Israel-Hamas war: U.S. official rejects claims that U.S. airdrop killed civilians

E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Cyprus today to meet with President Nikos Christodoulides in the capital Nicosia, according to the commission.

Leyen will also visit the Larnaca port and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre as she checks up on the plan for opening a humanitarian corridor into Gaza.

Family members of Americans detained abroad gave remarks outside of the White House today, in front of the new flag for their cause ahead of tomorrow’s Inaugural U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day.

Asked by NBC News what they thought of President Biden’s State of the Union remarks promising to secure the release of Israeli-Americans held hostage by Hamas, Maryam Kamalmaz, co-chair of the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, had strong words.

“We’re very happy for them, we’re not jealous,” she said of the Israeli-American hostages’ families who have met with Biden. "But treat us all equally. We’re human. We’re all Americans. That’s all we’re saying. Don’t differentiate between hostages.”

Harrison Li, whose father has been wrongfully detained in China — and who attended the SOTU as a guest of Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) — said he didn’t expect President Biden to name everyone held abroad, but was concerned by the complete omission.

“We’re all in agreement that the hostages being brutally captured by Hamas need to come home — as do all American hostages, all wrongful detainees — there is no question about that,” said Li. “All we are asking is for our government to give us equal treatment. And for President Biden to consistently ignore us, pretend that we don’t even exist?”

The Pentagon denied that U.S. airdrops of aid were responsible for any civilian casualties in Gaza after the enclave's civil defense said the five people were killed today by "aircraft incorrectly dropping aid."

At a Department of Defense press briefing this afternoon, Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that reports of U.S. airdrops resulting in civilian casualties on the ground are false "as we’ve confirmed that all of our aid bundles landed safely on the ground."

CIA Director William Burns is in the Middle East again to hold more talks on a possible hostage release and cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Burns’ trip included a stop in Cairo before heading to the Qatari capital of Doha today, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The unannounced trip was reported first by CBS News. 

The maritime corridor that President Biden announced last night in his State of the Union address could take up to 60 days to be fully operational, according to two senior U.S. officials. 

The corridor will include a floating dock and a pier where humanitarian aid can be staged and then ferried to Gaza.

The U.S. military will do much of the setup, what they usually refer to as a Joint Logistics Over The Shore (JLOTS) operation. 

The officials said they are hoping to get the system up and running in as little as 30 days, but 45 to 60 is more realistic.

A video posted to Instagram by Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul appears to show the botched air drop of aid that Gaza's civil defense said killed five people today. The video does not show anyone getting harmed and it is unclear if Al-Ghoul took it himself. NBC News has not independently verified the claims.

The caption reads:  "This is what the airdrop on Gaza City left behind, a martyr and several injuries as a result of a failed drop on citizens’ homes north of the Beach Camp."

The United Nations expert on torture told Reuters today that she was investigating allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinians detained in Israel.

In an exchange with Reuters during a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Dr. Alice Jill Edwards said she had recently received allegations concerning Palestinians who were being held in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or detained because of the conflict in Gaza.

"I'm looking into that as we speak and carrying out a fact-finding investigation," said Edwards, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

"I'm calling on ... Hamas, the state of Palestine, Israel to put their torture tools down, to really have a focus on peace and a prospect of living side-by-side as neighbors in the future," she added, according to a Reuters report on the exchange.

Israel's military has insisted that its military operations in the Gaza Strip are intended to dismantle Hamas and rescue hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas attackers in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, is considered a terror organization by the U.S. and the U.K.

An NBC News camera crew filmed former residents of the Al-Amal area of Khan Younis as they tried to salvage belongings from the rubble of their destroyed homes before the possible return of Israeli tanks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he welcomed Biden's comments on the Israel-Gaza war in his State of the Union speech.

Abbas' office said in a statement on its Telegram channel today that it expressed its "satisfaction and appreciation" for Biden's words, particularly on the need for a six-week cease-fire and an eventual two-state solution.

This was, the Palestinian Authority said, "consistent with the Palestinian truth and demands that President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly expressed."

"The U.S. President stressed that Israel has a primary responsibility to protect civilians, and to allow more aid to pass through, warning Israeli leaders that humanitarian aid cannot be considered a secondary issue or a bargaining chip," the statement said.