Family of Israeli hostages to make war crimes claim against Hamas
About 100 relatives of Israeli hostages being held inside Gaza are today traveling to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, to make a war crimes complaint against Hamas.
Ofri Bibas, the brother of hostage Yarden Bibas, who is being held as well as his wife, Shiri, and their two small children, told a news conference earlier today at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport that Hamas was a terrorist group which has “killed, raped and tortured,” The Times of Israel reported.
“We want to make sure that the world acts and that their freedom is hindered,” said Udi Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi, 41, who was abducted on Oct. 7, according to the Reuters news agency. Haimi was later confirmed dead, his body still being held in Gaza.
Israel is not party to the United Nations’ top court, but prosecutor Karim Khan told Reuters this week that the court based in the city of The Hague does have jurisdiction over the events of Oct. 7.
Tanks patrol the border with Gaza
Israeli soldiers ride in a tank as they patrol near the southern border with Gaza today.
Israel launches retaliatory airstrikes on Lebanon
Israel Defense Forces fighter jets today launched a series of strikes over the country’s northern border into Lebanon, after rockets fired from Lebanon had earlier killed one person and injured seven others.
No more details have been released of the strikes. Israel has launched attacks on Lebanon — targeting what it calls terrorist sites run by the militant, Iran-backed Hezbollah group — both before and after the Oct.7 attack by Hamas, which began the current war in Gaza.
Civilians flee Rafah
Palestinians transport belongings by car as they leave Rafah for central parts of Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli ground assault on the city.
Civilians flee main hospital in southern Gaza
Palestinians have started to evacuate the main hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis amid an Israeli military operation in the area, officials in the enclave, doctors at the medical complex and the Israel Defense Forces said today.
Dr. Mohammed Harara, who was working at the facility, posted a video on Instagram of what he said was a long line of displaced civilians evacuating Nasser Hospital.
In a separate video, the 27-year-old medic, whom NBC News has followed during the conflict, said the situation at the hospital was “terrible.” He added that the Israeli army had told the displaced people sheltering at the facility to leave and later told medical staff to go outside.
The IDF said in a statement that it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to “prioritize the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation,” it said.
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry, said in a Telegram post that “thousands of displaced people, families of medical staff, and patients who cannot move” had to forcibly evacuate the hospital because they were “threatened with extreme danger.”
In a separate Telegram post, Dr. Bassem Naeem, a physician and Hamas official, said that the militant group had been contacted by the United Nations who told them that Israeli forces were planning to storm the complex.
Abbas urges Hamas to sign truce agreement
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today urged Hamas to reach a cease-fire and prisoner swap deal with Israel to “avoid the dire consequences.”
According to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, Abbas said that Hamas needed to seal a deal quickly to stop “another catastrophe with ominous consequences, no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948, and to avoid the occupation’s attack on the city of Rafah, which will lead to thousands of victims, suffering and displacement for our people.”
Nakba is the Arabic word for “catastrophe” that many use to describe the 1948 displacement of roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their land in what became Israel.
Abbas said that while Israel was waging open war in Gaza, everyone involved in the conflict was responsible for working toward peace. “Therefore, we must bear our responsibilities in stopping this comprehensive war on Palestinian people,” he said.
Israeli minister calls for action in the north after at least 1 killed, 7 injured by rockets fired from Lebanon
Rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon killed one person and injured at least seven, emergency services said today — a rare deadly attack on the country’s north during its war in Gaza.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said on X it was treating injuries in the region surrounding the northern Israeli city of Safed and its CEO, Eli Bin, told Israeli media that one woman was killed and seven injured.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that “numerous launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into the areas of Netu’a, Manara, and into an IDF base in northern Israel.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s right-wing national security minister, said on X: “This is not a trickle [of rockets], it’s war. It’s time to leave behind the ‘conception’ in the north as well.” There have long been fears of escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, but so far the fighting has remained limited.
Displaced Gazans leave Rafah fearing more Israeli attacks
Under the threat of a ground invasion by Israeli forces, panicked and already displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza said today that they were trying to chase relative safety.
In video shot by an NBC News crew team in Rafah, young children disassembled tents, while other displaced Gazans packed rolled-up mattresses and collected jugs of water ahead of their journey out of the refugee camp.
Fayza Abou Wadi, 65, said the intensity of Israeli attacks on Rafah in recent days has left her family so fearful that they’ve decided to flee even though they don’t know where to go.
“We have young ones. We don’t know where to go in the tents, and we are so scared the shells may attack us. This is why we want to leave. We can’t live. There is no safety here,” she said.
Wissam Al-Arkan, 37, said he had resorted to loading his family’s belongings onto a three-wheeler, despite not knowing their destination.
“The question is, where do people go? We came to Rafah, and now they are threatening to invade it, so where do we go?” he said, referring to an impending ground invasion.
“I brought a tuk-tuk truck and started loading our belongings,” he added. “Hopefully, we will find safety and be safe from the bombing. We feel hopeless. What do we do?”
A rocket fired from Lebanon lands in northern Israel
An Israeli policeman inspects a crater left by a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, after it landed near the entrance of the Ziv Medical Center in the northern city of Safed today.
Catch up with NBC News’ latest coverage of the war
Recent Comments