blinken says Israel has 'obligation' to put civilians first as military expands into Rafah
The daily toll on Palestinians in Gaza as a result of Israel's military campaign in the strip remains "too high" as the war continues into its fifth month, Blinken told reporters today after his meeting with Israeli government officials.
Blinken spoke as fighting bleeds into the southern city of Rafah, which has become highly populated since the war began. He said at his briefing that Israel has both the obligation and the responsibility "to do everything possible to ensure that civilians are protected."
"And that's especially true in the case of Rafah, where there are somewhere between 1.2 and 1.4 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Gaza," Blinken said.
Blinken says Hamas' counterproposal has 'absolute nonstarters'
Hamas' response to a potential hostage deal had what Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as "absolute nonstarters," but he still expressed some optimism about forward movement.
"But at the same time, we see in what was sent back space to continue to pursue an agreement," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv. "And these things are always negotiations — it's not flipping a light switch. It's not yes or no. There's invariably back and forth."
Blinken did not describe what the "nonstarters" were, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to reject the idea of a total cease-fire that Hamas has repeatedly demanded. He also said that he has not committed to exchanging the high number of Palestinians in Israeli detention for the 136 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
An Arab source told NBC News earlier today that Hamas asked for the release of 1,500 prisoners, including 500 people serving life sentences. The counter also proposed a plan to rebuild Gaza, an influx of aid and freedom of movement within the Palestinian enclave.
Militant commander killed in U.S. drone strike in Baghdad
A Kata’ib Hezbollah commander was killed in a U.S. drone strike today in Baghdad as part of the response to an attack on American forces in the region two weeks ago, a U.S. official confirmed to NBC News.
The U.S. first launched retaliatory strikes in both Iraq and Syria last week following an attack on a base in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers.
Kata’ib Hezbollah announced the death of Abo Baqir Al-Saadi on its Telegram channel today following Iraqi news report that a drone strike had hit a car in eastern Baghdad.
U.S. Central Command posted a statement on X announcing the strike, describing the man killed as someone directly responsible in planning and participating in attacks on American forces in the region.
"There are no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time," the post said.
Hamas says Israel never intended to halt Gaza incursion
TEL AVIV — A Hamas official has said he believes Israel never had any intention of halting its incursion into the Gaza Strip or of accepting the group’s counterproposal to a hostage release deal negotiated in Paris at the end of January.
“They want just to implement their program, their own agenda, not just to dismantle Hamas but to kick the Palestinians out of their homeland,” Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’ leading political office and a senior representative of the militant group in Beirut, said in an exclusive phone interview from Lebanon.
While some members of Netanyahu’s government have raised the possibility of “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians out of Gaza and re-establishing Jewish settlements in the enclave, Netanyahu himself has rejected these proposals. Israel evacuated Jewish settlements from Gaza in 2005.
Hamas’ ambitious counterproposal — which extended by at least a factor of three the length of the Paris proposal and called for the Israel Defense Forces' complete withdrawal from Gaza, among other things — drastically upped the ante in negotiations to free more than 100 hostages, dampening hopes the two sides might soon arrive at a deal to free the hostages and end the war.
Netanyahu today rejected permanent cease-fire demands, adding that Israel will fight until “absolute victory.”
The prime minister insisted that Hamas’ military power must be dismantled before Israel can consider a withdrawal.
“I’m counting on the international community to have realized the real goals of the Israeli attack on Gaza and the real goals of this government and understand that those goals will not create stability in the region,” Hamdan said. “In fact, they will create more instability in the region and it may lead to wider instability and maybe a long-term struggle.”
When asked whether Hamas’ goals were in the interest of the suffering residents of Gaza, where more than 27,000 people are believed to have died since the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 in Israel and resulted in the abduction of 240, Hamdan said Israel’s offer to only temporarily halt the fighting would only extend Palestinians’ pain.
“For sure they want an end to the fight,” he said. “But they want it to be a complete end to the fight. They don’t want it to be a pause and then the Israelis come back to kill them another time.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and wounded in the war, and around 90% of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes. While Israel has been criticized internationally for its conduct during the war, Hamas has continued to fight and launch rockets at civilian communities.
Hamas delegation will go to Egypt to keep up cease-fire talks, official says
BEIRUT — A senior Hamas official says the Palestinian militant group will be sending a delegation to Cairo to continue talks on a cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Osama Hamdan made the remarks Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Hamas plan that would effectively leave the group in power, a scenario that contradicts Israel’s stated war aims.
Hamdan did not say when the delegation would leave to Cairo. But its departure signals that talks are still ongoing despite the posturing from both Hamas and Netanyahu.
Hamdan said the group’s terms would continue to evolve while insisting on a permanent cease-fire.
Speaking from the Lebanese capital Beirut, Hamdan called on the group’s militants to carry on its confrontations with the Israeli military.
Former hostages respond to Netanyahu: 'Abandonment will be a death sentence'
A group of former hostages who were released from Gaza held a news conference following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's briefing today, urging the government to prioritize hostage releases over the war with Hamas.
Sharon Cunio, who was released with her 3-year-old twin daughters during the last deal, said that "abandonment will be a death sentence, a stain for generations." Her husband, David, remains in captivity since their Oct. 7 abduction.
"We have reached the moment of truth," Cunio said. "The most terrible moment of all when you are destined to decide who is for life and who is for death, who will return and who will become prey to human animals."
Former hostage Adina Moshe, whose husband was killed by Hamas, said she was released but her friends still remain captive. She recalled the suffering prior to her release, her fears that her friends may not have survived, and then addressed the prime minister directly.
"I am turning to you, Mr. Netanyahu," Moshe said. "Everything is in your hands. I am very afraid and fear that if you continue with this line of collapse Hamas, there will be no prisoners left to release."