Israel-Iran: Netanyahu and Biden talk for the first time since August; Israel warns Lebanon of destruction like Gaza's

At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Yemen al-Saeed Hospital in Jabalia, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The U.S. is working to get Americans out of Lebanon ahead of a potential Israeli attack, White House press spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said today.

The U.S. embassy in Beirut remains open and can help Americans who need emergency passports or other documentation, and the U.S. will continue to make airplanes available as long as the Beirut airport remains open, Jean-Pierre said.

More than 300,000 Syrians and 100,000 Lebanese people have fled the country into Syria since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Government Emergency Committee.

Last week, Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said there were an estimated 1.2 million Lebanese civilians displaced because of Israeli airstrikes and the ground invasion into southern Lebanon. There are 185,400 people registered at shelters, while many others have fled to loved ones' homes, paid for hotels or rentals, and others are simply sleeping on the street.

The country has established roughly 1,000 shelters and more than 800 of them have reached capacity, the emergency committee said today.

It added that the committee "receives international aid and distributes it to displaced people within a clear and transparent mechanism across governorates."

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning as tensions in the Middle East reach a boiling point. This marks the first call between Biden and Netanyahu since late August.

Biden on the call reiterated his commitment to Israel's security and rebuked Iran's missile attack against Israel earlier this month, according to a readout from the White House.

The readout did not offer news on Israel's plans to retaliate against Iran.

Biden emphasized the need for a diplomatic agreement to end the fighting in Lebanon, ensuring that both Israelis and Lebanese citizens can safely return to their homes in the region.

He also said Israel has a right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, but emphasized that harm to civilians, especially in densely populated areas like Beirut, needs to be minimized.

On Gaza, the two leaders emphasized the "urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas," the readout said. Biden urged Netanyahu to restore access to the northern part of Gaza, including by "reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately," to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

A total of 1,100 U.S. citizens and their family members have departed Lebanon on 12 U.S.-organized flights, Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said. There were 3,620 seats available on those flights.

One flight left Beirut for Istanbul last night, Miller said, and another one this morning. He noted that only 50 people embarked on this morning's flight, and a "very small number," 13 or 14 people, left the country on last night's flight.

The Israeli military says it identified at least 90 "projectiles" launched today across the border from Lebanon.

Though the IDF said it was able to intercept some of them, others did make contact. Emergency responders are working to put out fires caused by the projectiles.

The Israeli air force destroyed a launcher that was sending projectiles to the area of Kiryat Shmona, the military said. An Israeli naval ship also shot down a drone that was approaching from Lebanon, according to the IDF.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud today, to discuss issues in the region, a significant move for the regional rivals.

Iranian state-news agency IRNA shared photos from the meeting and reported that Araghchi told Al Saud that he hoped renewed ties between the countries would help to “ensure stability, security, and more increased economic cooperation.”

IRNA also reported that Araghchi said he hoped the two nations could help create better conditions for Palestinian and Lebanese people, adding that bilateral issues between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran could be discussed in a separate visit.

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave an ambiguous statement on the plan to strike Iran, saying that the attack would be "lethal, precise and, above all, surprising."

His remarks were made during a visit with an intelligence unit today, where he told the unit whoever harms Israel will pay.

"They won’t understand what happened and how," Gallant said. "They will see the results."

Israel's cabinet has not yet voted on a plan to respond to Iran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone today as the expected assault looms.

At least 125 people have been killed during five days of Israeli operations in northern Gaza, the enclave's Hamas-run government said in a statement today. Many were killed in the Jabalia refugee camp, it added.

The government said that there were “dozens of bodies” in the streets because the IDF was refusing to allow ambulances through to help people.

The IDF has not responded to a request for comment from NBC News about the allegation that they had blocked ambulances.

Earlier, an Arabic-language spokesperson for the IDF urged civilians to flee Jabalia, saying the Israeli soldiers have paused fighting there temporarily and asked them to go to shelters.

“Move now without delay from the shelters and homes to the southern Gaza Strip,” he said. “Do not believe the lies of Hamas through its men or media who tell you to stay there.”

German police said that it had dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment in Dortmund, a city of about half a million people, after the camp announced that the activist Greta Thunberg would be visiting.

In a news release, police said the expectation was that the crowd for Thunberg would be "emotional and incited." Thunberg was arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin on Sunday and Police Chief Gregor Lange alleged there was "real danger" of antisemitic crimes being committed.

"The presence of Ms. Thunberg and her sympathizers would have significantly changed the character of the previously peaceful protest camp," Lange said.

German authorities have cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the war in Gaza.  

Thunberg slammed the police for the allegations in a video posted to her Instagram today, accusing police of equating calls for Israel to stop bombing children with antisemitism. She asked her more than 14 million followers to support the protesters in Dortmund, who shut down their camp last night.

"Germany is silencing and threatening activists who are speaking up against the genocide and occupation in Palestine," Thunberg said.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken on the phone today, according to a statement from the White House.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president, was also on the call. The White House said that more details would be released later.

The news comes as Israel prepares to retaliate against Iran for its ballistic missile attack on the country, which was the regime's response to Israeli assassinations of Iran's allies.

The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees said today that it had to put a pause on its work in northern Gaza. It added that it had to evacuate seven of the schools it was operating as shelters.

“Intensified military operations in the north are forcing us to shut down lifesaving services,” the agency said in a post on X.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did agree to a 21-day cease-fire deal before he learned of the opportunity to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to a leading Israeli opposition figure.

Yair Lapid wrote in a thread on X that he was informed by “the Americans” that Netanyahu had “closed” on the proposed cease-fire. At the time, Lapid said he was pushing for a one-week deal instead.

“During this entire discussion, there was still no intelligence information that made it possible to eliminate Nasrallah. That came only later,” Lapid wrote. “Once that was placed on the table, it was obviously right to eliminate him.”

France and the U.S. lead the push for the proposed deal, which was agreed to by the European Union, Canada and several other allied nations. NBC News previously reported that Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he “did not even respond” to the proposal.

Staff at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza are unable to evacuate its patients in compliance with Israeli military orders because they need help that is not coming, the hospital's director told NBC News today.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safieh said that the World Health Organization was mobilized to assist the hospital but it had been prevented from reaching the facility by the Israel Defense Forces.

"We were threatened by the army to evacuate the hospital immediately," he said. "We cannot evacuate patients and medical staff without guarantees and without the participation of the World Health Organization in order to protect patients and medical staff."

The remaining staff at Kamal Adwan are still providing what little medical services that they can but they have been limited "due to the siege on us," he said.

NBC News has reached out to the WHO for more information and the IDF for comment.

Israel has intensified its offensives on both Gaza and Lebanon as the situation in the Middle East continues to widen. There are concerns for the safety of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza after Israeli troops pushed ahead with a ground assault on a refugee camp.

Hezbollah has said that its fighters have targeted Israeli forces again in southern Lebanon after earlier clashes at a border village.

Hezbollah fighters targeted "an Israeli infantry force that tried to advance towards the Labbouneh area with a guided missile, causing casualties among them, including deaths and injuries," the Iran-backed militant group said. It had earlier claimed to have repelled Israeli soldiers around Labbouneh.

Hezbollah also said that its fighters bombed Israeli troops in "Mais al-Jabal with artillery shells,” and fired rockets "during an infiltration attempt by Israeli enemy infantry forces in Ras Al-Naqoura toward Al-Mushrifa."

Leaders from Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement discussed plans for cooperation after the war in Gaza in a new round of talks in Cairo today, a Hamas official told Reuters.

The talks are the first since the two groups met in China in July and agreed steps to form a Palestinian unity government for Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

They are also part of long-running and previously unsuccessful efforts to heal a schism that hardened when Hamas seized control of Gaza in a brief conflict with Fatah in 2007.

Turkish passport holders gather near a hotel on Beirut’s waterfront, ahead of their evacuation from Lebanon by Turkish Naval vessels today.

Israel's prime minister is warning Lebanon that it will face “destruction and suffering” like Gaza unless its people rise up against Hezbollah. Meanwhile, President Biden is scheduled to speak with Netanyahu for the first time since August.

Two people have died in northern Israel this morning after Hezbollah targeted the area with rocket attacks, Israeli authorities have said.

The Israeli police said a man and a woman were found "mortally wounded" in the area of Kiryat Shmona and pronounced dead a short time ago.

They said the bodies were found after reports were received about fragments of rockets falling in the area. It was not immediately clear exactly how the two died, though the IDF had said earlier that "approximately 20 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon." 

Police urged Israelis to avoid entering areas where rocket fragments may have fallen and not to "approach or touch the remains of rockets that may contain explosive material" and to report any findings to local authorities.

The Israel Defense Forces continues to target Hezbollah in villages in southern Lebanon, Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X today, issuing new evacuation warnings that have covered one quarter of the country.

He ordered the residents not to return to their homes in the south until further notice, saying that doing so will put their own lives in danger.

The IDF has ramped up its assault of the south in recent days, increasingly issuing warnings for villages and towns in the south and the east.

Fears have grown over Israel's plans for its invasion of Lebanon after Netanyahu issued a warning last night calling on Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah if they don't want to face the possibility of the destruction seen in Gaza.

Still, Hisham Karameh, a salesperson at a clothing store, said he "laughed when I heard about Netanyahu's threats."

"This is not the first time," Karameh, 28, told NBC News, noting Israel's past invasions of Lebanon, including its 1982 invasion which resulted in a nearly two-decade occupation of the country's south.

Other residents said they did not need "lectures" from the Israeli leader.

“Even though I agree with all that he said, we don’t need lectures from him about how to behave and what to do," said Marie Khalil, a schoolteacher. "We do not support Hezbollah, but looking at all the Israeli criminal actions, I can’t trust his intentions. Let him go face Iran and Syria that are after our destruction."

Rouba Sleiman, a housewife, agreed, saying there was "no need to remind us. We are already against Hezbollah and what it did to us and to its people. We also don’t want Israel to invade our country."

Iran's top military commander, Esmail Qaani, is in "good health" and will soon receive a military medal from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior adviser has said, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Qaani's fate has been the subject of intense speculation as he has not been seen in public since reportedly traveling to Beirut. Iranian officials have in recent days sought to dismiss suggestions he may have been killed in an Israeli strike.

Qaani succeeded slain commander Qassem Soleimani as the leader of the Quds force, the overseas intelligence wing of the Iranian paramilitary force IRGC.

At least six people were injured in a stabbing attack in the northern city of Hadera, Israeli police said, adding it occurred at four different locations.

"The attacker has been neutralized, and this is confirmed as a terror attack," a police spokesperson said. "It is suspected that another suspect fled the scene on a scooter," the police added.

An overnight Israeli airstrike on what appeared to be a residential building in south Beirut left piles of smoking debris. Thousands of Lebanese people have left the area amid Israeli warnings and sustained bombardment.

President Joe Biden is expected to speak with Netanyahu by phone today, an Israeli official and a U.S. official have told NBC News.

The Israeli official earlier said that Netanyahu had called off his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's trip to the U.S. because the Israeli leader wanted a conversation with Biden and because the Israeli Cabinet is due to vote on the response to the Iranian missile attack.

This would be the first call between the U.S. and Israeli leaders since Aug. 21.

NBC News just witnessed multiple interceptions from our balcony in Haifa.

The IDF said that sirens had sounded in the northern port city, a day after Hezbollah fired more than 130 rockets at the area.

Hezbollah said it repelled two attempted incursions by the Israeli military in southern Lebanon early today.

The Iran-backed militant group said it targeted an IDF unit that was attempting to advance toward the western village of Labbouneh with artillery and rocket weapons and achieved direct hits, "which led to its retreat."

Hezbollah fighters also detonated an explosive device and clashed with Israeli soldiers "when they attempted to infiltrate the town of Blida," in the east, it said.

The IDF has not commented on the claims.

Displaced families at Martyr's Square in downtown Beirut this morning. Lebanese government figures suggest that more than 180,000 internally displaced people are currently living in approved shelters, but many have been forced to live on the street as a result of Israel's invasion.

Israel's yearlong assault of the Gaza Strip has now killed more than 42,000 people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said today.

At least 45 people were killed in just the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, adding that a number of the victims were still stuck under the rubble with emergency responders unable to reach them.

Another nearly 98,000 people have been injured in the past year, it said.

A renewed Israeli operation in northern Gaza has forced evacuations again of those who had returned to their homes after months of assault. At least 400,000 people are now "trapped" in the area with no safe place to flee, Philippe Lazzarini, chief of UNRWA, the U.N. agency in Gaza, said in a post on X today.

"No end to hell," he wrote, as "recent evacuation orders from the Israeli Authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp."

"Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe," he said, as refugee shelters and services are shutting down. Hunger is also spreading, he said, and the new operation is threatening a polio vaccination drive for children.

Hezbollah officials are no longer demanding a truce in Gaza as a condition for reaching a cease-fire in Lebanon, rowing back from an oft-repeated promise to keep fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hezbollah’s Iran-backed ally Hamas.

Ever since Hezbollah began launching missiles across Lebanon’s border a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel, Hezbollah officials have consistently said they would not stop until Israel ended the war in Gaza.

But Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, broke that link in a televised speech on Tuesday, even as he promised to continue to stand with Hamas and Palestinians in their battle with Israel. Two days earlier, two lower-ranking Hezbollah officials had also talked about a Lebanon truce without making a linkage with Gaza.

Clouds of smoke rise from several Israeli air strikes targeting the southern Lebanese village of Khiam this morning.

The State Department said it was inappropriate for Israeli soldiers to raise their flag in southern Lebanon, where the IDF has ordered the evacuation of dozens of villages.

"It’s obviously inappropriate for Israeli soldiers to take that step, and we would look to them to comply with what they have said, which these are limited incursions, not with the goal of holding territory," spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters last night.

The Israeli flag was planted in Maroun Al-Ras, a village in southern Lebanon. NBC News was able to verify the photos through geolocation of the area.

The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon said earlier this week that the IDF was operating near one of its outposts in Maroun Al-Ras, adding that the Israeli operations put the security of peacekeepers at risk. Satellite images had confirmed the presence of Israeli tanks.

As the world waits for Israel’s expected retaliation against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a video message to the people of Lebanon in which he called on them to “free your country of Hezbollah.” 

• Israel has not briefed U.S. military officials on its plans for retaliation against Iran, U.S. officials say
• They were Israel’s eyes on the border, but their warnings about Hamas went unheard
• In Gaza, children who survive Israel’s assault face a lifetime of trauma
• One year after Hamas attacks, hostages’ families are living in limbo but trying to find hope