Israel says it’s increasing ground operation and bombing in Gaza

IDF says it struck 150 ‘underground targets’ in northern Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces says that its fighter jets struck 150 “underground targets” in northern Gaza.

They included “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional underground infrastructure,” the IDF said.

“Furthermore, several Hamas terrorists were killed,” the military said. Video released by the IDF shows blasts illuminating the night sky, as well as overhead video of airstrikes hitting buildings.

The claim comes after NBC News crews witnessed bombardments in Gaza that were the most sustained since seen in their time by the Israel-Gaza border. Israel’s military also said it was increasing ground operations as it wages a war against Hamas.

IDF says it killed Hamas figure who ‘commanded’ paraglider attacks

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday said that its fighter jets killed Asem Abu Rakaba, who it said directed attackers who used paragliders to enter Israel on the Oct. 7 terror attacks.

He was head of Hamas’ “Aerial Array” the IDF said. It said Abu Rakaba took part in the planning of the Oct. 7 attacks.

“He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts,” the IDF said on social media.

Video released by the IDF showed an airstrike hitting what appeared to be a building.

The IDF said Abu Rakaba “was responsible for Hamas’ UAVs, drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defense.”

NBC News has not independently confirmed his death.

Israeli Foreign Minister: ‘We reject outright’ U.N. call for cease-fire

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said today, “We reject outright the U.N. General Assembly’s despicable call for a cease-fire” and vowed that Hamas would be crushed.

“Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with the Nazis and ISIS,” Cohen wrote on X.

Earlier, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that called for a humanitarian truce, but which was criticized for not mentioning Hamas. The United States was among the countries that voted against it, citing that omission.

Grand Central Terminal in NYC closes after protest

New York City’s transportation hub Grand Central Terminal closed tonight after demonstrations by a group calling for peace in Israel and Gaza, officials said.

Metro-North Railroad said on X that Grand Central Terminal was closed due to demonstrations.

The group Jewish Voice for Peace announced that they planned a sit-in and demonstration to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, the terror group that attacked Israel three weeks ago.

“Well, I was not expecting this,” commuter Mike Metlay, who was trying to take Metro-North, told NBC New York. “It looks like I’m going to be stranded for a little while.”

Metlay said the people waiting for him were flexible. “I have a funny feeling that if I tell them I’m in the middle of a protest, they’ll understand,” he told the station.

Demonstrators chanted “cease-fire now!” at one point, video from NBC New York showed.

Grand Central Terminal later reopened “for ticketed customers only,” Metro North said.

As the was between Israel and Hamas intensifies, tension is also climbing for Israel’s Arab Muslims, who make up 20% of the population. People living in Jerusalem’s Arab quarter share their experiences.

Heavy and sustained bombardment at border

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — A constant bombardment has been going on in the area consistently for several hours.

NBC News has been reporting from this area for more than two weeks and this is the most sustained bombardment that has been heard to date.

Anne Thompson

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — When Abdulla Okal’s wife and three children fled northern Gaza because of airstrikes as Israel’s military targets Hamas, they first went to Khan Younis in the south.

“She had to leave this morning. She was scared, because they were bombing the whole neighborhood,” Okal said today.

They are now at Rafah, staying with friends and family, which is near the border with Egypt. There are about 45 people inside the house, Okal said.

The house is “for max 10 people,” he said. “But with this situation, these people have no place to stay.

The family lives in New Jersey, and they all went to Gaza this summer for a visit. Okal came back early, and his wife, who has family there, stayed with the children for an extended visit — and then came the attack on Israel and the war, and they are stuck there.

They want to leave Gaza. Okal’s son texted him two days ago. “He’s just hoping to see me again,” Okal said.

But there’s no guarantee when or if that will happen. There are around 600 Americans in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department. Negotiations have been ongoing about trying to get Americans and others out through the Rafah crossing.

Okal talked to his wife this morning briefly before the connection was lost. “She was doing OK, but she’s talking hopeless, too,” he said.

And today Israel’s military spokesman said that ground operations in Gaza are increasing, which could signal a new phase of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

There is no power, people charge cell phones on car chargers, and there was no signal in Gaza today, he said.

“It’s really scary, because I can’t talk to them, I can’t call her. I don’t know what’s going on and what’s happening on the ground,” Okal said.

“So, it’s very scary. We’re just waiting to hear from the news and see what’s going on,” he said.

The U.S. conducted two airstrikes in Northeastern Syria overnight and, according to the Pentagon, hit buildings housing weapons and ammunition used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon says the militia groups launched another drone attack on a base with Americans in Iraq.

State Dept. tells Americans to leave Lebanon now, while they can

The State Department is recommending that Americans in Lebanon “leave now, while commercial flights remain available, due to the unpredictable security situation.”

A security alert posted by the agency also said that people in the country, which borders Israel and is headquarters for the militant group Hezbollah, should have a plan for a crisis that does not depend on U.S. assistance.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire over the border between the two countries.

“There is no guarantee the U.S. government will evacuate private U.S. citizens and their family members in a crisis situation,” the State Department said.

U.S. and other officials have said they were working to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from expanding into a more regional conflict.

IDF says it can’t guarantee safety of journalists in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces said this week that it can’t guarantee the safety of journalists in Gaza, according to the Reuters news agency.

“The IDF is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza,” the IDF said in a letter after Reuters and AFP asked that journalists not be targeted, Reuters reported.

The IDF said Hamas deliberately puts military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians” and that air strikes can cause damage to surrounding buildings and the Hamas rockets can fall short, Reuters reported.

“Under these circumstances, we cannot guarantee your employees’ safety, and strongly urge you to take all necessary measures for their safety,” the IDF letter concluded, Reuters reported.

The report says the letter was received this week, but Reuters reported it on the same day that an IDF spokesman said it was increasing the ground operation in Gaza.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has documented the deaths of at least 29 journalists since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said, “The military is operating powerfully on all dimensions in order achieve the goals of the war.”

Israel’s ambassador says U.N. resolution is ‘day that will go down in infamy’

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, sharply criticized a U.N. General Assembly resolution passed earlier today for not mentioning the terror group Hamas, which attacked his country.

“Israel categorically rejects the General Assembly resolution passed this afternoon that does not even name Hamas — not once! As if this war started on its own!” Erdan said.

“Even when discussing our hostages, the drafters could not even bring themselves to name the Hamas terrorists responsible for this blatant war crime,” he added.

Earlier the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that called for a sustained humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas. The resolution condemned all acts of violence aimed at civilians, including terrorism.

The United States was among 14 countries that voted against it. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas Greenfield, said the key words missing from the resolution were Hamas and hostages, and called the omission outrageous.

WHO director and UNICEF say they have lost contact with staff in Gaza

The director of the World Health Organization and UNICEF said today that they have lost contact with their staff in Gaza.

The announcements on social media by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell comes as Israel’s military has said its ground operation against Hamas is increasing.

“We have lost touch with our staff in Gaza, with health facilities, health workers and the rest of our humanitarian partners on the ground,” Ghebreyesus said on X.

“This siege makes me gravely concerned for their safety and the immediate health risks of vulnerable patients. We urge immediate protection of all civilians and full humanitarian access,” he added.

Russell also said the organization lost contact with its colleagues in Gaza.

U.N. calls for immediate humanitarian truce

The United Nations General Assembly is calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and demanding safe, unhindered access to Gaza to deliver essential aid to Palestinians.

The U.N. resolution submitted by Arab states received the overwhelming support of 120 countries. The United States and Israel were among 14 countries that voted against the resolution.

The resolution condemned all acts of violence aimed at Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including terrorism and indiscriminate attacks. It passed without an amendment from the U.S. and Canada specifically condemning Hamas and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

“This resolution makes no mention of the innocent people — including citizens of many of you in this room — many of you here today who have citizens who are being held hostage by Hamas and other terrorist groups,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas Greenfield said to the Assembly before the vote.

“These are omissions of evil and they give cover to and they empower Hamas’ brutality and no member state, no member state should allow that to happen. You should not let it stand.”

French Ambassador to the U.N., Nicolas de Rivière said following the vote, “There’s no hierarchy, we have to work collectively to set up a humanitarian truce, which could lead eventually to a ceasefire because the situation in Gaza is catastrophic.”

Netanyahu senior adviser: ‘Tonight we are starting payback’

Amid increased bombing in Gaza, Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, tells MSNBC that “Hamas will feel our wrath tonight.”

‘Dangerous everywhere’: NBC News crew member tells of desperate conditions in Gaza

A member of NBC News’ crew in the Gaza Strip tonight messaged colleagues in London despite the collapse of the internet and the intensive bombing, providing a glimpse of the desperate conditions in the besieged enclave. 

“I’ve managed to get connectivity for a minute with a lot of difficulty and I wanted to let you know that all internet, electricity and everything has been cut off,” he added.

“The situation we’re in is difficult, so difficult and very dangerous,” he wrote. “We’re being extensively shelled by artillery and by air.” 

“Every street is affected,” he said. “People are carrying their dead and injured in the most basic methods … on trollies and in tuk-tuks.”

“It’s very dangerous everywhere — they are bombing us from the sky above and the ground,” he said. “A few minutes ago warplanes bombed locations close to us.”

“Even ambulances don’t dare go out,” he said.

In Florida, pro-Palestinian students organize despite DeSantis order

University of Florida students who are part of a pro-Palestine group said they’re continuing to organize despite an order from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration that it be “deactivated.” The students say that so far no one has reached out to them about the public mandate.

Two members of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter said that they have not heard from the university regarding the state directive. They spoke to NBC News over the phone and asked that their names be withheld, citing student activists who have had their names posted online, including those in recent weeks who have faced harassment and job loss. 

“All of us have agreed there’s no action we need to take besides what we have planned currently and to continue moving forward with our organizing work,” said Laila Fakhoury, a former UF student who previously led the UF SJP and continues to work with the group.

On Wednesday, an estimated 150 to 300 people gathered on campus at the University of Florida for a walkout and vigil organized by the SJP chapter protesting Israel’s attacks on Gaza and for the Palestinian lives lost.

The action came a day after Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, published a letter online addressed to the presidents of various Florida state universities demanding that the chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine be shut down.

The letter from Rodrigues said the decision was issued “in consultation with” DeSantis, and cited a Florida law that prohibits people and groups from providing “material support” to terrorist organizations. The letter did not say the group had broken that law, but noted in part issues with a “toolkit” published by the group and plans for a “Day of Resistance.”

The University of Florida did not respond to a request for comment.

The dispute over Florida’s SJP groups is part of a wave of on-campus controversies that have roiled dozens of universities, colleges and high schools across the U.S. amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Raf Sanchez’s crew appeared to capture Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepting a Palestinian rocket during a live report on MSNBC.

Frustration grows among U.S. citizens stuck in Gaza

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after the U.S. advised Americans in Gaza to move south toward the Rafah crossing with Egypt, there is growing frustration among those trapped about the precarious wait near the border and the Biden administration’s delicate negotiations to get them out.

“It’s like a puzzle,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, adding that parties involved in the negotiations — including Israel, Hamas, Egypt and Qatar — have had different objections at different times. “We’re making progress, but it’s still a difficult and challenging situation.”

State Department officials — led on the ground by David Satterfield, the special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues — have been frantically trying to get some 400 Americans and legal permanent residents out of Gaza along with more than 400 of their family members. 

According to a U.S. official, Satterfield was in Cairo on Friday, continuing negotiations, and Egypt is mediating U.S. discussions with Hamas regarding the Rafah gate.

A senior administration official said that over the past week, Egypt, Hamas and Israel have all raised objections to a continuous flow of aid going in, as the U.S. has been demanding since the beginning of the war.

Senior administration officials say Egypt was insisting no one could come out of Gaza until all the aid got in, but that those Egyptian officials have now relented, but now Hamas is holding up the exit of the Americans.

“There are a lot of factors and moving pieces,” one U.S. official said. “We’re exploring all options.”

Egyptian authorities are ready to process American citizens and other foreign nationals if they make it to their side of the border, said State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.

U.N. Secretary-General Guterres: Humanitarian system in Gaza is ‘facing total collapse’

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement on the declining humanitarian system in Gaza, saying it’s “facing a total collapse with unimaginable consequences for more than 2 million civilians.”

While the bombing in Gaza intensifies, Guterres said, “needs are growing ever more critical and colossal.”

“About 500 trucks per day were crossing into Gaza before the hostilities began,” Guterres said. “In recent days, an average of only 12 trucks per day have entered, despite needs being far greater than at any time before.”

The supplies that have made it into Gaza don’t include fuel needed for United Nations operations, to power hospitals or desalination plants and food distribution, Guterres said.

Guterres stressed the need for lifesaving aid, food, water, medicine and fuel to get to civilians in Gaza.

“Everyone must assume their responsibilities. This is a moment of truth. History is judging us all,” he said.

Families of hostages set up empty Shabbat table at Lincoln Memorial

Families of hostages in Gaza staged an empty Shabbat table at the Lincoln Memorial as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues.

‘The sky is crying’: Gaza skyline burns red as rain starts to fall

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — Just a handful of miles from the Gaza border, the skyline can be seen frequently burning bright red and orange as Israel ramps up its bombardment.

Amid the booms, it has started to drizzle. “The sky is crying,” an Israeli police officer says as artillery fire rings out.

Eye on Palestine, account posting media from Gaza, returns to Instagram after being blocked

The Instagram and Threads accounts of Eye on Palestine, which post media from Gaza, including videos and images of injured people, to social media, came back online Friday.

Meta said Wednesday that its security staff had detected a possible hacking attempt on the accounts and locked them while it tried to reach the account owners. 

The Eye on Palestine Telegram account said the issues arose from “continuous reports the page has been exposed, and due to some technical problems that we have worked hard to solve during the past days.”

The group said it disabled its Facebook page “due to the constant deletion of posts, and we currently have no presence there.”

The account added that the return of its pages were thanks to communications with Meta.

Israel ground war in Gaza ‘will be a humanitarian catastrophe,’ Jordan foreign minister says

Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, urged United Nations members to vote for a cease-fire resolution in order to avoid “catastrophe.”

“Israel just launched a ground war on Gaza. Outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come,” Safadi wrote on X.

“Voting against Arab #UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing. Millions will be watching every vote. History will judge.”

Told to leave northern Gaza, this Palestinian family is staying put

Every day, Omyma Olwan and her family get a robocall from the Israeli military with a warning: “You might be a target and your life is in danger.”

Despite the calls, and the Israeli airstrikes that continue to pummel their neighborhood, the family has resolved to stay in their home in the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military ordered 1.1 million people to evacuate earlier this month ahead of a potential ground assault.

Olwan, a retired teacher and mother of eight, is no stranger to war, having survived four of them in Gaza. But that has not made the decision to remain any easier.

“The bombing is left and right, north and south,” she told NBC News in a phone interview from eastern Gaza City, about 6 miles from the border with Israel, where she lives with her husband, three adult children, one daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, ages 1 and 4.

“There isn’t any safe place away from the bombing,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Qatari negotiator ‘hopeful’ of deal for Hamas to release civilian hostages

A senior Qatari negotiator said that he hoped civilians being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza could be released within days.

Mohammed Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, told Britain’s Sky News that the negotiations were progressing under very difficult circumstances.

Hamas says Israel’s escalation is warning of ‘intention to commit more massacres and genocides’

Hamas issued a statement today saying that Israel’s actions cutting off most internet and communications, as well as its airstrikes on Gaza, signal the country’s “intention to commit more massacres and genocides away from the eyes of the press and the world.”

“We hold the occupation, Washington, and the Western capitals that supported it fully responsible for the series of heinous massacres and their repercussions,” Hamas said in the statement.

The organization called on Arab and Islamic countries as well as the international community to “take responsibility and take immediate action to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people.”

“We call on our people wherever they are in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the territories of 1948 and the diaspora. We also call on the free people of the world to move in support of Gaza and to stop the aggression and war of extermination against civilians,” the statement read.

All contact with emergency operations center in Gaza cut, Palestine Red Crescent Society says

Humanitarian organization Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement that it has lost all contact with its operations room in Gaza. The organization is “deeply concerned” after landline, cellular and internet communications were cut off in the area.

“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services, especially since this disruption affects the central emergency number ‘101’ and hinders the arrival of ambulance vehicles to the wounded and injured,” it wrote.

Concerns also surround the team’s safety “as the continuous and intense Israeli airstrikes around the clock indicate that the Israeli authorities will continue to commit war crimes while isolating Gaza from the outside world,” Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

Blasts heard from Gaza as Iron Dome interception lights up the sky

ASHDOD — Israel’s ramping up of bombing in Gaza can be heard from Ashdod tonight, with blasts ringing out frequently as jets fly overhead.

A siren warning of a possible incoming air attack blared in Ashdod earlier this evening, forcing residents to seek safety in shelters. Not long ago, Israel’s Iron Dome could also be seen appearing to intercept a rocket further south, with the explosion briefly lighting up the sky.

The intense scenes come as the IDF said it was expanding ground activity this evening, with much of Gaza also appearing to face a near-total blackout of internet and cellphone service.

Gaza health officials report 1,700 missing, including 940 children under the rubble

The Palestinian Health Ministry said it has received 1,700 reports of missing people, including 940 children still under the rubble. The organization placed the death toll at 7,326, including 3,038 children, since Oct. 7.

The ministry also accused Israel of intentionally targeting 57 health institutions, adding that a lack of access to fuel in hospitals threatens the lives of the wounded and sick. It reported that at least seven people have been injured by “live Israeli bullets” in the West Bank. The organization also said that the U.S. administration was “absolutely biased to the Israeli positions” on the conflict.

These reports come after President Biden said Wednesday that he has “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” to calculate the death toll and number of casualties in the Gaza Strip.

Representatives from the U.N. and the World Health Organization told Reuters that they continue to use numbers from the Palestinian Health Ministry in their reporting, arguing that the data is clearly sourced.

Near-total internet and cellular blackout hits Gaza as Israel ramps up strikes

A near-total blackout of internet and cellphone service has taken hold across much of Gaza, according to witnesses there and companies that monitor global connectivity.

The largest telecommunications provider in Gaza that was still largely operational, Paltel, said Friday that it had suffered a complete disruption of all services after heavy Israeli bombing earlier in the day destroyed its last remaining infrastructure connecting it to the global internet.

Isik Mater, the director of research at NetBlocks, a U.K. company that tracks global internet connectivity, said the bombing created the biggest internet blackout since the conflict began.

“Today’s incident is the largest single disruption to internet connectivity in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict and will be perceived by many as a total or near-total internet blackout,” Mater said. “The loss of international routes is likely to severely limit residents’ ability to communicate with the outside world.”

IDF says it’s ‘increasing ground operation’ in Gaza

ASHDOD, Israel — An IDF spokesperson said today that Israel has “increased the bombing in Gaza,” including underground targets and infrastructure it says is used by terrorists.

The escalation comes amid widespread reports of sirens, explosions and Israeli planes flying over the enclave.

“We will continue, and I call Gaza residents in the north to move south,” the spokesperson said, adding that IDF is “increasing the ground operation” as well.

The spokesperson also mentioned an earlier announcement from the IDF alleging that Hamas had a “terrorist headquarters” underneath al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which is on the brink of collapse but still sheltering tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians. NBC News has not independently verified the claim, and Hamas denied it.

In a later tweet, the IDF spokesperson added: “In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The Air Force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.”

“In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.”

Over 7,300 killed in Gaza, Health Ministry says

Over 7,300 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

This includes over 3,000 children, 1,720 women and 400 elderly people, the Health Ministry said. UNRWA says this also includes 53 of their aid workers.

In the West Bank, over 100 people have been killed and more than 1,900 were injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Heath.

More than a million people have been displaced in Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

1,400 killed in Israel, 5,400 injured, IDF says

A total of 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and 5,400 were injured, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

This includes 30 IDF soldiers, the IDF said.

Of the injured, 295 are still in the hospital and 46 are in serious condition, the Israeli Health Ministry said Monday.

Over 220 families have been informed by the IDF that their relatives are being held hostage by Hamas.

IDF says there’s a ‘terrorist headquarters’ under Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital; Hamas denies it

TEL AVIV — The Israel Defense Forces said today that a “terrorist headquarters” exists under Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a briefing that patients and staff at al-Shifa are in danger and that Hamas takes fuel from other hospitals in order to attack Israel. The IDF also presented an audio recording of a call, purportedly with a Gazan energy official who confirmed the headquarters.

NBC News has not independently verified its existence.

In a statement, Hamas called the IDF’s claims “false allegations” and denied them, adding that “they pave the way for targeting the hospital.”

Israel opens a vast underground hospital near Lebanon border

HAIFA, Israel — Less than 20 miles from Israel’s border with Lebanon, where exchanges of rocket fire are leading to fears of a regional escalation, the world’s largest underground, fortified hospital is ready to receive patients should the area come under attack.

Rambam Hospital, in Haifa, has three vast subterranean floors — larger than 10 football fields. In times of peace it’s used as a parking lot. But when Lebanon’s Hezbollah began trading missiles with Israel almost three weeks ago, these cavernous spaces were converted into their primary function: a vast, Level I trauma center replete with functioning operating theaters, oncology wards and pediatric units.

If the city comes under attack, as it did during the 2006 Lebanon War, then 600 patients would be moved below ground, a daunting logistical operation that staff say could take four hours.

Rambam would also serve as the main hospital for troops on the northern front line. “We hope that we will have a few hours to get ready,” said Prof. Michael Halberthal, a pediatrician and director of the hospital, referencing the type of intelligence warnings not given on Oct. 7. “If not, we will have to do it with rockets falling around us.”

The conflict in 2006 saw 70 rockets strike within 100 meters of the building, Halberthal said, shaking both the building and their sense of security. It spurred them to create this high-tech bunker, shifting 10 million cubic feet of earth — enough to fill 100 Olympic swimming pools — pumping almost 70 billion gallons of water back into the nearby sea during the 2.5 years of construction, and the resulting hole with 7,000 tons of steel and 3 million cubic feet of bomb shelter-standard concrete.

Service at major Gaza internet provider has ‘collapsed,’ internet watchdog says

One of the largest internet providers in Gaza, NetStream, appears to have suffered a near-total connectivity outage.

NetStream’s service “collapsed” late Thursday, according to NetBlocks, a company that tracks internet connectivity. Groups that track internet connectivity in Gaza have seen a steady decline as Israel has cut electricity and bombed targets in the area.

With electricity to Gaza severed, internet providers have had to rely on alternate, limited power sources like generators to keep users connected. 

‘Palestine is ready for peace negotiations with Israel,’ Palestinian ambassador to Russia says

In an interview with Russian news platform RTVI, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal said, “Palestine is ready for peace negotiations with Israel.”

“Firstly, we are talking about a cease-fire in order to allow aid [to the Gaza Strip],” Nofal said. “If after this, serious, constructive proposals for a settlement are put forward, the Palestinian authorities are ready for negotiations.”

53 UNRWA staffers killed in Gaza, highest number of casualties in conflict ever, agency says

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East says 53 of its staffers have died in Gaza since Oct. 7.

This is the agency’s highest number of casualties in conflict ever, a spokesperson told NBC News.

Fifteen staffers died in one day, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a news briefing today.

“They are mothers and fathers,” Lazzarini said. “Wonderful people who have dedicated their lives to their communities. If they were not in Gaza, they could have been your neighbor. One colleague died while on his way to pick up bread from a bakery. He left six children behind.”

Lazzarini called UNRWA staffers “true heroes” who continue working “despite the fact they share the same loss, fear, and daily struggle of millions of Gazans.”

“My Gaza colleagues are the face of humanity during one of its darkest hours,” Lazzarini said.

Lazzarini said he plans to visit Gaza “to express solidarity and amplify the voice of the communities and our staff.”

Remnants of a massacre remain at festival grounds

RE’IM, Israel — T-shirts and swimming shorts, an empty bottle of Grey Goose vodka, bubble wands, shoes, shattered eyeglasses and a pillow from IKEA: These are some of the remnants of a music festival in southern Israel that became a massacre when Hamas militants attacked on Oct. 7.

Nearby, a bomb shelter sits covered in bullet holes. Marks from a grenade blast scar the inside. Israel Defense Forces soldiers say revelers ran here for shelter but were found and killed by Hamas militants.

Three weeks after the attack, much of the area has been cleared of reminders of that day, but the items still left behind tell the story of a frantic rush to escape.

“It tells us that we have to complete our mission,” IDF spokesperson Capt. Ben Rosner said. “We have to dismantle Hamas so that we never have to experience what we experienced on Oct. 7.”

Analysis: Pressure grows on Israel to call a cease-fire

Around the world this week, from the floor of the United Nations to the European Union to Russia and China, there have been louder calls for a cease-fire.

In principle a pause in the bombing would be needed in order to release large numbers of hostages, a diplomat with knowledge of the hostage talks has told NBC News. The problem is what kind of cease-fire or humanitarian pause in the fighting and for how long?

Neither the U.S. nor Israel supports the idea of any suspension of hostilities that allows Hamas to regroup. And of course, the responsibility for the hostages rests with the militant group. But Israel risks an international backlash if it ignores international calls for the conditions to be created for a mass hostage release.

And imagine the reaction of a country like Thailand, thought to have more than 50 citizens held hostage, if a ground invasion goes ahead and they are killed. What impact might that have on wider sentiment in Asia?

Whether a mass release of hostages is really possible with so little trust may come down to a simple calculation on both sides. What is more important? Diplomacy or military strategy?

Josh Lederman

NBC News’ Josh Lederman reports from outside an apartment building in Tel Aviv today, shortly after a rocket from the Gaza Strip struck. Three people were injured, one seriously, officials said.

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts most rockets from Gaza, although not all.

In southern Gaza, a girl is pulled from the rubble

Richard Engel

As Israel carried out another incursion into the Gaza Strip, with columns of tanks supported by fighter jets and drones, our crew in the south of the enclave witnessed a strike and ran toward it.

A girl was trapped in the rubble. Eventually she was freed and taken to a hospital where she was treated on the floor.

Coming around, she tells the staff her name is Miral and asks if her father is alive. A medic tells her he’s fine, but actually doesn’t know.

Israel says it strikes Hamas infrastructure in sea raid in southern Gaza

Soldiers from Israeli navy unit Flotilla 13 struck Hamas military infrastructure during a targeted raid from the sea in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The area targeted was a compound used by Hamas’ naval commando forces, the IDF said, adding that its soldiers exited following the raid.

A group of Jews and Arabs in Israel has a ‘radical’ idea

JAFFA, Israel — Up a narrow, stone stairwell in this ancient port city, a group of self-confessed radicals plot an evening of interfaith rebellion.

In a sea of hardening views and violent rhetoric after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, this small but growing band have formed an unofficial civil guard in an attempt to prevent the type of urban unrest that has accompanied previous rounds of conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza.

Their mostly leftist movement is a fringe one, a relative speck of cooperation in a land where ethnic and territorial strife is once again reaching a crescendo.

But on a recent humid night, their task was mixing: Israeli Arabs and Jews — and wallpaper paste.

“We are trying to send a message — not just to the local community but to the whole world — that there are people who want to come together and reject the violence that we are seeing,” said Amir Badran, who is Arab, a local councilman with the “We Are the City” party, and one of the group’s leaders. 

Read the full story here.

First an airstrike, then a painstaking struggle to clear debris

People search through buildings that were destroyed during Israeli air raids in the southern Gaza Strip today.

Three injured as a rocket hits a building in Tel Aviv

A direct rocket hit on an apartment building in Tel Aviv today has injured three people, according to United Hatzalah, a volunteer medical response group.

“The scene was one of significant destruction,” United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yonatan Uziyahu said. “Together with additional EMTs, we provided initial treatment to a young man in his 20s who was moderately injured and to two additional people who sustained light injuries.”

Sirens also sounded in central Israel, including Tel Aviv, and the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip.

Photos: Palestinian men gather to pray in southern Gaza Strip

In the wake of an Israeli air raid, Palestinians gather for Friday prayers at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Russia defends position on Gaza after hosting Hamas

The Russian Embassy in Israel reiterated its position condemning terrorist attacks and violence against civilians “no matter what side it is on,” as well as its calls for a cease-fire.

“We find absolutely unacceptable any attempts to accuse us of supporting terrorism and thereby distort and erode our fundamental approaches as well as cast doubt on the purposeful work of our country to solve primary humanitarian tasks that meet the interests of the citizens of Russia, Israel, Palestine and other countries,” the embassy said in statement.

Today’s statement was released after Israel criticized Russia for hosting a Hamas delegation in Moscow yesterday.

Qatari negotiator ‘hopeful’ of deal for Hamas to release civilian hostages

Mohammed Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, a senior Qatari negotiator, said he hoped civilians being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be released within days.

Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs admitted to Britain’s Sky News that the negotiations were progressing under very difficult circumstances.

U.S. unveils new sanctions targeting Hamas

The U.S. Treasury Department and Department of State unveiled a new wave of sanctions targeting Hamas today to cut off its financial resources.

The move impacts “eight key individuals for supporting Hamas, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials involved in financing and training Hamas,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today in a statement.

“Today’s action targets additional assets in Hamas’s investment portfolio and individuals who facilitate sanctions evasion,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said at the Royal United Services Institute in London, according to a statement.

He said the latest designations “underscore the critical role Iran plays in providing financial, logistical, and operational support to Hamas.”

The department is now also going after “new, emerging shell companies, middlemen, and facilitators,” Adeyemo said, adding, “Hamas should have nowhere to hide.”

Blinken also noted that the U.S. is offering millions in rewards for any more information on certain activities and leaders of Hamas. 

The significance of why Hamas chose to attack Israel now

Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel comes at a time when the country faces historic domestic political division, growing violence in the West Bank and high-stakes negotiations with Saudi Arabia and the United States.

After its members killed 200 Israelis and kidnapped dozens more, Hamas claimed it was taking revenge for a series of recent actions by Israel at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and in the West Bank. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has been conducting an escalating crackdown against what it says are rising Palestinian terror attacks for more than a year.

Former U.S. intelligence and military officers said they believed the timing of the Hamas attack was primarily aimed at disrupting negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as Riyadh appeared on the verge of a historic step to normalize relations with Israel. 

Read the full story here.

Photo shows destroyed buildings in southern Gaza

People search through buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids in the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Israel has repeatedly warned Palestinians to evacuate to the south, but continued bombardment of the area has left many Palestinians with no safe place to go.

Oxfam: Starvation being used as ‘weapon of war’ against civilians in Gaza

Starvation is being used as a “weapon of war” against civilians, Oxfam said today, with the enclave receiving just 2% of food since the war began that would have been otherwise delivered.

Airstrikes have destroyed several bakeries and supermarkets, it said, adding those remaining functional cannot meet the demand and are at risk of shutting down due to shortage of fuel and flour.

“Every day the situation worsens,” it said in an emailed statement. “Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world.”

Hundreds of thousands still stuck in north, U.N. body says

Almost 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza Strip, despite Israeli warnings to move south, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today in a news conference.

“Over a million people cannot just pickup and move to the south where there have been repeated bombings,” Lynn Hastings, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said, adding 53 members of the UNRWA staff have been killed so far.

Around 1.4 million are displaced across Gaza, half of whom are in shelters that are at 2.5 times their capacity, she said. “The health system is overrun,” she said, adding the entire Gaza Strip is under an electricity blackout and has no access to clean water.

Israel’s military carried out another ground raid into the Gaza Strip overnight, with ground troops backed by fighter jets and drones.

Video released by the Israel Defense Forces shows several explosions. The military said that ground forces exited Gaza after the operation and its soldiers sustained no injuries.

Despite hundreds of tanks lined up at the Gaza border, and thousands of Israeli reservists drawn up, Israel has so far stopped short of launching a full ground offensive.

Vivek Ramaswamy confronts Sen. Joni Ernst on Israel

Vivek Ramaswamy confronted Sen. Joni Ernst over her criticism of his position on Israel at an Iowa political fundraising event last Friday, according to two sources who witnessed the tense exchange and video obtained exclusively by NBC News.

Ramaswamy shook Ernst’s hand and held onto it for most of a minute as he aired his frustration. “You might want to understand my Israel policy before commenting,” said Ramaswamy, who was upset about Ernst’s remarks at a panel discussion on foreign policy in New Hampshire a week earlier.

As both smiled through their tough talk, Ernst said: “I’d be glad to talk to you, because I heard you had some perspectives. So I was asking, what is your policy?”

The private interaction illustrated some of the pushback Ramaswamy has been receiving — and how he’s working to overcome it as the conflict has become a key issue splintering the party ahead of a conference with Republican Jewish voters and the third primary debate.

Read full story here.

‘History will judge us all if there is no ceasefire in Gaza,’ says UNRWA Chief

Although intense negotiations have allowed very limited humanitarian aid into Gaza in the past few days, “it was a drop in the ocean,” United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees chief Philippe Lazzarini said yesterday.

“Mothers do not know how they can clean their children. Pregnant women pray that they will not face complications during delivery because hospitals have no capacity to receive them,” Lazzarini said in a statement.

The U.N. has condemned the Hamas attack of Oct 7., he said, “But let there be no shadow of a doubt — this does not justify the ongoing crimes against the civilian population of Gaza, including its 1 million children,” he said.

“The reality today in Gaza is that there is not much humanity left and hell is settling in,” he added.

Death and trauma stalk Palestinian children

In a leveled neighborhood in the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, a group of men digging through the rubble found first one hand, then another. When they lifted the body of 11-year-old Sila Hamdan out of the broken cement blocks and dust, they found her sister, 9-year-old Tila, tucked beneath her. 

The girls were killed Tuesday night when a bombing destroyed some 15 homes in the area, killing at least 37, according to local health officials. The recovery of their bodies was filmed by an NBC News team in the Gaza Strip. 

The death of the Hamdan sisters illustrates the heavy toll the war is taking on Gaza’s overwhelmingly young population. Children make up about half of Gaza’s nearly 2.3 million people — many of whom were born during Israel’s strict 16-year blockade of Gaza and are now watching bombs destroy their neighborhoods.

In 2022, 4 out of 5 children in Gaza were already living with depression, fear and grief, according to a report by Save the Children. More than half said they had contemplated suicide. 

This war has only made it worse. 

Read the full story here.

Arabs in Israel fear consequences for speaking out about the war

Some Arab citizens of Israel say they are not speaking out or posting on social media about the Israel-Hamas war out of fear of retaliation for their comments.

Human rights groups say hundreds of Arabs have been fired, suspended from universities, and even arrested in Israel for being accused of sympathizing with terror or supporting Hamas.

Khan Younis resident loses 22 family members after a refugee camp is bombed

Almost two dozen members of Khalil Abu Shamalah family, including women and infants, have been either killed or are missing after a bombing leveled a refugee camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. 

Standing in the middle of what used to be the main street for people to access the market, Shamalah told a NBC News crew yesterday, it could take up to three days to recover all the bodies from the rubble of almost 30 buildings.

“The houses that were targeted were my cousins,” he said. “Israel claim that they target military goals but on the ground we know how many civilians have been killed.”

Around him residents frantically dug for any survivors, pulling out lifeless children with their bodies soiled with blood and ash.

Iran: U.S. will not be ‘spared from the fire’ if war goes on

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, was adamant about his position on the Israel-Hamas conflict at the U.N. General Assembly emergency session today: Gaza and the West Bank belong only to “original” Palestinians.

“No institution or country has the right or can give any part of it of this land to another person or group,” he said, adding later that Israel’s claims of self-defense are a “very ridiculous joke.”

Amir-Abdollahian also pointed a finger at the U.S. for holding up action at the Security Council and said the country, which has provided Israel with military aid, won’t escape the consequences.

“I say frankly to the American statesman who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome to expansion of the war in the region, but I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” he said.

Israeli troops backed by jets and drones raid Gaza City outskirts

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli ground forces backed by drones and fighter jets conducted another raid of Gaza Strip overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The targets in the outskirts of Gaza City included anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centers, and individual Hamas terrorists, the IDF said.

Almost every child in Gaza ‘will be forever scarred,’ NGO says

Children in Gaza have been deprived of the critical support needed as they go through extreme physical and mental trauma, a NGO said today, as the collapsing health infrastructure copes with the sheer number of injuries.

These children “will be forever scarred by their experience, living through this terrible nightmare of killing, bombings, insecurity, death and injury,” Steve Sosebee, the founder of Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, told NBC News.

Historically almost 60% of the children had post traumatic stress disorder, he said, adding “We expect that number to be close to 100% when the violence is over.”

“It will take immense effort to even begin to address the depth of the mental health crises,” he added. More than 2,700 children have been killed and hundreds more still trapped under rubble, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

U.S. launches strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria

The U.S. launched strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria on Thursday in retaliation for a series of drone attacks on American military bases in the region, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

“Today, at President Biden’s direction,” Austin said, “U.S. military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups. These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.”

The U.S. military action comes amid rising tensions in the region over the conflict in Israel. Austin called the attacks “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas” and said they don’t represent a shift in the U.S. approach to the conflict.

From Oct. 17 to Tuesday, U.S. and coalition forces were attacked at least 10 separate times in Iraq and three times in Syria by a mix of drones and rockets, the Defense Department has said. On Oct. 18, at least two one-way attack drones targeted al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, U.S. Central Command said. On the same day, there were two separate drone attacks against U.S. and coalition forces stationed at al-Asad base in western Iraq.

Read the full story here.

E.U. calls for humanitarian pauses for Gaza aid

European Union leaders urged pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks so humanitarian aid could be delivered to Gaza, and President Joe Biden told Iran’s supreme leader not to target U.S. personnel in the Middle East.

Israel’s military, which has been carrying out limited raids into Gaza as it prepares for a ground incursion of the enclave, said early Friday it was “currently conducting raids in the Gaza Strip” as part of preparations for the next stage of the operation.

As the plight of Palestinian civilians grows more desperate, the issue of whether to have humanitarian pauses or cease-fire agreements in the Hamas-run coastal enclave will come before the 193-member U.N. General Assembly later Friday in a draft resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a cease-fire.

Unlike in the Security Council, where resolutions on Gaza aid failed this week, no country holds a veto in the General Assembly. Resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.

The Israel-Hamas war has led to rising tensions in the U.S., fueling an alarming increase in antisemitism.

Since Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents are up 388% over the same period last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. There have also been disturbing and violent incidents against Palestinian Americans, including the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old boy.