Ireland women’s basketball team refuses to shake hands with Israel after antisemitism allegation
The Ireland women’s basketball team, in response to an allegation by an Israeli player about antisemitism, chose not to shake hands with the Israeli players at their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga yesterday.
The Israeli Basketball Association published an interview with player Dor Saar on Tuesday, during which she made the allegation.
“It’s known that they are quite antisemitic, and it’s no secret; maybe that’s why a strong game is expected,” Saar said.
Basketball Ireland reported the comments to the International Basketball Federation, saying they were “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate.”
Basketball Ireland also announced that its players would not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with Israel.
“This includes exchanging of gifts, formal handshakes before or after the game, while our players will line up for the Irish -national anthem by our bench, rather then the centre court,” it said in a statement.
Israel won the game 87-57.
Protesters arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank
Israeli security forces arrest activists during a protest against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, at a junction leading to Jericho city in the occupied West Bank today.
Biden releases new memo detailing conditions for countries receiving U.S. military aid
The White House has released a new memorandum that will require countries receiving U.S. military aid to give “credible and written assurances” that the aid will be used in accordance with international humanitarian law.
The countries will also be required to “not arbitrarily deny, restrict or otherwise impede” U.S. humanitarian assistance, when the aid is used in an armed conflict.
The State Department and the Pentagon will be required to issue “periodic congressional reports” for oversight purposes. The U.S. policy is also for the relevant bodies “to share and learn best practices for reducing the likelihood of and responding to civilian casualties” with foreign partners, the memo added.
UNICEF says Rafah escalation would put thousands more children at risk
The United Nations children’s agency called on all parties to refrain from a military escalation in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, warning that there are more than 600,000 children in the area, some of whom have been displaced more than once since the war began four months ago.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement late yesterday that military escalation in Rafah would mark “another devastating turn in a war” that has killed more than 27,000 people according to health officials in Gaza.
She said it could leave thousands more dead through violence or lack of essential services, and further disrupt humanitarian assistance.
“We need Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to stay functional,” Russell said. “Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives.”
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah, heeding Israeli evacuation orders ahead of the military’s expanding ground offensive. Evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the besieged, tiny enclave.
Russell appealed to all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law, which includes taking the utmost care to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure.
U.S. conducts new strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen
The U.S. military has conducted a new round of aerial strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, U.S. Central Command said last night in a post on X.
Four unmanned vessels were targeted, in addition to seven anti-ship cruise missiles that were “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.”
“They presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” it said, adding the strikes will protect U.S. naval assets and merchant ships in the region.
Gaza doctor breaks down in tears seeing his injured son brought into the ER
The doctor treating the victims of an Israeli bomb attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah had been examining one patient after another in the crowded emergency room when he saw him.
There, amid the din of screaming children and moaning grownups, amid the cries of medical workers for more medicine and bandages, Dr. Rami Abu Libdeh spotted a paramedic carrying his 9-year-old son, Mohammad.
Bursting into tears, Libdeh, 32, grabbed the boy, whose head was bandaged and whose red top was covered with a layer of dust. Falling to his knees, Libdeh peppered his weeping son with questions about his missing mother and their house before surrendering the boy to the other medics in the room for treatment.
An NBC News team was at the Kuwaiti Hospital when it recorded the heartbreaking father-and-son reunion.
Israel launches new airstrikes on overcrowded Rafah
Israel bombed targets in overcrowded Rafah this morning, hours after Biden administration officials warned Israel against expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the southern city where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.
Airstrikes hit two residential buildings in Rafah, killing eight Palestinians, and a third strike targeted a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in central Gaza, killing at least four people, according to hospital officials and Associated Press journalists who saw bodies arriving at hospitals.
According to the AP, shortly after midnight, a residential building was struck near Rafah’s Kuwaiti Hospital, killing five people from the al-Sayed family, including three children and a woman, while a second Rafah strike killed three more people.
John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, had said an Israel ground offensive in Rafah is “not something we would support.”
Gaza death toll nears 28,000
At least 27,949 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military assault in the strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, the enclave’s Health Ministry said today.
Another 67,459 people have been injured, it added, with just more than 100 people killed in the last 24 hours.
“A number of victims are still under rubble and on the roads,” it said, adding Israeli forces were preventing emergency services from reaching them.
Biden says Israel’s military response in Gaza has been ‘over the top’
Speaking to reporters at the White House last night, Biden offered one of his most pointed criticisms of the Israeli government since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, characterizing the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip as “over the top.”
He added that his administration was working to secure a pause in the fighting.
Biden has expressed support for Israel while increasingly putting pressure on Netanyahu to scale back Israeli military operations in Gaza. Biden’s backing of Israel has been a point of contention among key voting blocs as he seeks re-election.
Bombardment continues in Rafah
Palestinians search for their belongings after an Israeli attack in Rafah, southern Gaza, today.
Catch up with NBC News’ coverage of the war
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