Gaza-Egypt border crossing may open; Biden warns new occupation would be a ‘big mistake’

Tom Llamas

A couple who survived the Hamas terrorist attack at an Israeli music festival said Hamas acted with “precision” and “no mercy.”

How the U.S.- Israel agreement on aid came together

Abigail Williams

In every stop he made after his trip to Israel last week, Arab leaders told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the U.S. must do something to solve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a senior State Department official said.

When Blinken called Biden after his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to relay their message, Biden asked his top diplomat to go back to Tel Aviv to work out a plan, the official said.

What followed was nine hours of negotiations between the U.S. and Israel, the senior State Department official said, as the two sides hashed out the details of the plan.

Today Blinken announced that the U.S. and Israel “have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza — and them alone.” The plan could also include creating areas to keep civilians safe, he said.

During the discussions about the agreement, Blinken and the U.S. delegation set up next to the Israel prime minister’s Cabinet meeting. Every so often Netanyahu would go over, and the two sides would exchange papers, the senior State Department official said.

Blinken also reiterated to Israel’s president today that every Arab leader he met with in the region expressed the importance of dealing with the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the official said.

Breaking down Israel’s political and economic relationship with its neighbors

The war highlights Israel’s fragile relationships in a region that was once nearly unified in its rejection of it as a sovereign state but that today has seen some neighbors embrace it as a key economic engine.

Israel has a reliable working relationship with Jordan to its east, while its interactions with Syria and Lebanon, northern foes in past wars, are icy at best. Iran remains a mortal enemy, and the question of its involvement in the Hamas attack, or lack thereof, could be the difference between expanded warfare or quelling it.

The Abraham Accords under President Donald Trump have increased Israel’s trade while sparking hope of normal relations with Saudi Arabia, a goal that could also depend on the war’s path and outcome.

IDF official doubts Biden visit will affect military timing

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said tonight that he does not know whether President Biden’s visit to Israel will affect its military actions in Gaza.

“I don’t think so, but we will have to see, and we probably will have more information tomorrow morning,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in response to a question in a briefing on X.

“But I don’t think that the aim of that visit is to hinder at all,” he said.

Issues Conricus mentioned include the need to prevent a regional escalation and a U.S. show of support and commitment to Israel.

FBI warns of growing threats in the U.S.

The FBI is seeing an increase in reported threats against both Jewish and Muslim Americans. Local law enforcement is working to keep these communities safe.

U.S., Israel agree to develop plan to get humanitarian aid to Gazans

The U.S. and Israel “have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid” from donor nations and groups to reach civilians in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today.

The U.N. and the World Health Organization have warned of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which Israel is blockading and striking by air after Hamas launched unprecedented terrorist attacks on the country.

Biden is traveling to Israel on Wednesday and “will hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza, in a way that does not benefit Hamas,” Blinken said.

Biden will also be briefed about Israel’s war aims, Blinken said. Netanyahu has vowed to crush Hamas.

Biden will also travel to Jordan

Biden will stop in Jordan during his trip to Israel this week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said tonight.

The president will stop in Jordan to meet with King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Kirby said.

Biden will reiterate that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination, and he will discuss the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza, Kirby said.

The haunting stories from those living in the war zone

Students, doctors, mothers and residents describe what life is like in Gaza and Israel as the attacks continue.

New York’s governor headed to Israel

Dennis Romero

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s headed to Israel tomorrow to support the country, meet with diplomatic leaders and survey suffering communities.

Her announcement came the same day Biden’s plan to visit Israel was announced.

“During these difficult times, it’s more important than ever for New York to show up in support of Israel,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.

About 1 in 5 of the U.S.’ estimated 7.6 million Jews live in New York state, according to a Brandeis University analysis in 2021.

“New York will show the world that we stand with Israel — today, tomorrow and forever,” Hochul said.

Russia’s U.N. resolution on Israel and Gaza isn’t adopted

A Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution on the conflict between Israel and Hamas fell short today after several countries, including the U.S., said it failed to condemn Hamas.

Russia claimed its draft was purely humanitarian and called for a humanitarian cease-fire.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. permanent representative to the U.N., said, “We agree that this council should take action, but we have to get it right.”

“Russia’s resolution, put forward without any consultation, makes no mention of Hamas. None. By failing to condemn Hamas, Russia’s given cover to a terrorist group that brutalizes innocent civilians. It is outrageous. It is hypocritical, and it is indefensible,” she said.

The vote was 5-4, with six abstentions, which was insufficient.

The United Kingdom also voted against it. “We cannot support a resolution which fails to condemn Hamas terror attacks,” said the U.K.’s permanent representative to the U.N., Ambassador Barbara Woodward.

Russia’s representative to the U.N., Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, criticized the “selfish intentions of the Western bloc of countries.”

There is also a Brazilian-drafted resolution, which Russia wants to amend.

Father and son were found in embrace after execution, relative says

Tom Llamas

OFAKIM, Israel — Among the dead in the attack on Israel last week are a father and his adult son who tried to stop Hamas militants from killing innocent people as they invaded this city in the south, a relative said.

The father, an Israel Defense Forces reservist, grabbed his gun and rushed toward the sound of gunfire Oct. 7 as enemy militants moved into his neighborhood, the relative said in an interview.

The full names of the deceased and the sister are being withheld out of concern for their safety.

The father and son were hosting about 50 special needs children for a social gathering, something they were known for doing, the relative said, when gunfire rang out. The duo rushed children to a shelter and then tried to fend off the militants, she said.

They were successful at first — two militants were killed and others were initially cornered — but the pair were eventually overwhelmed and executed, the sister said. Their bodies were found in an embrace, she said.

A boy, the son and brother of the two men, said he was memorializing their lives. “I am collecting bullets,” he said.

Biden headed to Israel on Wednesday

WASHINGTON — Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday, putting himself in harm’s way to show that he stands squarely with the country as it reels from Hamas’ surprise attack and prepares a ground invasion meant to wipe out the militant group on its border.

Biden is expected to meet with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders during the trip, which will also include a stop in neighboring Jordan. There, Biden will meet with regional leaders who are crucial to any effort to protect Palestinian civilians and stabilize the Middle East over the long term, John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesman, told reporters Monday night.

Read the full story here.

U.N. Security Council on Israel and Gaza has dueling resolutions

Members of the U.N. Security Council on the Middle East returned tonight after adjourning to a closed-door session for around an hour. The meeting resumed in open session at 7:30 p.m.

At play are a Russian resolution for humanitarian aid for Gaza that the U.S. doesn’t want to veto and a Brazilian resolution that Russia wants to amend. 

“We are convinced that our draft better meets the humanitarian needs of the civilian population in Gaza and doesn’t contain political elements that could divide members of the UNSC and affect its role in the settlement of the crisis,” Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said on X.

“Therefore in order to balance the second draft, we have proposed two amendments condemning indiscriminate strikes against the Gaza strip and calling for a humanitarian ceasefire to alleviate the dire situation of the civilian population in Gaza” Polyanskiy said.

After it submitted its resolution to members last week, Russia placed a Monday deadline for a vote.

Hamas releases first video of hostage in Gaza

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — Hamas released a video today that, if genuine, appears to show the first Israeli hostage speaking directly into the camera.

The woman, who identified herself as a 21-year-old French-Israeli citizen, appears to be injured. Hamas officials said she had been struck by gunfire in at least one arm and has undergone surgery.

The woman, said to have attended the Supernova music festival, where an estimated 260 people were killed in the initial moments of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, said she is being well cared for.

Family members told Israeli media they have seen the video. It is unclear when it was made.

U.N. Security Council meeting begins, then adjourns to closed session

The U.N. Security Council meeting, with the situation between Israel and Gaza on the agenda, gaveled in tonight.

The Security Council almost immediately adjourned to a closed session after the meeting started shortly after 6:12 p.m.

Artillery blasts, helicopters buzzing overhead as Israelis continue ‘preparing’ at the front

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — We just heard three artillery booms in the direction of Gaza and heard what sounded like machine gun fire in the last hour, as well. Military helicopters have been flying in the area.

It’s been fairly quiet here the last two nights.

From this section of the border, we haven’t seen missiles flying from Israel into Gaza since Thursday evening. There’s still a lot of military troop and equipment movement.

I spoke to one IDF troop early this morning posted here, and when I asked how things are he said, “We’re preparing.” 

Blinken-Netanyahu meeting passes six-hour mark

Abigail Williams

It is 1 a.m. in Tel Aviv, and U.S. Secretary Blinken has been meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his war cabinet inside the Ministry of Defense for more than six hours through two rounds of air raids and orders to shelter in place — and the meeting continues.

Palestinian Americans frustrated, but ‘not surprised,’ that they remain stuck in Gaza

Children sat on suitcases as hundreds of Palestinian Americans gathered by the Rafah border crossing to Egypt with hopes they could flee Gaza to safety.

But the crossing remained closed Monday, despite promises from U.S. State Department officials, leaving many Palestinian Americans frustrated but “not surprised.”

“We are surviving on sandwiches,” said Maha Barakat, an American citizen desperate to cross the border into Egypt. She is one of 600 Americans still stuck in Gaza, according to the State Department’s tally. 

“We are American citizens and should be treated the same as the Americans who got put on planes out of Tel Aviv,” she said in a telephone interview with NBC News Monday, now in her seventh day of waiting to cross since she moved her nieces and nephews to a family friends’ house in southern Gaza. Her own children live in New Jersey and are in college.

Read the full story here.

Hamas says it’s willing to release foreign nationals unconditionally

Richard Engel

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — Hamas is willing to allow the unconditional release of foreign nationals kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, a spokesman for the militant group said today.

Abu Abetta said in a video that Hamas did not verify their identities during the capture, but have since recognized them as foreign nationals and is treating them as guests.

Hamas is treating Israelis being held captive as parties to the conflict.

The announcement, which should be treated with some skepticism, could significantly change the way things develop in the coming hours.

Diplomats and hostage negotiators are likely to be taking the offer seriously.

U.S. officials have said 13 Americans are missing.

Abetta said Hamas held about 200 hostages, with 50 or more additional hostages held by other groups.

Biden seriously considering making trip to Israel as early as this week

President Biden is strongly considering a trip to Israel as early as this week, according to three U.S. officials.

The officials said planning is underway, including on the ground in Israel, for a potential visit from Biden.

The White House declined to comment. A spokesperson from the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s unclear if the president would make any additional stops while in the region, should he travel to Israel.

Yesterday, Biden was invited to Egypt for an Oct. 21 international summit focused on the future of Palestinians, according to a U.S. official. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced the summit yesterday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and has also invited all members of the U.N. Security Council, Arab countries and other world leaders.

Biden spoke with El-Sissi on Monday, according to the White House.

NBC News reported yesterday that the White House was considering an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for Biden to travel to Israel on a solidarity visit amid the war.

Explosions in the sky, abandoned beaches in Israel

ASHDOD, Israel — It is far from a quiet night in Ashdod, which is roughly equidistant from Tel Aviv to the north and Gaza to the south.

Booms have rung out repeatedly through the evening, with what appeared to be at least one interceptor missile from Israel’s Iron Dome seen shooting up into the sky.

Aside from the booms, a hush has fallen over much of the city, with its popular beach areas near-empty throughout the day.

Protesters supporting peace for Gaza arrested outside the White House

Hundreds of people, including “The Princess Bride” actor Wallace Shawn, marched to the White House today to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Multiple people were arrested for inhibiting the right of way to the White House gates, said U.S. Secret Service Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

The protestors gathered in Farragut Square before marching to the White House while singing, banging makeshift drums and carrying signs with phrases like “Jews for Peace.”

“I am 87 years old. Since the day I was born there’s been war,” Holocaust survivor and protester Marione Ingram said. “People seem to think that war is the answer to — I don’t even know what they think — war isn’t the answer to peace, it’s just the answer to more war.”

Some of the protestors locked arms in groups around the entrance streets to the White House.

The protest was organized by several Jewish activist groups including If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace.

2,000 U.S. troops given orders to prepare for possible deployment to support Israel

Approximately 2,000 U.S. troops have put on prepare-to-deploy orders for possible support to Israel, a defense official tells NBC News.

They are not going anywhere yet, nor would they necessarily go to Israel or Gaza — if given orders they will go to a nearby country to be prepared to support Israel.

These troops already were on a 96-hour prepare-to-deploy order, and they’re now on a 24-hour notice.

This would include troops with multiple capabilities, including medical support, explosive experts and others.

Doctors Without Borders says Israeli airstrikes have driven its personnel into hiding

Doctors Without Borders Executive Director Avril Benoit said many of the organization’s 300 staff in Gaza — including doctors, surgeons and nurses who have worked in the city’s hospitals for years — are “running for their lives.”

“Many of our own colleagues did decide to flee with their families to find safety,” said Benoit. “They are on the run. They are looking for shelter. They are dehydrated. They’re exhausted.”

Benoit said those fleeing include international staff and Palestinians who have been working for Doctors Without Borders. Israel’s siege on the city and the shortage of electricity has also meant it is difficult for the organization to keep track of its staff and communicate with them.

Some staff members decided to stay behind and continue working as best they can, Benoit said. She called for Israel to adhere to International Humanitarian Law so that people can flee, and allow international human rights organizations to bring in medical supplies.

“Our ability to deliver lifesaving medical aid in an impartial, neutral fashion is being tested like I have rarely seen in all my years with the organization,” said Benoit.

One hospital in Gaza where Doctors Without Borders is operating has run out of pain killers, meaning patients are left with nothing to alleviate their suffering from wounds, said Benoit.

The water that many are drinking in the city is salty and brackish, but there is no fuel available to run the water treatment plant, she said.

“Many people are going to die not from the direct consequences of the war, but from all the other issues that are surrounding them,” said Benoit.

Volunteer describes recovering bodies after Hamas attack 

Volunteers are working to recover bodies after the deadly Hamas attack. Yossi Landau, the head ZAKA in the southern region, called the brutality “indescribable.” 

Hamas says it has up to 250 hostages, will release foreign captives if ‘conditions’ available

The Qassam Brigades said today they “have” as many as roughly 200 to 250 hostages, after the IDF said earlier that it had notified at least 199 families that their loved ones had been kidnapped by the militant group.  

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Hamas’ military arm, said in a video statement the militant group would release foreign prisoners “if the necessary conditions are available for that.” He said Hamas militants had taken a number of people of different nationalities hostage without having “the opportunity to verify their identities.”

He said hostages were being taken “care of” according to “what is required by moral and humanitarian duty.”

“They eat what we eat and drink what we drink,” he said.

Apparent Israeli rocket fire caught on camera during live MSNBC report

NBC News’ Richard Engel was reporting live on air when an apparent Israeli rocket was seen in the background firing into Gaza.

Israeli military reports 299 soldiers have died so far in the war

TEL AVIV — The Israeli military death toll has reached 299 in the ongoing fighting that’s also led to 199 hostages grabbed by Hamas, authorities said yesterday.

“The Israel Defense Forces continues to attack in the Gaza Strip,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. “We eliminated a number of terrorists, including the head of general intelligence.”

Blinken and Netanyahu shelter in bunker during meeting as air raid sirens go off

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sheltered in a bunker for five minutes when air raid sirens went off during their meeting, a State Department spokesperson said.

Blinken was meeting with Netanyahu and the Israeli war Cabinet in the prime minister’s office in the Kirya, a government center in Tel Aviv. They have since moved out of the bunker and are continuing discussions in a command center.

No food, no water, ‘no life here,’ Michigan man trapped in Gaza says

A Michigan man trapped in Gaza said the most basic elements of life, such as food and water, are lacking and accused Israel of indiscriminately targeting civilian homes.

“They don’t have food, they have nothing, no life here,” Zakaria Alarayshi told NBC News at the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border. “They don’t care about Hamas, they just kill everybody.”

Alarayshi and his wife were in Gaza to visit family when Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack into Israel last week, triggering a siege of the Gaza Strip. While Alarayshi seeks passage back home, the Livonia man said he fears what will happen to loved ones left behind in Gaza.

“I don’t know who is going to die, I don’t who is going to be alive,” he said. “I don’t know. I fee bad for everybody.”

Alarayshi says he won’t be able to shake the carnage he has witnessed: “When I close my eyes, I see a lot of bombs, I see a lot of houses down.”

Veteran Israeli negotiator: Window for hostage rescue is closing

A former top Israeli hostage negotiator has told NBC News’ Lester Holt that Israel has a matter of days to try to free the 199 confirmed hostages taken by Hamas before an anticipated ground offensive ends the possibility of their peaceful release.

“It’s a matter of days, probably a week, before the Israeli ground forces go to Gaza,” said Gershon Baskin, who negotiated the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 after more than five years in captivity. “That’s when the window for negotiation closes.”

“There’s a very big possibility that a deal doesn’t get done,” said Baskin, who says he has been speaking with Hamas leadership in a nonofficial capacity since Saturday. If and when “the ground operation begins,” then Israel will be “dependent on commando raids, on special forces, on using intelligence to try and find them,” he said. “The hope that some of the captors will desert their post and leave the hostages.”

“My sense of the pulse of the Israeli public right now, the government and the military, is that the primary objective today is to remove Hamas from its ability to govern,” he said. “That means that hostages may be sacrificed” and “this hurts me so much to say that the hostages might be considered additional casualties of the war for Israel’s survival.”

E.U. launches humanitarian air bridge to bring aid to Gaza

The European Union said today it is launching a humanitarian air bridge operation to bring lifesaving supplies to Gaza.

“The first two flights will take place this week, carrying humanitarian cargo from UNICEF including shelter items, medicines and hygiene kits,” an E.U. press release said.

The air bridge operation will consist of several flights to Egypt, where humanitarian organizations going into Gaza will receive the emergency supplies.

The E.U. also tripled its humanitarian assistance to Gaza to more than 75 million euros this weekend. The funds are being channeled through selected E.U. humanitarian partners on the ground, like U.N. agencies, international nongovernmental organizations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent family.

Janez Lenarčič, the E.U. commissioner for crisis management, said warring parties are obliged to ensure humanitarian access to civilians in line with international humanitarian Law.

“Once the supplies reach Gaza, it is imperative that the humanitarian workers are able to do their work, which is to deliver assistance to those in need and save lives,” Lenarčič said. “The safety of humanitarian staff to bring these supplies to people in need without any impediments must be ensured.”

The E.U. conducted similar humanitarian air bridge operations across Africa, Asia and the Americas during the past four years. According to today’s press release, the E.U. has stockpiled additional emergency items that can be deployed as soon as requested.

Bombing in the border town of Sderot, mostly evacuated but for a few who remain

SDEROT, Israel — A whistling noise from the sky, followed seconds later by an air raid siren, sent many in this town near northern Gaza running for a nearby shelter. Rocket strikes hit seconds later.

Throughout the early afternoon here bombing could be heard in the distance, believed to be Israel’s strikes on bordering Gaza, as well as some gunfire outside town.

The Sderot city administration said that almost all of the city’s residents have now evacuated to hotels in safer areas of the country, included waterfront resorts in Eilat and the Dead Sea. Still some residents remain.

Among them was a family from the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox community. Their son, Avri Pizem, 9, joined his father working at the city’s emergency aid center. Pizem wore body armor and a helmet far too big for his small frame while he delivered orders on his radio to friends nearby.

UNRWA says social media reports of looting in its warehouses are false

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said today that reports circulating on social media, which appeared to show one of its warehouses on the Gaza strip being looted, are false.

“UNRWA would like to confirm that no looting has taken place in any of its warehouses in the Gaza Strip,” Director of Communications Juliette Touma said.

Touma said the images circulating on social media that appear to show looting were actually a movement of basic medical supplies from the UNRWA warehouse to health care partners.

Snapchat’s map offers window into Gaza

The videos are as varied as they are harrowing: A rooster crowing while giant gray smoke clouds rise over rooftops; a child whispering in a dark bedroom as flashes of lights illuminate the sky outside the window; men at the Israel border near Khan Yunis singing and laughing with each other; children smiling while eating cereal and playing with toys. 

Snapchat, the multimedia instant messaging app popular among teens and people in their 20s, is offering a unique digital window into life on the ground in the Gaza Strip thanks to its “Snap Map” feature that allows users to see videos posted from particular places.

In Gaza City, the Snap Map shows videos of crowded streets and gatherings of people holding Palestinian flags. Streets are covered in rubble, and the remains of broken buildings are piled stories high. A person driving a car passes by a row of buildings, one collapsed in on itself. An ambulance passes in front of them.

Videos from the Israel-Hamas war have circulated widely on social media, but reshared videos are often stripped of context and quickly recirculated, allowing misinformation to run rampant. Footage from Snap Map is anchored by a timestamp and location, providing viewers with a sense of time and place. Snapchat’s Help section says “automated systems” monitor what gets posted.

Shin Bet chief says failure of Israeli intelligence to deter Hamas attack is his responsibility

The head of the general security service for Israel’s internal intelligence agency Shin Bet said the organization failed to give sufficient warning time for the Hamas attack on Israel.

“Despite a series of actions we carried out, unfortunately, on Saturday we were unable to generate a sufficient warning that would allow the attack to be thwarted,” Ronen Bar said in a letter to Shin Bet employees and their families last night. “As the one who is at the head of the organization — the responsibility for this is on me.”

In the letter, Bar said Shin Bet set up a special unit with the IDF to locate, identify and recover hostages and missing people. He said that unit is deployed all over Israel and abroad to protect the country’s borders.

Bar said that while there will be time to investigate why the intelligence failure occurred, “now we are fighting.”

Israel-Hamas war enters diplomatic phase as civilians flee Gaza

Civilians and foreign nationals are fleeing Gaza as Israel prepares for a potential ground assault, but safe passage has not been guaranteed.

NBC News’ Richard Engel reports on Israel’s targeted strikes and why “a pause” could mean that the Israeli military is tightening up its military strategy.

U.N. food warehouse destroyed in Gaza airstrikes

Firefighters put out fires at a destroyed United Nations food aid warehouse and distribution center hit by Israeli airstrikes today in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southern Gaza City.

How Qatar may fit into hostage negotiations

Qatar announced it has negotiated the release of four Ukrainian children from Russia, providing photos of them reunited with their loved ones. The timing is significant, given the high-profile crisis now playing out over hostages in Gaza — among them Israeli children.

Notably, for years Qatar has also been an interlocutor among Israel, the U.S. and Hamas. NBC News has been told by a diplomat briefed on the talks that “the Qataris are talking to Hamas and the Israelis with the support of the U.S. to get the hostages out.” The diplomat did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.

The negotiations over the Ukrainian children took months, and, while four have been released, Ukraine says thousands are missing, while Russia says the number is hundreds — a reminder of just how fragile and slow these negotiations can be.

Gaza residents scramble to save every drop of water

As pipes ran dry in Gaza, residents have been left with little water to use for drinking, cooking or cleaning.

“We gave each a 2-liter bottle and each one is managing his own bottle,” Rahaf Abuzarifa, 21, who’s living with 17 other people in the same house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, told NBC News.

Those two liters must last for three days, she said, as the taps in her household ceased to supply water after Israel imposed a “full siege.”

“For bathing, everyone has taken one bath since the war started,” Abuzarifa said, adding that people were frequently changing clothes and using deodorant.

Red Cross holding face-to-face talks with Hamas on hostage access

ASHDOD, Israel — The International Red Cross is holding face-to-face meetings with senior Hamas officials in an effort to gain access to the Israeli hostages being held by the militants in Gaza, a spokesperson for the aid group told NBC News.

“We are in dialogue and discussion with Hamas at the highest level,” said Sarah Davies, a press officer for the Red Cross in Jerusalem. “We’re demanding the immediate release of these hostages, and also access so we can check on their well-being and so that we can pass messages from them to their family and vice versa.”

The international humanitarian group would not comment on the details of the meetings, citing the need to maintain open dialogue with the warring parties. 

“These conversations are conducted in a bilateral and confidential manner,” Davies said. “However, I do want to emphasize that we are relentlessly working to ensure that we can gain that access.”

Palestinian Americans still stuck with no assurances as Rafah border remains closed

Jason Shawa, a Palestinian American living in Gaza with his wife and two kids, did not try going to the border today.

Currently taking shelter 40 minutes from Egypt’s Rafah crossing, Shawa was dubious about reports last night that it would be open. “We contacted people at the border who have been there for the past three days who confirmed to us it was still closed,” he said.

“The Egyptian government announced today it was not going to open it until Israel allows foreign aid in,” he added, referring to the Egyptian foreign minister’s comments to the press.

Shawa said that, even if the border does open, there is no news on the fate of Palestinians who don’t have foreign passports — leaving Palestinian Americans with the difficult decision to leave loved ones behind.

“We know that they’ll say she can’t come because she isn’t a blood relative, nor is she a U.S. citizen,” Shawa said, referring to his children’s “elderly” caretaker. “And in all honesty, we just thought about it and can’t bring ourselves to leave her behind.”

Egypt has remained steadfast in its reluctance to open the border to everyone.

“They don’t want to depopulate Gaza, that is the thing,” Shawa said.

“I’m sure Egypt don’t want 2 million Palestinians in the Sinai — they have enough economic trouble as it is,” he added

Gazans pull children’s bodies from rubble after Israeli airstrike

Gazans in the Khan Younis neighborhood were dealing with the aftermath of the Israeli airstrikes early today.

Rescuers were seen pulling out the bodies of children of the Zugmat family, who fled the northern part of Gaza and were seeking refuge with relatives in Khan Younis.

Smoke over Lebanese city a sign of intensifying border exchanges

TYRE, Lebanon — Smoke can be seen rising in the distance near this city on the Lebanese border, suspected to be the aftermath of Israeli shelling.

The Israeli military said it was firing artillery into Lebanese territory at the source of shots fired toward its forces.

That comes after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said that its fighters had targeted five Israeli posts along the border in the country’s south with “direct weapons.”

Photo: Israelis shelter from rockets by roadside

Martin Fletcher talks ‘realistic endgame’ in Israel-Hamas war

Martin Fletcher, NBC’s longtime bureau chief in Tel Aviv, said “the only realistic endgame is for Hamas to be weakened so much militarily and politically that they become a weak government in Gaza.”

DeSantis-organized flight brings almost 300 Israel evacuees home

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last night that a flight he had organized brought home almost 300 evacuees from Israel who, his office said, had been unable to return home because of commercial flight cancellations.

The flight landed in Tampa last night just before 8 p.m. ET. DeSantis greeted the first evacuees upon their arrival. As many as 75% of the people on the flight are Floridians and among them were 91 children. There were eight dogs on the flight, as well.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Dasha Burns afterward, DeSantis spoke about the experiences he heard from the evacuees as he greeted them upon their arrival last night.

“Well, one of the families that I talked to, pointed to probably about a 5- or 6-year-old girl similar to my daughter, and said that she was saying when all the rockets kept going off: ‘I don’t want the rockets, I want to go to Florida, I don’t want the rockets, I want to get back to Florida,’” he said.

“And so they’re seeing this — they’re in the middle of this with very young kids,” he added. “And so it’s a really, really stressful situation. So we’re just glad that we were able to get back here, but I mean, this is a real conflict.”

DeSantis stuck by his earlier statement that he doesn’t believe the U.S. should take in Palestinian refugees but said “of course I would” be willing to ask other Arab countries to accept them.

“We have all these people coming illegally already that we don’t know who they are. … So we’re not going to do that here in the United States. They should go to the Arab countries,” he said.

Iran’s foreign affairs minister stresses need to stop deaths in Gaza and dispatch humanitarian aid

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian spoke to his counterparts in Tunisia, Malaysia and Pakistan and stressed the need to stop the deaths in Gaza and dispatch humanitarian aid, he said on his X account.

“I stressed that time is running out for political solutions; probable spread of war in other fronts is approaching unavoidable stage,” he wrote.

Inside Israel’s ‘enormous and complex’ operation against Hamas

Retired Adm. James Stavridis and NBC News analyst Jeremy Bash discussed Israel’s “enormous and complex” operation of sending troops into the Gaza Strip and an apparent pause after an invasion had seemed imminent.

Israel-Hamas war misinformation on social media is harder to track, researchers say

Researchers sifting through social media content on the Israel-Hamas conflict say it’s getting harder to verify information and track the spread of misleading material, adding to the digital fog of war.

As misinformation and violent content surrounding the war proliferates online, social media companies’ pullbacks in moderation and other policy shifts have made it “close to impossible” to do the work researchers were able to do less than a year ago, said Rebekah Tromble, director of George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

“It has become much more difficult for researchers to collect and analyze meaningful data to understand what’s actually happening on any of these platforms,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Blinken talks diplomacy with Turkish foreign minister

Abigail Williams

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on the phone today with Turkey’s foreign minister, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Blinken and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, discussed “diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from widening and to minimize the humanitarian costs of the war,” Miller said.

Blinken is said to have “reiterated the need for Hamas to halt all violent attacks and free hostages immediately.”

U.S. charters cruise ship to evacuate Americans from Israel

The U.S. government has chartered a cruise ship to ferry Americans in Israel to safety in Cyprus. Officials told NBC News’ Josh Lederman that the ship could carry 2,500 people. Commercial airlines have stopped flying out of Israel, leaving evacuations like this one as their only options to leave.

Biden ‘shocked and sickened’ by murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois

Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are “shocked and sickened” over the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois — a killing that officials consider an anti-Muslim hate crime and linked to the war between Israel and Hamas.

“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek — a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” Biden said in a statement. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.”

The president called on people in the U.S. to “come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.”

The child, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times at his home near Chicago by his landlord, Joseph Czuba, 71, investigators said. The boy died at a hospital. The boy’s mother 32, was stabbed more than a dozen times, authorities said. She is hospitalized and expected to survive the attack.

The sheriff’s office said a motive for the stabbing of the mother and her son was “them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”

U.S. officials are as close to Rafah border crossing as conditions permit

Abigail Williams

U.S. officials are as close to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt as security conditions permit, a senior State Department Official told a pool of reporters traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

Americans are among the thousands of foreign national Palestinians who are waiting to leave Gaza through Egypt — as all the other exits out of Gaza have been sealed — but there has been confusion Monday around when and for how long the border crossing could re-open.

Due to “acute security threats” near the crossing, the closest the State Department officials could get to Rafah is the Egyptian city of Ismailia, some 150 miles away from the border, the official said.

‘We don’t know where we are going to live. Our community is burned’

SHEFAYIM, Israel — Eilon Kotler watched his 6-year-old daughter take a short horseback ride in Shefayim, about 115 miles away from their home in Kfar Aza, where dozens of people were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. He says he hopes the positive experience will replace the memories of what unfolded just over a week ago. 

Kotler, 40, and his daughter were forced to hide as Hamas militants tore through their kibbutz, leaving dozens of people dead. When they were finally able to emerge from their hiding place 14 hours later, he said his daughter grasped his hand and told him: “Abba, don’t look.” 

Kotler said his other daughter, 9, was at another home nearby and was also safe, along with his ex-wife. He said that while his youngest daughter didn’t see the violence unfold, she can understand what happened.

Kotler said he doesn’t know if he will ever want to go back to Kfar Aza after the massacre. For now, he said he was just grateful they’re safe and for moments like this to help them “forget about our life a bit.”

“We don’t know where we are going to live. Our community is burned,” he said. “The people that survived, they lost many friends and family, so, yeah, it’s nice to come here a little bit and be with the horses.”

Iranian leader and Putin hold phone talk on the crisis

In a phone conversation today, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza must stop, according to the Russian state agency Tass, citing the Iranian state-run IRNA.

Raisi told Putin that Israel’s declared “siege” on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks could potentially turn into a large-scale military confrontation, Tass said on the messaging app Telegram.

Iran does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, and the regime has supported Hamas, along with other militant groups in the region.

Tass also reported that Putin will hold phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later today.

More than 270 Americans return to U.S. after evacuations from Israel

Dasha Burns

More than 270 Americans evacuated from Israel are back on the U.S. soil.

NBC News spoke with them as they landed in Tampa, Florida, from the first flight to return to the U.S. in an operation organized by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ninety-one of the passengers on board were children.

Palestinian Water Authority says there’s no electricity to pump water, resident says she got some water overnight

Amid confusion today over whether Israel has restarted supplying water to the Gaza Strip after it announced a complete blockade last week, Palestinian authorities said the water can’t be distributed without a steady supply of electricity, which was also cut off.

“Israel is talking about supplying water to the south with a quantity of 14,000 cubic meters per day, including part of Khan Yunis, the Bani Suhaila area, Abasan, and Khuza’a,” the Palestinian Water Authority told NBC News in a comment sent on Facebook.

“This is what Israel is talking about,” it added. “For us as a water authority, if Israel pumps water, it cannot be supplied to the population due to the interruption of the electricity required to pump it.”

But a resident in southern Gaza told NBC News she got some water overnight. Maha Elbanna, who lives in Khan Younis and is a U.S. citizen, said water was pumped into her tanks last night, but she was worried about how long what was provided would sustain her and a group of 48 others all sheltering together.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been sounding the alarm about the deteriorating water situation in Gaza, saying yesterday that rations are down to 1 liter of water per person per day to cover drinking and all other needs.

U.N. says its fuel and medical supplies in Gaza were taken

The United Nations said it has received reports that supplies were taken from its headquarters in Gaza City.

It said in a statement that “a group of people with trucks, purporting to be from the Ministry of Health of the de facto authorities (DFA) in Gaza, removed fuel and medical equipment from the Agency’s compound in Gaza City.”

United Nations Relief and Works Agency workers and staff evacuated the headquarters on Friday and have not been able to return. Cameras that normally cover the building’s entrance were not working because of blasts, the agency said.

“UNRWA’s fuel and other types of material are kept for strictly humanitarian purposes, and any use of such assets for any other purposes is strongly condemned.”

Cruise ship evacuates Americans from Israel

Matt Nighswander

Israel’s forensic scientists and the huge task to identify the dead

TEL AVIV — The sight — and smell — of just under 300 dead bodies is overpowering. Yet, staff here at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine are working harder than ever.

The center’s experts are trying to identify the bodies through DNA testing and other means — some are so badly degraded that there’s nothing left but fragments of bone. A team of anthropologists is separating them, hoping to determine who they were before the Hamas terror attack.

In one room, a team of American forensic volunteers carefully examines what looks to be the body of a woman. Outside, more than a dozen victims in black body bags are lined up to be scanned in a CT machine.

Israel only has seven forensic pathologists in the country, but it says volunteers have come in to help, including the team of four Americans.

NBC News is shown a picture of unidentified charred remains, then a CT scan of those remains. Dr. Chen Kugel, the head of the center, explains it shows two people: An adult hugging a child, the two somehow tied together.

Both were found in a fire-ravaged safe room.

Analysis: Western alliance on Israel faces stern test

The world is watching Gaza but already many U.S. allies and partners are battling to stay united while America’s foes are — as ever — poised to seize on any sign of Western division.

After the Hamas attacks on Israel, Europe suspended aid to Gaza, then reversed course. I’m told there was fury in some capitals when the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Israel on Friday and didn’t combine support with an explicit call for restraint. Finally last night, the European Union’s 27 heads of state issued a united statement, more than a week after the attacks.

In recent years, the Arab world has been building bridges with Israel through the Abraham Accords, but opinion polling suggests Arab public opinion toward Israel has barely moved. That tension will be front of mind among Arab leaders this week.

Russia and China’s message has been notably in lock-step. Over the weekend China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to the Xinhua News agency: “There is no way out through military means, and using violence for violence will only create a vicious cycle.”

This is part of a global picture that Israel, the U.S. and the West must navigate as the ground offensive gets underway.

Were they killed or abducted? For some families in Israel, the answer is neither

ASHDOD, Israel — Liel Fishbien’s last message from his sister was a warning: “Be careful and quiet. They’re in your neighborhood.” 

Fishbien, 25, hid in his grandmother’s house for hours as their Be’eri kibbutz was ambushed Oct. 7, part of a large-scale attack on Israel by terrorists from Hamas. Dozens of people in Fishbien’s small community were killed while others were taken hostage across the border to the Gaza Strip, a blockaded Palestinian enclave controlled by Hamas militants.

Fishbien believes the hostages include his sister, Tchelet Fishbien, 18, who had been hiding in a nearby home with her boyfriend. But so far she does not appear to be included in the Israeli government’s official count, for lack of clear proof that she has been taken.

“They haven’t located a video of her inside Gaza,” Fishbien said, so she is considered “among the missing and not the hostages.”

In the days since the Hamas attacks, the Israeli government has been updating official figures on the number of people killed or abducted. But people like Fishbien say they feel stuck in the space between, waiting anxiously for news about missing loved ones who have still not been categorized.

Read the full story here

Inside Israel’s ‘enormous and complex’ operation against Hamas

Israel won’t allow Rafah crossing to reopen, Egyptian foreign minister says

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said today the Israeli government had yet to take a position that would allow the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to reopen.

The Rafah crossing is the only non-Israeli-controlled point out of Gaza. It was expected to reopen today to allow the outflow of foreign national Palestinians and to allow the badly needed humanitarian aid in, but all sides have denied there were any truce conditions in place for that to happen early this morning.

“Until now, unfortunately, the Israeli government has not taken a position that would lead to the possibility of opening the crossing from the Gaza side to allow the entry of aid or the exit of citizens from other countries,” Shoukry said. “We and all the Egyptian agencies are fully prepared to bring in aid and the exit of citizens of different countries, and also to operate the crossing at its normal pace.”

Ice cream trucks used as makeshift morgues as bodies pile up

Gaza health officials are using ice cream trucks to store the bodies of those killed because there is not enough space at a hospital morgue in the central town of Deir Al-Balah.

“It’s not as you see,” local journalist Motaz Azaiza said in a video posted on Instagram yesterday as he filmed a freezer truck advertising ice cream. “It’s ice cream trucks for bodies.”

He said the trucks were being used because there was “no space” inside the hospital to store the corpses.

“They keep it cold until they can give [the bodies] to their families,” he said.

In another video shared by Azaiza, bodies wrapped in bloodied sheets could be seen inside the truck.

“The hospital morgue can only take 10 bodies, so we have brought in ice cream freezers from the ice cream factories in order to store the huge numbers of martyrs,” Dr. Yasser Ali from Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital also told Reuters.

The Gaza Health Ministry said today that 2,750 people in the enclave had been killed over the past week.

Landlord fatally stabs Palestinian American child in Illinois, police say

A 6-year-old boy was stabbed to death and his mother was critically wounded by their landlord in an alleged anti-Muslim hate crime, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday, calling it a “senseless and cowardly act of violence.”

“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America.”

Both the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and his mother, 32, were found with stab wounds in a bedroom when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene. She is expected to survive.

Their 71-year-old landlord was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of committing a hate crime.

Read the full story here.

Iran says Hamas potentially ready to strike a deal on hostages if airstrikes stop

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said today that Hamas potentially was ready to release the almost 200 hostages it is holding if Israel stops its campaign of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The militant group hasn’t acknowledged making such an offer.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani spoke at a news conference in Tehran. Iran’s theocracy is a main sponsor of Hamas in its fight against Israel, Tehran’s regional archenemy.

Hamas officials “stated that they are ready to take necessary measures to release the citizens and civilians held by resistant groups, but their point was that such measures require preparations that are impossible under daily bombardment by the Zionists against various parts of Gaza,” Kanaani said.

Hamas has said it will trade the captives for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel in the kind of lopsided exchange deals that have been reached in the past.

Iran has warned it could enter the war, as well if Israel launches a widely anticipated ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in the coming days. Already, the Lebanese Shia militia group Hezbollah, which is also sponsored by Iran, has launched missiles into Israel, though it insists that represents a “warning” for Israel rather than its full entry into the war.

“We heard from the resistance that they have no problem to continue resisting,” Kanaani said, referring to Hamas. “They said the resistance holds military capability to continue resisting in the field for a long time.”

At one Gaza border crossing, aid and a potential way out. At another, tanks.

ISRAEL/GAZA BORDER — Israeli troops are ready to attack, lined up here along the border with Gaza.

But after appearing imminent, the Israeli ground assault seems to have been delayed as diplomacy takes center stage.

That has offered hope for some of those waiting for a way out of the war zone. Thousands of Palestinians with foreign passports, including hundreds of American citizens, are gathered this morning at the Rafah border crossing into Egypt — the only potential way in and out of the Gaza Strip. They are tired and anxious after days of false starts.

If they do eventually leave, it will be as part of deal to allow food, water and other supplies from Egypt into southern Gaza for the first time since the Hamas killing spree.

Palestinians inspect homes destroyed during Israeli raids, in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Hamas warns of ‘environmental disaster’ as it says 1,000 bodies remain under rubble in Gaza

Hamas warned today that more than 1,000 bodies remain under the rubble in Gaza, which could precipitate “an environmental disaster” and “the spread of epidemics” in the enclave.

Gaza has been bombarded by Israeli airstrikes since the unprecedented violent incursion into Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 and its health system is already on the brink of collapse.

Its hospitals have struggled to accommodate the thousands of injured and the United Nations said earlier the health authorities are running out of body bags.

Southern Gaza struggles to cope as hundreds of thousands are displaced

The southern Gazan city of Khan Younis is coping with hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes in the north following fears of a ground invasion.

Despite Israel saying it had resumed water supply to parts of Gaza, Mohammed Aborjelaa, a 27-year-old content creator, told NBC News, “There is no electricity to operate the pumps.”

Khan Younis is 6 miles away from the Rafah border crossing, where hundreds of people have been lining up, hoping to cross into Egypt.

The city is rife with craters from aerial bombings, hospitals are flooded with injured victims and people have been lining up for hours to get some bread.

Many have been sleeping on stairs, often laying just over a sheet of cardboard.

“People are afraid and will do anything to survive. Israel bombs everything,” he said.

Quiet in Tel Aviv — and then a boom

TEL AVIV — Usually a bustling cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean coast, Tel Aviv remains quieter than normal more than a week after the Hamas attacks.

The calm was pierced just after noon local time (5 a.m. ET) when a loud boom shook windows in the city, as has happened on other days this week, as the country waits for a possible ground incursion into Gaza.

There was no siren from the IDF’s “Red Color” early warning system, which puts out location-specific alarms to communities targeted with rockets. That could mean the rocket was headed out to sea, in which case the country’s Iron Dome defense system would not have attempted to intercept it.

London mayor reassures security for places of worship in British capital

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said increased security measures will continue to be in place to protect places of worship in the British capital following violence in Israel and Gaza.

“The suffering and loss of innocent life in both Israel and Gaza is truly heartbreaking and my thoughts are with all those impacted,” he said in a statement today.

“It’s vital that we don’t allow events overseas to spill over onto our streets in London and I want to reassure both the Jewish community and the Muslim community that we will take a zero-tolerance approach to any Islamophobia or anti-Semitism,” Khan added.

A number of European capitals have stepped up security in light of the violence in the Middle East. Some had banned pro-Palestinian rallies this weekend, fearing an escalation of tensions on the continent.

The challenges of evacuations at the Rafah crossing

Americans wait to board cruise ship out of Israeli port

Josh Lederman

HAIFA — Here at this Israeli port, Americans who want to get out of the country are going to board a cruise ship that will take them to Cyprus where they can then take commercial flights home.

It’s unclear if everyone who’s here is going to be able to get a seat on that ship but many here tell us they had flight after flight that was canceled. But with a war going on, they don’t feel safe here and would feel much safer once they are back on U.S. soil.

Biden says occupation of Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’

As a ground operation in Gaza appeared to be imminent, Biden has cautioned Israel against occupying the enclave, but said Hamas must be eliminated entirely.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said, speaking on the CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” when asked if Washington would support Israeli occupation of Gaza.

“The extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” Biden added. “And I think that … It would be a mistake to … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again.”

Biden also emphasized that while he believes Hamas should be completely eliminated, there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.

Blinken returns to Israel after Middle East diplomacy tour

Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel today after a diplomacy tour of the Middle East to prevent the Hamas-Israel war from spilling over into the broader region.

Blinken first traveled to Israel on Thursday to pledge Washington’s solidarity and support, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials. He then embarked on a number of stops throughout the Middle East, including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“From here, we’re heading back to Israel,” Blinken said yesterday, speaking in Cairo. “I want an opportunity to share everything that I’ve heard, that I’ve learned over the last few days visiting with our other partners and to talk about the way forward with our Israeli allies and friends.”

He is due to meet with Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and opposition leader Yair Lapid, according to a U.S. official.

From trance to terror: The Supernova music festival massacre

Confirmed Israeli hostage count nears 200

TEL AVIV — Israeli officials have now identified and notified the families of 199 hostages captured during the surprise attack led by Hamas, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told a media briefing today. The Israeli military put the figure at 155 yesterday.

Israeli Security Cabinet meeting to be held tonight

TEL AVIV — Israel’s Security Cabinet will meet tonight at 8 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) at the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this morning.

The meeting comes amid mounting speculation over when an expected ground offensive by Israel into Gaza will begin.

More than 1 million displaced in Gaza, U.N. says

More than a million people, about half of Gaza’s total estimated population, have been displaced in the nine days of fighting between Hamas and Israel, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a report late yesterday.

Of those, almost 400,000 are sheltering at the U.N. facilities in the enclave, exceeding its capacity to assist “in any meaningful way,” the report said.

Americans wait in Haifa, Israel, for a ship to evacuate them to Cyprus

Gaza running out of body bags as death toll reaches 2,750 

The death toll in Gaza has reached 2,750, its Health Ministry said today, as the United Nations said the enclave, which has been bombarded and blockaded by Israel for over a week, was running out of body bags.

“The number of killed is increasing,” the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a report late yesterday. “There are not enough body bags for the dead in Gaza.”

Gazan health authorities also said almost 10,000 people were injured as humanitarian organizations have been raising the alarm that the enclave’s health system is on the brink of collapse.

Crowds gather at the Rafah crossing as it remains closed; aid convoys wait for access

A hopeful crowd gathered at the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing this morning as it remained uncertain whether or when the only non-Israeli-controlled exit out of Gaza would reopen.

Yesterday, a representative for the Palestinian Embassy said Palestinians with foreign passports would be able to cross the border into Egypt starting at 9 a.m. local time today, when humanitarian aid would also begin crossing into Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said yesterday that “Rafah will be reopened,” and Washington was putting in place a mechanism by which to get aid in with the United Nations, Egypt and Israel.

But early today, all sides denied that hostiles had been paused to allow an outflow of people across Rafah.

Meanwhile, photos distributed by Agence France-Presse today showed a convoy of trucks carrying aid supplies on its way to the Rafah crossing.

‘To evacuate could be a death sentence,’ says son of disabled parents

Dorgham Abusalim has been able to speak to his parents and two siblings in the Gaza Strip only four times since last Saturday.

“My family is on the brink of being starved,” said Abusalim, who was born in the Gaza Strip and is now a writer based in Washington. His father is paralyzed and diabetic; his mother is blind and suffers from hypertension. Both are running out of medicine.

Abusalim’s family is based in the central Gazan town of Deir Al-Balah. “To evacuate could be a death sentence,” he said.

“Many people who fled the north following Israel’s order to displace them, end up in our town. My family is now sheltering three other families. The burden is overwhelming,” he said.

Hamas denies truce for Rafah crossing

The political wing of Hamas has denied that there is any sort of truce agreement in place to allow the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open today to allow foreign nationals to leave Gaza.

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said in a statement that “There is no truth” to what it called Western and Israeli media reports that a truce had been agreed.Earlier today, the Israeli military also denied that a cease-fire was in place.

Israel to evacuate residents from near Lebanese border

TEL AVIV — Israelis living near the northern border with Lebanon are being evacuated from the area, where Israel has been trading fire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

Residents in northern Israel who live within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the border will be taken to state-funded guesthouses, according to a plan announced by the ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority.

The evacuation, approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, will be managed by the heads of the 28 municipalities affected, the ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s military has massed tanks on Gaza’s border near Ashkelon

Israel denies cease-fire allowing Palestinians with foreign passports to cross into Egypt

ASHDOD — The Israeli government has denied reports of a cease-fire allowing Palestinians with foreign passports to cross the border from southern Gaza into Egypt today with humanitarian aid going in.

The Palestinian Embassy said that such Palestinians would be able to do so from from 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) today, but as of now it appears the crossing remains closed.

“There is currently no ceasefire and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the expulsion of foreigners,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said.

Salama Marouf, head of the Gaza media office, said: “We have not received, until this moment, any communications or confirmations from the relevant authorities on the Egyptian side about the intention to open the Rafah crossing today, and everything that is being circulated in particular is attributed to the enemy media.”

In their own words: Those impacted by the Israel-Hamas war

Catch up with the latest NBC News coverage from Israel and Gaza

Here are just some of the articles our team in the region and beyond have produced in the last 24 hours.