Live updates: Drone strike launched from Lebanon towards Netanyahu’s house; Gaza hospitals under attack

Air strikes have hit a suburb in Lebanon's capital Beirut this afternoon, less than an hour after the IDF ordered residents to evacuate the area.

Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said that a building in Haret Hreik was struck twice, and a plume of smoke was also seen rising from the area.

IDF spokesperson Avicahy Adraee had earlier given evacuation orders for the area.

Adraee issued multiple evacuation warnings today to residents in parts of southern Beirut, warning of future military operations in the area.

Spokesperson Avichay Adraee also ordered residents located in Choueifet Al-Umara and Borj El Brajneh to leave, saying they were "near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah," and urged people to evacuate.

Two patients have died inside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza due to Israel's siege on the area, according to the local health ministry.

It said the patients died "as a result of the hospital's siege and the power outage and lack of medical supplies."

In a statement earlier today, the IDF confirmed operations near the Indonesian Hospital, but said that there was “no intentional fire directed at it.”

Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss how the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar will impact a potential cease-fire agreement.

The scene of carnage in northern Lebanon showed heartbreaking snippets of everyday family life.

A dead baby inside a destroyed pickup truck; a child’s severed arm buried in nearby rubble; toddler clothing and books shredded; flies swarming as officials collected body parts, some too small for body bags ending up in clear ziplock bags.

Pervading everything, the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh mixed with concrete dust at the scene where 23 people including two children were killed, according to local officials.

This was the aftermath of an airstrike Monday on the Lebanese Christian village of Aitou that Israel said had targeted a position held by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

Until then, this region of hilly olive groves and winding, sea-view roads had been a relative haven, one that felt far away from the war dominating Beirut and the country’s south.

Just last week, the area “was calm; everything was quiet,” Illy Edwan told NBC News as he surveyed the wreckage of his villa, which was reduced to rubble in the blast, its insulation and inner structure ripped to pieces, an adjacent vehicle twisted open like a burnt pretzel.

“My house used to be three-story, but look at it today,” he added.

Read full story here.

Hundreds are dead and thousands more have been forced to flee northern Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp as the IDF deepens its offensive in the area and sends more troops to fight.

The IDF laid siege to the camp 15 days ago, surrounding it with tanks while raining down artillery fire. It has blown up roads and houses, and trampled through suburbs and residential districts home to tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Hamas said today that the IDF was continuing to bomb a UN-run primary school which houses displaced in people in Jabaliya, just two days after 22 people were killed in attacks on the building, according to local medics.

Yesterday, air strikes killed at least 33 people after hitting houses inside the camp, Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said.

At least six booms could be heard in Beirut just now, and a plume of smoke is rising from Haret Hreik in the southern suburbs of Dahiya. This is an increased pace of bombing compared to the last several days.

The war in Gaza "continues unabated," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian relief said, days after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, raising a fleeting hope it could bring an end to the war.

At least 20,000 people had been forced to flee northern Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp as Israel deepens its offensive in the region, Lazzarini said, and there are shortages of the most basic needs, like food, water and blankets. Only a dozen trucks of flour were allowed to enter Gaza City this week, he said, "by far not enough."

It’s time to end the war and "show political will," he said. "Time for a way out of the mayhem and destruction. Time to invest in peace."

An Israeli man was killed today after shrapnel from a missile barrage hit his car in the northern city of Acre, Israeli police said.

The police said a number of projectiles and fragments fell in the Acre area, including on route 22 where the car was struck. Another person is in moderate condition after they were injured by shrapnel near the commercial center in Ein Hafaretz.

The IDF said earlier that at least 55 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israel in the space of an hour.

Police called on the public not to to approach or touch the remains of rockets.

The death toll in Gaza has risen to 42,519 since Oct. 7, the local Health Ministry said today, with 19 people killed and 91 injured in the last 24 hours.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah vowed to escalated fighting against Israel yesterday, following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by the Israeli military.

In a statement released yesterday morning, it announced "the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy," which it said will be "elaborated upon" in the coming days.

Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, said “the spirit of resistance” would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza.

The IDF is “besieging and directly targeting” three hospitals in northern Gaza, threatening to put them out of service, the Palestinian Health Ministry said this morning.

It said the IDF was attacking the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital, and appealed to the international community to intervene "to protect the health system in the Gaza Strip."

According to the health ministry, hospital staff and at least 40 patients and wounded are trapped the Indonesian Hospital, as Israeli "artillery targeted the upper floors" of the hospital, as well as a group of displaced people in front of its gates.

The "heavy gunfire," towards the building and courtyards was "causing great panic among patients and medical staff," the health ministry said.

In a statement, the IDF confirmed operations near the Indonesian Hospital, but said that there was "no intentional fire directed at it."

A “Palestinian terrorist” attempted to drive a car at a police vehicle at the entrance to the Ofra settlement in the Israeli occupied West Bank, the IDF said this morning.

It said the driver of the vehicle was killed and that no Israeli soldiers were injured.

The IDF added that the incident was under review.

A drone strike was launched towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the town of Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, on Saturday morning, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.

Netanyahu and his wife were not in the building, and there were no casualties.

The Israel Defense Forces said a drone crossing from Lebanon “hit a structure in the area of Caesarea,” while Israeli news outlet Ynet reported the sound of an explosion in the town.

The attack comes just days after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Sinwar was the architect of of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, and his killing in battle was the culmination of a yearlong manhunt by the IDF, but the latest strikes have provided a quick reality to check for any hopes his death could spell an end to the conflict.

Read the full story here.

At least 55 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israel in the space of an hour on Saturday morning, according to the Israeli military.

Sirens had begun to sound across Israel ahead of the latest wave of missiles, including in the port city of Haifa which has come under heavy fire from Hezbollah rockets in recent weeks.

NBC News staff in Israel said in the north, sirens were sounding non-stop Saturday morning for more than four hours. 

Dramatic footage released by the Israeli military that purport to show Yahya Sinwar’s final moments will be etched in the Palestinian national memory for generations to come: the defiance of Sinwar, covered in dust and with his right arm blown off, yet still fighting.

It’s an image that brings to mind an uncomfortable comparison to Israel’s national hero Joseph Trumpeldor, the one-armed Zionist resistance fighter.

Trumpeldor has become a mythical figure, an icon of Zionism and heroic patriotism. He died more than a century ago in the 1920 battle for Tel-Hai, but his legacy lives on, inspiring generation after generation of kids-turned-soldiers. His famous last words were said to be, “It’s good to die for our country.”

In Israel, we grew up with the phrase — it is displayed in children's classrooms, written in textbooks and recited on Memorial Day. Songs were written about his famous final words and fervent fighting spirit. Streets named after Trumpeldor can be found in cities across Israel, and a lion’s monument stands where Trumpeldor fell. 

For many Israelis, though, it feels uncomfortable to draw a comparison between their iconic hero, the symbol of courageous Zionism, and Sinwar — the man who died trying to eradicate it.

Still, it’s not unreasonable to think that Sinwar’s fighting spirit in his last moments will leave a legacy inspiring generations to come, and the drone footage released by Israel showing it will likely serve as a digital monument to Palestinian resistance.

National security spokesperson John Kirby said Hamas is in a much weaker position than ever after the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar. Speaking to the press in Berlin, Kirby said this has created a unique opportunity to discuss a cease-fire and the return of hostages from Gaza.

“The military structure of Hamas has just been nearly decimated,” he said. “They are absolutely incapable, as you and I are speaking here today, of conducting another attack on the scale of Oct. 7.”

Still, Kirby warned, Hamas, while a “shadow of their former self,” could still be lethal and has enough capability left that it should not be underestimated.

“They still exist as a terrorist organization. They’re still in Gaza. They’re still holding hostages,” he said, adding that while there are no active negotiations taking place, this could change now.

“We have never stopped having conversations with our counterparts in Qatar and Egypt about the possibility of getting something started,” he said.

To hear an emboldened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tell it, killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is the “beginning of the end” of the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, a pivotal step in his long-term goal of destroying the militant group and returning the hostages taken on Oct. 7.

Sinwar’s Palestinian supporters do not see it that way. They were vowing Friday to redouble what they call the “resistance” against Israel, roused by a video claiming to show their leader’s final moments.

The images showed Sinwar not hiding in a tunnel surrounded by hostages — as Israeli officials often claimed he was — but aboveground and hurling a stick at a drone with his last ounce of strength. (NBC News has not independently confirmed it is Sinwar in the drone footage released by the Israeli military.)

Sinwar was not a hero for all Palestinians, some of whom rejected his brutal tactics — including the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack he masterminded — as counterproductive to the goal of peace and Palestinian statehood. But many others are reacting to his killing with a mix of grief and celebratory martyrdom. For them, this was a military commander fighting to the last, willing to sacrifice not only the lives of thousands of Israelis and tens of thousands of Palestinians — but also his own.

Read full story here.

Twelve months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just overseen his country’s worst defense failure ever and faced widespread anger at home and abroad.

After touting his security credentials for decades, the longtime leader was thought to be politically finished in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

On Friday, a day after announcing the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the six-term prime minister’s grip on power appeared stronger than it has been since the attack.

Whether coincidental or not, Sinwar’s killing caps another remarkable political recovery for a man pollsters and analysts have written off many times over the years. But with the assassination of Sinwar, the last senior architect of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, where does this leave Netanyahu?

“It leaves him in one sense in a strong position,” said Bronwen Maddox, CEO of the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House.

Read full story here.