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FBI Director Christopher Wray made surprise visit to Israel
FBI Director Christopher Wray met with Israeli law enforcement and intelligence partners during an unannounced visit to Tel Aviv yesterday, according to a readout from the bureau today.
The discussions focused on the FBI’s work to protect U.S. interests both domestically and abroad, particular in regard to the collaboration with Israeli officials on threats posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Wray also expressed support to Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
“The FBI’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is longstanding, close, and robust, and I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks, and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible,” Wray said.
U.N. aid chief warns of possible spillover of Gazans into Egypt
GENEVA — The United Nations aid chief warned today of the possibility of a spillover of Palestinians amassed in Rafah into Egypt if Israel launches a military operation against the border town.
More than 1 million Palestinians are crammed into Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt. Many are living in tent camps and makeshift shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardments elsewhere in Gaza.
“The possibility of a military operation in Rafah, with the possibility of the (border) crossing closing down, with the possibility of spillover … a sort of Egyptian nightmare … is one that is right before our eyes,” Martin Griffiths told diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva.
He said the notion that the people of Gaza could evacuate to a safe place was an “illusion.”
“We must all hope that friends of Israel and those who care about Israel’s security give them good counsel at this moment,” Griffiths said.
Families of hostages block road to call for continued negotiations with Hamas
TEL AVIV — Hostage families have blocked the road outside Israel’s defense ministry to call on Israel’s leadership to continue negotiations with Hamas for a deal.
Horns blared as the families and supporters brought traffic to a halt outside the defense ministry, chanting “bring them home now,” “Biden do your job,” and “Bibi do your job!”
Eventually, they began to let vehicles pass, but continued to block several lanes.
Some vehicles appeared to honk in support of the demonstration. It comes amid mounting frustrations after talks in Cairo failed to delivered a deal for a cease-fire and to see hostages released.
Released hostage and families of those who remain held protest over lack of deal
TEL AVIV — A woman who released from Hamas’ captivity and the families of those who remain held in Gaza gathered here tonight to protest after negotiations in Cairo failed to produce a new cease-fire and hostage deal.
Speaking at a news conference outside the Intelligence Heritage Center in Tel Aviv, Moran Stela Yanai, who was released by Hamas after 54 days in captivity, said she was freed “at the last moment before losing hope.” She said “now is the time to act” to see other hostages freed as she accused Israeli leadership of failing to do enough to produce a deal in recent negotiations in Cairo.
“We call on the prime minister of Israel to do everything that he can to look at these hostages and to think of them as if they were his own and do everything in his power to bring them back,” Ruby Chen, the father of American Israeli hostage Itay Chen, said in a separate speech.
Speaking with NBC News, Chen said, “It feels like the U.S. wants a deal more than Israel does,” noting CIA Director William Burns’ participation in the negotiations. “We’ve gone all over the globe in order to bring the different parties to one place,” he said. “Even the head of the CIA has come to Cairo in order to negotiate on our behalf to bring the hostages out,” he said.
He said he feared that if no deal is reached soon, his son could be lost forever.
Palestinian state is an ‘existential necessity,’ Oman’s foreign minister says
OXFORD, England — Hamas “cannot be eradicated” and the creation of a Palestinian state is an “existential necessity,” Oman’s foreign minister said today.
Speaking at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in the U.K., Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said Palestinians were “condemned to a perpetual threat of destitution, annihilation and death” unless they get their own state.
“Hamas cannot be eradicated. So, if there is ever to be peace, the peacemakers will have to find a way to talk to them. And to listen,” he added.
An emergency international peace conference should be convened to discuss this, he said, adding that it should be attended by “a range of countries which is properly representative of the global majority.” He also called for reform of the United Nations Security Council.
Netanyahu spokesperson says it’s not the time to speak of ‘gifts’ when asked about recognition of Palestinian state
During a briefing today, the spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is focused on the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack and that it was “not the time” to discuss recognition of a Palestinian state.
Eylon Levy made the remarks during a briefing today in which he was asked to comment on a Washington Post report that the U.S. is working on a postwar plan with some Arab states that would include the recognition of Palestine. Levy appeared to reject the report, referring to a Palestinian state as “gifts.”
“Now is not the time to be speaking about gifts for the Palestinian people at a time when the Palestinian Authority themselves have yet to even condemn the Oct. 7 massacre, and, on the contrary, have suggested in official statements that it didn’t happen or questioned it,” Levy said.
“Now is the time for victory, total victory against Hamas, and we will continue on the path to victory,” he continued.
Palestine Red Crescent Society rejects IDF claims 20 people arrested in hospital were ‘terrorists’
The Palestine Red Crescent Society released a statement today condemning Israel Defense Forces allegations that the 20 people it arrested at Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza were “terrorists.”
According to a statement today, PRCS said that nine of its staff members were arrested along with nine elderly patients who were unable to evacuate earlier this month due to health and mobility issues. IDF forces raided Al-Amal Hospital last week, a PRCS facility in Khan Younis where the organization also has its headquarters.
“The PRCS believes that these accusations are only part of a series of excuses fabricated by the occupation forces to justify the siege, bombing, storming of hospitals and killing PRCS medical staff and others in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
PRCS accused Israel of violating the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, defaming medical staff in a “poor attempt to justify their commission of war crimes.”
Nasser hospital staff and patients relocate to building with ‘frightening conditions,’ ministry of health says
After Israeli special forces raided Nasser Hospital, patients, staff and their families were forced to relocate to a building with “frightening conditions,” according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
“Israeli occupation forces force the administration of the Nasser Medical Complex to place 95 health personnel, 11 of their families, 191 patients, and 165 companions and displaced persons in the old Nasser building in harsh and frightening conditions, without food, without milk for the children, and severe water shortages,” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said in a statement.
He said the hospital “is witnessing a disastrous and worrying situation” as medical capabilities and fuel dwindle. Fuel could run out in 24 hours, threatening the lives of six patients relying on industrial machines and three children.
The Israeli military said that the hospital raid was based on “credible intelligence” that Hamas held captives taken in the Oct. 7 attacks at the medical center and that bodies of Israeli hostages may be at the site.
Civilians transport their lives by car in Gaza
Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis arrive in the southern city of Rafah today with their belongings fastened to the roof of a damaged car.
IDF and Shin Bet kill man believed to have held IDF soldier hostage
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet released a statement today announcing the death of a man named Ahmed Gol, who Israeli authorities say was the commander of a Hamas battalion.
According to the joint statement, Gol is believed to have participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and to have held Israeli soldier Noa Marciano hostage. NBC News has not independently verified the allegations against Gol.
Marciano, 19, was found dead in Gaza in November and her body was recovered by the IDF from a structure adjacent to Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza, the military said.
Hamas says it rejects Knesset-proposed law to ban UNRWA in Israel
Hamas reacted to news out of Israel today that the country’s governing body, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval to a law that would ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
The bill would ban UNRWA “from operating within Israel’s sovereign territory, and to instruct the Israel Police to take action to enforce this prohibition,” according to the Knesset’s English-language website. Hamas said it rejects the bill and called on the international community to condemn it as “an infringement on the rights of our Palestinian people.”
Hamas went on to accuse Israel of “aiming to end the work of the agency that represents an international witness to the suffering of our people and their forced displacement from their land, and to their right to return to it.”
Israeli officials have long been critical of UNRWA’s work, which supports Palestinians in the occupied territories as well as refugees in other countries in the region. Last month, Israel accused a dozen UNRWA staff members of having ties to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which the United Nations is investigating.
IDF says Hezbollah commander was killed in south Lebanon strike that killed at least 5 members of a civilian family
The IDF said today that it killed Hezbollah commander Ali Muhammad al-Debs, along with his deputy commander, Ibrahim Issa, in a strike in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon yesterday.
Hezbollah announced that five of its members were killed yesterday, including al-Debs and Issa, without detailing the circumstances of their deaths. Al-Debs is accused of planning an attack in Israel that occurred in March of last year as well as leading other attacks on Israel since the start of the war.
The IDF said it hit a “military structure” in Nabatieh, but Lebanese state news reported it was a residential building hit. A photographer with Agence France-Presse also said that it was a three-story residential building that was struck.
Lebanese state news reported that at least five members of the Berjawi family were killed: Hussein Ahmad Daher Berjawi, his sister Fatima, his daughters Amani and Zeinab, as well as his grandson Mahmoud. His wife and niece were missing, according to state news. A young boy, Hussein, was found alive in the rubble after four hours of searching. His father was among several wounded who were taken to the hospital.
Situation at Nasser Hospital ‘deteriorating,’ Doctors Without Borders warns
TEL AVIV — The situation at the main hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis is deteriorating quickly, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement today.
“Our staff reported a chaotic situation, with an undetermined number of people killed and injured,” it said, adding that some of its staff had been forced to flee the Nasser Hospital, “leaving patients behind.”
One worker was detained and another remained unaccounted for, the statement added.
Despite reassurances from Israeli forces that staff and patients could stay at the facility, the statement said that the hospital had been shelled in the early hours of the morning.
Short of necessities, Gaza women sew diapers
Palestinian women sew diapers in Rafah today.
Doctor pulls patient from car and treats him in makeshift medical facility after Nasser Hospital evacuation
Holding the young man’s head, Dr. Mohammad Harara helped to pull him from a car today before carrying him into a tent where patients were being treated outside a hospital in Rafah.
“Wake up, wake up,” Harara shouted as he carried the young man into the makeshift facility, moans and cries of injured patients audible.
Harara was among those forced to flee the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, but was already back treating patients at the Kuwait Speciality Hospital in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1 million people are sheltering ahead of an expected Israeli ground assault.
Harara, who has been filmed on multiple occasions by NBC News, said that some of his colleagues at the Nasser Hospital had been arrested. Some of the patients, like the one he was treating, had been transferred by car, “because we don’t have ambulances to take them to another hospital,” he said.
His patient appeared unconscious as he walked past beds in the makeshift medical facility, where other patients are surrounded by medical staff and equipment.
Turning around, he called out for a stethoscope, and after one arrived he checked the man’s body for injuries. “Open his chest,” Harara said.
Israel will not tolerate attacks from Lebanon, defense minister says
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said today on X that he told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that his country would not tolerate attacks from the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
Gallant said Israel will ensure its security along the northern border “via diplomatic or military means.”
He added that he had discussed the Israeli military’s activities in the Gaza Strip and mentioned an operation in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah that had secured the release of two hostages.
U.N. refugee agency chief warns of ‘negative cashflow’ by next month
Cash woes are worsening for the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees after a number of its donors suspended funding, its commissioner general said today.
“We will hit a negative cashflow as from March and then it will be accelerated in April unless this frozen contribution is unlocked,” Philippe Lazzarini told Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ, referring to a situation when an organization has more expenditure than revenue.
Hezbollah says Israel will ‘pay price’ after deadly day
Hezbollah said today that Israel would pay “the price” for killing 10 people including five children in southern Lebanon, the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of hostilities.
An Israeli strike killed seven people in the city of Nabatieh late yesterday including three children, sources in Lebanon said. It followed an earlier attack that killed a woman and her two children in the village of al-Sawana at the border.
“The enemy will pay the price for these crimes,” Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters. “The resistance will continue to practice its legitimate right to defend its people.”
U.S. strikes hit Houthi targets in Yemen, Centcom says
Four strikes were launched against targets in parts of Yemen, U.S. Central Command said on X today.
Centcom said it hit anti-ship cruise missiles, drones and one explosive unmanned surface vessel “that were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” in seven strikes yesterday.
It added that they posed “an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels.”
The strikes “will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels,” the post added.
IDF says it ‘apprehended’ a number of people in Nasser Hospital raid
Israeli forces have “apprehended” a number of suspects in their raid on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the country’s military said in a statement.
Calling the assault a “precise and limited” operation, the Israel Defense Forces said its goal was to reach Hamas operatives, including individuals suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks.
The IDF said it had contacted the director the hospital on Tuesday calling for the “immediate cessation of all Hamas terrorist activity from within the hospital and the immediate evacuation of all Hamas terrorists” from the medical center.
NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the IDF’s account.
Earlier today, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told NBC News that the military was acting on “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages” indicating that Hamas held hostages at the Nasser Hospital.
The IDF said the operation was still ongoing as of this moment. It said it could not provide further details on the people apprehended during the raid.
Israeli special forces enter Nasser Hospital
Israeli special forces entered the main hospital in southern Gaza, the country’s military said today, raiding a site where thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, told NBC News that it had “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages, indicating that Hamas held hostages at the Nasser Hospital,” in Khan Younis.
He added that the “sensitive operation was prepared with precision and is being conducted by IDF special forces who underwent specified training.”
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said in a separate statement on Telegram that Israeli forces had targeted the facility’s ambulance headquarters and tents housing displaced people on the site. He added that intensive care patients were being kept without medical staff inside the hospital.
U.S. allies warn Israel against ‘catastrophic’ Rafah operation
The prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, saying Israel’s planned military offensive in the city of Rafah would be “catastrophic.”
“We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path. There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go,” the three leaders said today in a joint statement, noting that the 1.5 million Palestinians taking refuge in the area include many of their own citizens.
Israel is obligated to protect civilians, ensure the delivery of basic services and provide essential humanitarian assistance, they said, citing a ruling last month by the International Court of Justice in a genocide case brought by South Africa.
They added that any cease-fire “cannot be one-sided,” and that Hamas must also lay down its arms and immediately release all remaining hostages.
Doctor in Rafah says hospital sees ‘hundreds of patients’ after each attack
A doctor in Rafah told NBC News that she works 24/7 taking care of patients injured by the ongoing attacks from Israel and that the toll is “more than catastrophic.”
“The situation is getting worse day after day because of the Israeli attacks,” Dr. Noor Alwhidi at Kuwait Hospital told NBC News.
Alwhidi said that the hospital deals with “hundreds of patients” after every Israeli attack and that most injuries are critical.
“Most of the patients are children, babies, women. They are bombing them and killing them,” she said, adding there are more than 1 million people displaced in the area.
Buildings searched as IDF operations continue in Gaza
Israeli soldiers search a building at an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip during ongoing ground operations by IDF forces today.
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