Israel-Hamas war: U.S. intelligence report suggests Netanyahu's far-right government may be in jeopardy

The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing Columbia University over its decision last fall to suspend two student groups that protested Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war.

The lawsuit, announced today, accuses the Ivy League school of violating its own rules by suspending the groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, a day after their Nov. 9 campus protest sponsored by more than 20 groups. The next day, the two groups were suspended for allegedly violating university policy and were given no opportunity to respond to the charges or contest them, the lawsuit says.

The protest came in the heated weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, which sparked the war and Israel’s subsequent ground invasion of Gaza, when demonstrations were organized by both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students at Columbia and on other U.S. campuses. Students on both sides complained of harassment and bias incidents.

Columbia had said in a statement that the Nov. 9 demonstration “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” The two groups’ suspensions, which are still in effect, ban them from holding on-campus events or getting school funding. The lawsuit, filed by the NYCLU and Palestine Legal, an advocacy organization, seeks to nullify the suspensions “and related relief.”

WASHINGTON — The White House urged Hamas militants in Gaza to release women, elderly and wounded hostages and accept a temporary cease-fire in the fighting with Israel in order to secure a more lasting one.

“A cease-fire is on the table today, for six weeks, to be built on into something more enduring if Hamas would simply release women, wounded and elderly,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Israel has accepted the terms of a six-week cease-fire in exchange for the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas since its Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed.

Hamas says it will accept a deal based only on a permanent cease-fire that ends the war and includes an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, rather than another temporary truce. Under the most recent proposal, Israel would release Palestinian prisoners at a 10-to-1 ratio to the number of Hamas hostages held.

Hamas took at least 200 hostages on Oct. 7. During a weeklong truce in late November, it freed more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Israel’s releasing about 240 Palestinian prisoners.

“We’re determined to try to generate a cease-fire where at least six weeks with the hostages coming out and then try to build on that into something more enduring, but I can’t make any predictions about where this will lie,” Sullivan said.

In a video address to the pro-Israel organization AIPAC in Washington, D.C., Netanyahu also claimed Israel has “taken measures to minimize civilian casualties that no other army has taken in history.”

Biden was "devastated" to learn of the death of Itay Chen, he said in a statement released today on behalf of himself and his wife.

Chen was a 19-year-old American Israeli soldier who was thought to have been held hostage in Gaza for six months. His family announced today that the Israel Defense Forces told them that he died Oct. 7 defending civilians on the Gaza border during the Hamas-led attack on the country.

No additional details were provided.

Biden recounted hosting Chen's father and brother at the White House in December, when they gifted him a menorah, "a solemn reminder that light will always dispel the darkness and evil will not win." He said he joined in their grief.

"And I reaffirm my pledge to all the families of those still held hostage: We are with you," Biden said. "We will never stop working to bring your loved ones home."

Israeli National Security Minister Ben Gvir, who has been rebuked by U.S. officials in the past, called for Israel to go to war against Hezbollah in a video posted to his X account today.

Gvir appeared to taunt Defense Minister Yoav Gallant directly after the Israel Defense Forces said 100 rockets were launched from Lebanon into Israel today. According to the IDF, all of the rockets were intercepted.

"What are you waiting for?" Gvir said. "More than 100 missiles, 100 launches on the State of Israel and you sit quietly?"

He went on to say it was time to start attacking and added, "War, now."

Gvir, one of the more hard-line members of Israel's government, is known for his incendiary comments. He was convicted of anti-Arab incitement in 2007 and was previously a member of an extremist Israeli group listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. State Department released a statement at the start of the year rebuking Gvir and another minister for their comments urging Israel to resettle Gaza, a position other Israeli officials have rejected. The State Department described that rhetoric as "inflammatory and irresponsible."

Chef José Andrés described his organization's mission to deliver 200 tons of food into Gaza by sea as a "highly complex situation." World Central Kitchen, which Andrés founded in 2010, has partnered with a Spanish charity to send the aid from Cyprus by water, and the first ship left today. Because ports in Gaza have been destroyed during the war, the World Central Kitchen team has to build a jetty to make the mission possible.

Andrés cautioned that though he considers the ship's departure an achievement, failure is still possible.

"But what we cannot do is fail the people of Gaza," Andrés said. "That will be the true failure is not trying. So we're trying, and I hope that in few days we can say we had little success and from that success."

The U.S. carried out another airdrop of aid into Gaza with the assistance of the Jordanian government, the U.S. Department of Defense and the office of Jordanian prime minister confirmed today.

According to U.S. Central Command, 5,280 pounds of flour, rice, pasta and canned goods were dropped into northern Gaza this afternoon.

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said five airdrops were completed today, including one with aid from Egypt and another from Belgium.

"The number of airdrops carried out by the Jordanian Armed Forces — the Arab Army — since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, has increased to 40 Jordanian airdrops, and 49 airdrops in cooperation with brotherly and friendly countries," Khasawneh said.

CIA Director William Burns told the House Intelligence Committee today that there is still a chance for a cease-fire agreement in Gaza, despite the recent difficulties in negotiations.

“I think there’s still a possibility,” he said. “As long as there’s the smallest possibility, I think it’s essential for all of us to do everything we can.”

Discussions have been taking place for months involving the release of hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid into Gaza. President Joe Biden previously seemed optimistic that such an agreement would be in place by the start of Ramadan; when that failed, he continued to express hope that one might be forthcoming.

Burns said the alternatives to a cease-fire are worse for both Palestinian civilians and hostages held by Hamas. He described the negotiations as a “very tough process” and added that the lack of an agreement “won’t be for lack of trying on our part.”

A framework exists for a deal that would include a six-week pause in hostilities, but Israel and Hamas blame each other for the lack of consensus. Hamas officials have pushed for a permanent cease-fire, rather than a temporary truce.

Netanyahu today asserted that Israel needed to invade Rafah in remarks made via video conference to leaders of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

“To win this war, we must destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah,” he said. “If not, Hamas will regroup, rearm and reconquer Gaza and then we’re back to square one.”

Although Netanyahu expressed gratitude for U.S. support in the war, he appeared to push back against President Joe Biden, who expressed to MSNBC this weekend that an invasion of Rafah could be a "red line" for his administration.

U.S. officials have urged Israel to draft a comprehensive plan to safeguard more than a million civilians residing in Rafah, many of whom fled to the southern border city under the assurance that it would be a safe zone.

Families living in the ruins of Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp describe their daily struggles to find enough food to stay alive in the wake of Israel’s military offensive.

A communications blackout has swept the southern half of Gaza, hitting populated areas such as Khan Younis and Rafah, according to NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet connectivity around the world.

The group, which focuses on cyber equity, said this is the second time this month that Gaza has been hit with a connectivity disruption.

A group of Danish organizations have filed a lawsuit against the government over arms exports to Israel, making Denmark at least the third country to face such a suit since the start of the war.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in Canada and the Netherlands.

The Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq filed the new suit along with the Danish branches of Amnesty International, Oxfam and Action Aid, according to a release from Amnesty International. It demands that the Danish government stop sales of parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel.

According to the groups, there is a risk that the parts will be "used to commit serious crimes against civilians in Gaza, violating international arms trade rules and risking complicity in violations of international humanitarian law — including war crimes — and a plausible genocide in Gaza."

Roughly three weeks since the World Food Program last distributed aid in northern Gaza, a convoy was able to deliver food for 25,000 people in the area, the organization said on X.

"With people in northern Gaza on the brink of famine, we need deliveries every day + we need entry points directly into the north," the WFP said.

The organization has at times temporarily suspended aid deliveries to northern Gaza over the last two months, saying that a combination of delays at military checkpoints and civil disorder as desperate people take supplies created unsafe situations for its staff. Last week, the World Food Program also said one of its convoys was denied access to the northern area of the enclave by the Israel Defense Forces after a three-hour wait at a checkpoint.

At least 31,184 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military assault following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, the enclave's Health Ministry said in a statement today, and well over 72,000 people have been injured.

In the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said, at least 72 people were killed.

The ministry added that 27 people have died because of malnutrition and dehydration.

NBC News has not independently verified the numbers.

Netanyahu’s ability to stay in power may be in doubt, according to an annual assessment of worldwide threats from the U.S. intelligence community. The assessment suggested that a more moderate government could end up succeeding his hard-line coalition.

“Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy,” the assessment said.

The report also raised questions about Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, saying that the country will likely face a yearslong fight against the Palestinian militants.

Although the analysis of Netanyahu’s political difficulties resembled a widely held view among commentators in and outside of Israel, it was unusual for the American intelligence agencies to share such a candid assessment of an allied government’s political prospects.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza in a statement wishing Muslims a blessed Ramadan.

"This pain is felt acutely by Muslims around the world, and so this year, Ramadan feels different," Blinken said. "The humanitarian situation in Gaza is heartbreaking."

He added that the U.S. is working urgently to broker a cease-fire deal and to get sustained aid into the enclave. The Biden administration will continue to pursue an independent Palestinian state, Blinken said, in which Palestinians share equal measures of "freedom, dignity, security, and prosperity" with Israelis.

"Peace is possible, it is necessary, and it is urgent," he said.

The family of an American Israeli soldier said today that their “hearts are broken,” after they were notified by the Israeli military that he was killed by Hamas Oct. 7.

“We loved him so much, and we would have done anything to bring him home alive,” Itay Chen’s family said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces told them that Chen was killed “defending civilians on the border of Gaza,” the statement said, adding: “He was 19 years old and he was an American citizen, as well as a citizen of the State of Israel.”

The family described Chen as a “a fun-loving, bright light for his family and friends and a talented basketball player who loved shooting hoops with his brothers.” They said they had “come to know all of the families who are waiting for their loved ones, and we will not stop working until every single hostage comes home.”

Images taken from Israel’s southern border show a military aircraft dropping humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip today.

A deal to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages is “not near,” a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said today.

Majed Al-Ansari said in a news conference in Qatar’s capital, Doha, that his country remains “hopeful” that an agreement can eventually be reached.

His comments came as Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Barbara Leaf, in Doha today.

The ship currently traveling from Cyprus to Gaza carries" food for a population that faces a humanitarian catastrophe," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today.

She told the European Parliament that the maritime corridor could "crucially help increase the amount of aid effectively reaching people in northern Gaza."

A truck carrying aid for Gaza was “turned back because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits,” the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said in a post on X yesterday.

Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items that Israeli authorities classify as “for dual use,” Philippe Lazzarini said. “The list includes basic and lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders and ventilators, to water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines and maternity kits.”

LARNACA, Cyprus — After weeks of preparation, detailed Israeli inspections and repeated delays, an aid ship carrying food left from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus this morning bound for Gaza. 

The ship, named Open Arms after the Spanish nongovernmental organization that owns it, set sail on the mission run by the U.S.-based charity World Central Kitchen, which hopes it will pave the way for a new maritime aid corridor.

It’s only about 200 miles from Cyprus to Gaza — but because the vessel is towing a barge loaded with rice, flour, beans and canned meat and fish, it will travel about 3 miles per hour. The journey is expected to take days.

With so much desperation inside the enclave, aid trucks have been overrun and air drops, which have limited capacity, turned deadly last week. Medical officials said last week that five people had been crushed to death by pallets of food.

Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group, said today that it had fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets at several northern Israeli military posts in response to Israeli strikes of the Beqaa Valley region the previous night.

The Israeli military said no "damage or casualties were immediately reported," after it detected "approximately 100 rocket launches" from Lebanon.  

In a separate statement, the IDF confirmed that its fighter jets had struck two Hezbollah sites in the Beqaa Valley, which lies deep in Lebanon's center.

"The sites belong to Hezbollah’s aerial forces that planned and carried out various attacks against the State of Israel," the statement said.

Yemen's Houthi rebels fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Red Sea but did not hit the vessel, U.S. Central Command said today.

Yahya Sarea, a spokesperson for the group, previously said that the group had hit the Pinocchio, which he called "American." But according to shipping databases operated by Equasis and the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, the container ship is Liberian-flagged and owned by a Singapore-registered company.

The incident came after CENTCOM said it conducted six self-defense strikes on Houthi controlled areas of Yemen yesterday. An unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles were destroyed, CENTCOM said, adding that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region.

An Open Arms aid vessel, pictured here in the Cypriot port of Larnaca yesterday, set sail this morning for Gaza.

The ship is carrying 200 tons of food aid provided by World Central Kitchen as part of a pilot project to open a new maritime humanitarian corridor.

JERUSALEM — The sun was shining over the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City today as the first full day of Ramadan began — but with no cease-fire in sight, the war in Gaza cast a heavy shadow over the start of the holy month, with fears of tensions rising around the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israeli border police patrolled the streets of the Old City’s Muslim quarter — an area that is usually bustling with people and adorned with lights, lanterns and decorations during Ramadan.

It was markedly quiet, with no signs of celebration as small groups of worshippers made their way to Al-Aqsa, the third-holiest site in Islam, for noon prayers.

For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is “the most important month for us,” shopkeeper Jamil Halwani said. But this year, he added, the usual “joy of Ramadan,” a time of fasting, prayer, service, introspection and gathering, was absent.

Read the full story here.