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What we know
- Hamas officials traveled to Cairo today for further cease-fire talks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected proposals from the militant group to end the fighting, insisting that Israel would fight on until it secured "absolute victory." After a second day of talks with Israeli leaders, Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew out of the country without a hostage deal.
- Iraq has criticized the U.S. after it killed a commander of the Iran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militia in a drone strike, calling the attack in Baghdad "a clear-cut assassination operation." U.S. Central Command described Abo Baqir Al-Saadi as being directly responsible for planning and participating in attacks on American forces in the region.
- U.S. strikes launched last week in Iraq and Syria killed or wounded more than 40 militants from Iranian-backed militias in those countries, the Pentagon said.
- Israel stepped up its assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza early today after Netanyahu called it the "last bastion" of Hamas and said his country's military would expand its offensive into the city, where more than half of the strip’s population is sheltering. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the assault would worsen Gaza’s "humanitarian nightmare."
- More than 27,800 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 67,300 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, Matt Bradley and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
Texas A&M to close Qatar campus
The board of regents for Texas A&M University voted today to close its campus in Qatar.
While the university said the Qatar campus was no longer needed, the situation in the region played a role in discussions, with the university citing "heightened instability in the Middle East."
Board Chairman Bill Mahomes said the board decided the university's core mission "should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States."
“By the middle of the 21st century, the university will not necessarily need a campus infrastructure 8,000 miles away to support education and research collaborations," he said.
The vote was 7-1.
Texas A&M at Qatar opened in 2003. Nothing will happen immediately; the termination will take four years, the university said.
Biden says Israel’s military response in Gaza has been ‘over the top’
Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House tonight, offered one of his most pointed criticisms of the Israeli government since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, characterizing the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip as “over the top.”
He added that his administration was working to secure a pause in the fighting.
Biden has expressed support for Israel while increasingly putting pressure on Netanyahu to scale back Israeli military operations in Gaza. Biden’s backing of Israel has been a point of contention among key voting blocs as he seeks re-election.
United Nations chief chief vows immediate action on ‘infiltration of Hamas’ in U.N.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged today to act immediately on any new information from Israel related to “infiltration of Hamas” in the U.N. after nine U.N. staff members in the Gaza Strip were fired last month.
Israel last month accused 12 staff members with the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants. Of the remaining three staff members, one is dead, while the U.N. was clarifying the identity of the two others.
An internal U.N. investigation has been launched as the U.S. — the largest donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — and other countries paused funding following the allegations.
“One thing that you can be absolutely sure, any delegation that is presented to us by the government of Israel in relation to any other infiltration of Hamas in the U.N., at whatever level, we will act immediately upon it,” Guterres told reporters.
Family says two American brothers, 18 and 20, detained in Israeli raid in Gaza
Israeli forces detained two young adult American brothers in Gaza and their Canadian father in an overnight raid on their home in the besieged Palestinian territory, relatives of the men said.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration will “be talking to our Israeli counterparts” about the brothers’ reported detentions.
Borak Alagha, 18, and Hashem Alagha, 20, two brothers born in the Chicago area, are among fewer than 50 U.S. citizens known to still be trying to leave sealed-off Gaza, nearly four months into the Israeli-Hamas war.
Other U.S. green card holders and close relatives of the citizens and permanent residents also are still struggling and unable to leave, despite U.S. requests that they be allowed to exit, according to their American families and advocates.
Cousin Yasmeen Elagha, a law student at Northwestern University, said Israeli forces entered the family home in the town of al-Masawi, near Khan Younis, around 5 a.m. Gaza time Thursday.
The soldiers tied up and blindfolded the women and children in the family and placed them outside the home, the cousin said.
The two American brothers, their Canadian citizen father, a mentally disabled uncle and two other adult male relatives were taken away by the Israelis, and they have not returned, Elagha said.
Men of a neighboring household were also taken away. So were other adult male relatives of another Alagha family household, for a total of about 20 family members detained, the U.S. cousin said.
A family social media account from Gaza also described the detentions.
An advocate for American families who are still trying to get loved ones out of Gaza faulted U.S. officials for not having moved more urgently to help get the Alagha brothers and other Palestinian Americans, U.S. residents and close relatives out of harm’s way in Gaza.
Detention or death in an Israeli airstrike “were two of the biggest fears this family has had all along. And now the worst has happened,” said Maria Kari, an immigration attorney who has been advocating for the family. “It could have been avoided. It could have been avoided if the U.S. had more timely advocated for this family."
The State Department said it was seeking more information on the reported detentions. It cited privacy concerns for the brothers in not commenting further.
U.S. officials said in December that they had helped 1,300 Americans, green card holders and their eligible close family members leave Gaza since Oct. 7.
State Department officials declined last month to say how many people for whom the U.S. has requested permission to leave remain in Gaza, citing the “fluidity” of the situation.
The brothers would be among three American citizens taken into custody by Israeli forces this week, when Blinken was visiting the region to try to mediate with ally Israel and regional Arab leaders.
A Palestinian American woman, Samaher Esmail, 46, was taken from her home in the occupied West Bank on Monday and detained. The Israeli military said she had been arrested for “incitement on social media” and held for questioning.
The U.S. Embassy in Israel said today that it had no updates on her case.
Esmail’s family said the U.S. Embassy asked them today for a list of her medications but said it would not be able to have contact with her before Monday. Relatives said she needs the medication for uterine cancer. The family said it still does not know where she is being held.
The Israeli military and the Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel and Egypt control the official exit lists that are the only authorized way out of Gaza for foreigners and Palestinians. U.S. authorities say they are working with the two U.S. allies to get more of the names of Americans, U.S. residents and their close kin who are seeking to leave placed on the exit lists. The Alagha brothers’ family says they are among those who have been unable to get their names on the lists.
Israeli security forces in the course of the war have rounded up large numbers of Palestinian military-age men in Gaza, later releasing some. Israel says the mass detentions are a necessary part of fighting Hamas. Palestinians say Israel is unjustly including large numbers of civilian men in the sweeps.
More than 40 militants killed or wounded in U.S. strikes
WASHINGTON — More than 40 militants from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have been killed or wounded in a series of U.S. airstrikes launched in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan last month, the Pentagon said.
The casualty estimate was the first offered by Defense Department officials since the Biden administration announced a campaign of reprisal strikes against Iranian-supported militants that Washington blames for more than 160 attacks on American forces in the region.
“Initial indications are that over 40 militants associated with Iranian proxy groups were killed or injured in the U.S. strikes against seven facilities,” the Defense Department press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said of the U.S. bombing raids launched Friday in Iraq and Syria.
“The United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our people, and we will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threaten the safety of our forces,” Ryder said.
The U.S. military was investigating allegations that a civilian had been killed in airstrikes in Iraq, Ryder said.
There were no indications that any Iranians were killed, Ryder said. Iran often deploys members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to assist militias and other proxies in the region.
Ryder also said that a U.S. drone strike yesterday on a car in Baghdad killed a senior commander of the Iranian-backed militia Kata’ib Hezbollah, Abu Baqir al-Saedi, and that the military had “high confidence” that no one else was killed.
The Pentagon previously had not publicly named the militia commander who was killed.
The U.S. military also has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen to try to safeguard commercial ships from Houthi drone and missile attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The U.S.-led strikes in Yemen have destroyed or degraded more than 100 missiles and launchers, three helicopters, drones, communications systems, coastal radars, air defense networks and weapons storage areas, Ryder said.
Biden aides meet in Michigan with Arab American and Muslim leaders, aiming to mend political ties
Top Biden administration officials were meeting today with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan to mend ties with a community that has an important role in deciding whether Biden can hold on to a crucial swing state in the 2024 election.
He faces increasing backlash from Arab Americans and progressives for his vocal support of Israel since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel, although he has insisted he is trying to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.
More than 27,000 people, most of them women and minors, have been killed in Gaza since militants attacked Israel, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 more, most of them civilians, in its attack.
The meetings began this morning and stretched throughout the afternoon. State Rep. Abraham Aiyash, the second-ranking Democrat in the Michigan House, spoke to The Associated Press after a nearly two-hour meeting with the Biden officials this afternoon in Dearborn, describing the conversations as “intense” but “direct.”
“I relayed the emotions and the concerns of our community, and we gave them tangible steps,” said Aiyash, who is the state’s highest-ranking Arab or Muslim leader. “We want to see a permanent cease-fire. We want to be able to see restrictions and conditions on any military aid that is sent to Israel. And we want to see the United States take a serious commitment towards rebuilding Gaza.”
Aiyash added that “there will not be engagement beyond this if we do not see any tangible changes after this discussion.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the meetings were “private.”
“We want to give them the space to have a meeting that certainly has candor, certainly where — we can hear directly from them,” she said.
“We want to hear directly from them. We want to hear their concerns. We believe it’s important for these leaders to be able to speak directly to officials in the White House.”
Michigan is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and more than 310,000 residents are of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Nearly half of Dearborn’s roughly 110,000 residents claim Arab ancestry.
“Dearborn is one of the few places where you have Arab Americans in such a concentrated area that your vote can actually matter,” said Rima Meroueh, the director of the National Network for Arab American Communities. “So it gets the attention of elected officials, because if they want to win the state, they’re going to have to address this population.”
After Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016, Wayne County and its large Muslim communities helped Biden retake the state for the Democrats in 2020 by a roughly 154,000-vote margin. Biden enjoyed a roughly 3-to-1 advantage in Dearborn and a 5-1 advantage in Hamtramck, and he won Wayne County by more than 330,000 votes.
The White House and Biden’s campaign are keenly aware of the political dynamics.
Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, and other campaign aides went to suburban Detroit late last month but found a number of community leaders unwilling to meet with them. Biden traveled to Michigan last week to court union voters but did not meet with any Arab American leaders.
Administration officials making the trip to Michigan today included Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development; principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer; and Steven Benjamin, who directs the Office of Public Engagement, a White House official said.
In addition to Aiyash, the administration was also meeting with Arab American and Muslim leaders, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad I. Turfe and Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani.
Hammoud said in a statement after his meeting with Biden officials, “We represented the voices of Dearborn in a two-hour-long policy discussion with senior advisors.”
“This meeting was held to ensure that the White House and those with the ability to change the course of the genocide unfolding in Gaza very clearly hear and understand the demands of our community,” he said.
Some community leaders, including Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, said they had declined invitations from the White House.
Aiyash, Hammoud and Turfe are among more than 30 elected officials in Michigan who have signed on to a “Listen to Michigan” campaign and pledged to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s Feb. 27 presidential primary.
Imran Salha, the imam of the Islamic Center of Detroit, told reporters before a protest today in Dearborn that he is calling for “all people of conscience to vote ‘uncommitted’” in the state’s primary.
“We’re going to have the conversation at the ballot,” Salha said. “The main thing ... it’s about the bombs. While people are talking, bombs are falling. The only way for us to converse is to add pressure.”
About three dozen demonstrators chanting “free, free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” marched from a shopping mall parking lot to near the hotel where the meeting took place. Some walked with children or pushed kids in strollers.
“I’m 100% Palestinian,” said Amana Ali, 31, who said she was born in the U.S. “I feel the need to fight for where I came from and where my people came from.”
Aruba Elder of Dearborn said new words are needed to describe what she said were the atrocities the Israeli army is committing in Gaza.
“We’ve passed brutality. We’ve passed every word you can think of to describe a humanitarian crisis,” Elder said. She said she hopes the protest and others like it continue to create awareness.
“You can’t give up. It’s worked in the past, hasn’t it?” she said.
Militant killed in Baghdad strike was key figure in Iranian-backed militia
The militant killed yesterday in a U.S. military strike in Baghdad was an important figure in an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and played a key role in months of attacks against U.S. forces in the region, regional analysts and U.S. officials say.
Abu Baqir al-Saedi was the chief of operations for the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group in Iraq and had close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which oversees and arms Iran’s proxies across the Middle East. Al-Saedi also is suspected of overseeing a drone attack on the United Arab Emirates in 2021, analysts said.
An umbrella group of Iran-affiliated militias, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, announced al-Saedi’s death after the strike, and Kata’ib Hezbollah posted a photo of him and a car destroyed by an explosion in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood.
Saedi “was a major figure within the operational heart of Kata’ib Hezbollah — a trusted aide to its former leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis and reportedly a leading player in KH’s external operations wing,” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute think tank.
“Given his status, position and relationships, Saedi would unquestionably have been someone in the room with the [Revolutionary Guard’s] Quds Force — he was also the primary operative coordinating the receiving and distribution of Iranian drones and missiles for use in attacks on ‘external’ targets,” Lister said.
“Removing Saeedi from the scene won’t in any [way] cripple KH or the wider Iranian proxy network in Iraq, but it removes a veteran of the group’s now more than 20-year campaign against the United States,” he added.
A U.S. official said that “this precision strike was against an individual directly involved in attacks against Americans.”
Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank said Al-Saedi was “very senior.”
“This guy is one of a club of five or six of the most senior people” in the group, said Knights, who studies Iran’s network of proxies.
The strike sent a clear message to “the enemy that if you attack our forces and kill them, you are going to get hunted down to the ends of the Earth,” Knights said.
Iranian-backed militias have scaled back the pace and intensity of their attacks on U.S. forces over the past week, even before the Biden administration launched a series of retaliatory air strikes Friday, according to Knights and other analysts.
White House would not support major Israeli military operations in Rafah
The White House said today it would not support any plans by Israel for major military operations in Rafah and said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had made clear U.S. concerns about such operations.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed at the press briefing there was no indication Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has immediate plans to deploy the IDF into the southern Gaza city.
“We’ve seen no plans that would convince us that they are about to or imminently going to conduct any kind of major operations in Rafah,” Kirby said.
Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city today, where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.
Senate advances Ukraine and Israel aid after GOP blocked larger border bill
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday afternoon to proceed with a stripped-down bill that would provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, one day after Republicans in the chamber rejected a bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill.
The vote of 67-32 means the Senate can begin consideration of the $95 billion package, although the next steps are uncertain and it’s not yet clear it will have the votes for final passage in the chamber.
“This is a good first step. This bill is essential for our national security,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor after the vote. “Failure to pass this bill would only embolden autocrats like Putin and Xi, who want nothing more than America’s decline. Now that we are on the bill, we hope to reach an amendment with our Republican colleagues on amendments.”
He said the Senate would keep at it “until the job is done.”
Houthis say U.S. raid in Yemen ‘futile and failed’
The spokesman for the Houthis in Yemen blasted last night's airstrikes against the militants as "futile and failed," saying that the "continuation of the American-British aggression represents a violation of the sovereignty of an independent state."
"We affirm that this will not prevent the Yemeni armed forces from continuing their supportive mission for Gaza, nor will the aggression be able to provide security for Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine."