Gaza incursion will 'continue and intensify,' IDF says

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon continues to provide weapons shipments almost on a daily basis to Israel, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday.

Despite the rising number of civilian casualties, “we are not putting any limits on how Israel uses weapons,” Singh said. “That is really up to the Israeli Defense Force to use and how they are going to conduct their operations.”

Singh did not answer a question on whether there were concerns inside the Pentagon about the way the weapons were being used, but said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has regularly emphasized the need for Israel to follow the laws of armed conflict and avoid civilian casualties as much as possible.

The executive director of the United Nations aid organization UNICEF told the U.N. Security Council today that clean water is rapidly running out in Gaza.

“Only one desalination plant is operating at just 5% capacity, while all six of Gaza’s water-waste treatment plants are now nonoperational due to a lack of fuel or power,” Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

“The lack of clean water and safe sanitation is on the verge of becoming a catastrophe,” she said. “Unless access to clean water is urgently restored, more civilians, including children, will fall ill or die from dehydration or waterborne diseases.”

More than 2 million people are estimated to be in Gaza, and the U.N. and other organizations have warned of dire conditions as Israel conducts what it says is a war to crush the terrorist group Hamas.

Many of the hostages being held by Hamas have life-threatening conditions that require consistent access to medication, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a volunteer group advocating for the hostages’ release.

The group gathered information about the hostages’ medical histories from family members, then sent a summary report to the Red Cross on Oct. 15. 

The report mentions three boys — ages 5, 13 and 16 — with autism that require special assistance, as well as a 27-year-old woman with Crohn’s disease, a 60-year-old man with multiple sclerosis and an 85-year-old woman with heart failure, kidney disease and asthma.

Several hostages have breast cancer, according to Dr. Hagai Levine, the group's head of medicine. Other conditions reported by the families include Parkinson’s disease, dementia, diabetes and high blood pressure.

“They are in a life-threatening condition,” Levine said. “Any moment, they could die from complications.”

Even before the war, access to certain medications, such as breast cancer drugs, was limited in Gaza, Levine said. Short of releasing the hostages, he added, Hamas should show that they're alive and allow the Red Cross to examine and treat them if needed.

NBC News got a look as doctors, nurses and patients are being prepared to be moved to an underground hospital in Haifa, Israel, which is the world’s largest such structure.

Its three stories span the equivalent of more than three football fields, with 2,000 hospital beds and 24 operating rooms.

It’s built for the worst-case scenario of a military confrontation with missiles falling in the area every four minutes. Haifa is a little more than 20 miles south of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said today that the administration does not support a cease-fire in the Israel’s war against Hamas at this time.

"We do not believe that a cease-fire is the right answer right now. We believe that a cease-fire right now benefits Hamas,” Kirby said at a briefing.

“What we have said should be considered and explored are temporary, localized humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get to specific populations and maybe even to help with the evacuation of people who want to get out,” he said.

Kirby also said today that “Hamas is still the holdup” in getting Americans out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

“They’ve been making a series of demands that we’re not able to accede to,” Kirby said.

“Israel is willing to let those Americans out; Egypt is willing to let them come out,” Kirby said. “The holdup is Hamas.”

WASHINGTON — House Republicans have unveiled a proposal to provide $14.3 billion in emergency funding for Israel while also cutting funding for the IRS by the same amount.

If the bill passes the GOP-controlled House, the IRS provisions are all but guaranteed to be rejected by the Democratic-led Senate and White House, setting up a clash over how to approve Israel aid.

The IRS funding was approved as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, a major climate, health care and tax law Biden signed last year. Democrats have argued the legislation provides a mechanism to target sophisticated tax evaders.

Read the full story here.

Natalie Raanan, who along with her mother was taken hostage by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack and later released, returned to Chicago today, Israel’s embassy said.

“Her family members have been anxiously waiting for her return, and today I am sharing their happiness,” Yinam Cohen, Israel’s consul general to the Midwest, said in a statement.

Raanan and her mother, Judith Raanan, were released Oct. 20, but the family believes seven more members are still missing, and another was confirmed to have been killed by Hamas.

“While we’re celebrating Natalie’s return, we remember the 239 hostages, among them babies, children, women, and the elderly, who are still held by Hamas in Gaza,” Cohen said.

TEL AVIV — Humanitarian aid with food and medicine will be halted if it becomes clear that the resources have been taken by Hamas, the Israel prime minister's office said in a statement. "The shipments are designed for the civilian population," it said.

The aid, food and medicine, is physically checked and inspected by Israeli security and delivered via Egypt.

On Oct. 21, the first aid shipment of 20 trucks arrived in Gaza. Since then, 144 trucks of aid have been sent through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza strip, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Following those deliveries, thousands of people broke into an aid warehouse in Gaza, taking wheat flour, hygiene materials and other basic items, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

JERUSALEM — Israel has warned its citizens to leave the northern Caucasus after a mob stormed an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region when a flight from Israel landed there.

Hundreds of men, some carrying banners with antisemitic slogans, rushed onto the tarmac of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, last night, looking for Israeli passengers on the flight from Tel Aviv, according to Russian news reports.

The attack seemed to be fueled partly by anger at Israel’s actions in Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas after a deadly incursion by the militant group this month. Several people in the mob were waving Palestinian flags.

More than 20 people were wounded, with two in critical condition, and police made 60 arrests.

Israel raised its travel warning level to 4, the highest level, calling for citizens to avoid all travel to Dagestan and neighboring regions and for those who are there to leave as soon as possible.