Blast at Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza leaves massive wreckage

Bolivia said it was breaking diplomatic ties with Israel, citing airstrikes in Gaza, while Chile and Colombia said they were recalling their ambassadors.

Bolivia’s announcement is a step further than the actions announced by Chile and Colombia.

“Bolivia demands an end to the attacks in the Gaza Strip, which have so far caused thousands of civilian deaths and the forced displacement of Palestinians; as well as the cessation of the blockade that prevents the entry of food, water and other essential elements for life,” Bolivia’s minister of the presidency, María Nela Prada, said in a statement.

Chile’s Foreign Ministry said it recalled its ambassador to Israel, citing what it called “the unacceptable violations of International Humanitarian Law that Israel has incurred in the Gaza Strip.”

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its government “expresses its strongest rejection of the actions of the Israeli security forces in Gaza, in areas densely populated by civilians.” It also called for a cease-fire.

Israel’s military has said it seeks to minimize civilian casualties and that it is striking Hamas in Gaza. The announcements by Chile, Colombia and Bolivia come after an airstrike at a refugee camp. Israel says a top Hamas commander and other Hamas militants were killed.

Ramona Okumura, a 71-year-old retired prosthesis expert who lives in Seattle, traveled to Gaza to help children who lost limbs. She has been stuck in the enclave for more than three weeks.

She says her cohort has around seven days of food left.

“After more than three weeks of the thousands of explosions in Rafah, I can’t believe the State Department’s advice is to wait in Rafah near the border while all the bombs, missiles and shells from the sea are hitting everywhere in Rafah!” she said.

Okumura, a volunteer with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund as part of the Gaza Amputee Project, has been waiting for the Rafah border to open, like many other Americans.

“There is the almost constant vibration and noise from jets flying overhead, bombs and missiles hitting all around us at all hours of the day and night,” Okumura said.

She's sheltering with colleagues and families in Gaza, where they are all struggling with food, water and location insecurity, and she wants the U.S. to help broker a cease-fire "to stop this massacre of children."

"How many more children will find their only peace by dying?" she asked.

Alana Zeitchik, a cousin of Danielle Aloni, the woman identified as speaking in the newest hostage video released by Hamas, says the family was shocked but also relieved to see her in the video. 

“You never expect to see your family member in that condition. But of course there’s a sense of relief to see her alive," Zeitchik said, adding, “She doesn’t look very well, and she’s clearly in distress.”

The IDF confirmed that Hamas is holding six of Zeitchik’s cousins, including Aloni.

“I have been afraid since Day One, and I will continue to be afraid until we have them back with us safely,” Zeitchik said in a message to her family. “We love you so much and we are doing everything in our power to bring you back.”

The State Department is not aware of any reports of U.S. citizen deaths in the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson said today.

The spokesperson acknowledged that the ability of the U.S. government to confirm information about U.S. deaths there is extremely limited because of the security situation on the ground.

The State Department was not able to comment on specific cases, citing privacy considerations, but it said U.S. diplomats “have made thousands of phone calls and sent thousands of emails to U.S. citizens in Gaza, their immediate family members, and their loved ones who are inquiring with us on their behalf.”

More than 400 Americans and their family members have requested help from the State Department to leave Gaza, about 1,000 people, Blinken testified to Congress today.

“The impediment is simple,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It’s Hamas.”

President Biden would veto a House Republican proposal that would send aid to Israel but would require cuts to IRS funding and leave out assistance to Ukraine, the Office of Management and Budget said.

“The bill fails to meet the urgency of the moment by deepening our divides and severely eroding historic bipartisan support for Israel’s security,” the OMB said in a statement of administration policy.

“It inserts partisanship into support for Israel, making our ally a pawn in our politics, at a moment we must stand together,” it said.

The proposal by House Republicans includes $14.3 billion for Israel, and it would rescind the same amount in IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, a law passed last year.

Blinken will make another trip to Israel on Friday, the State Department said.

Blinken went to Israel in mid-October, and Biden visited in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.

“Secretary Blinken will travel to Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the Israeli government and then will make other stops in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Blinken today spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Blinken reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself, and the State Department said, “Secretary Blinken and President Herzog discussed efforts to safeguard U.S. citizens in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.”

The director of the United Nations' New York office of the high commissioner for human rights, who is retiring, said in a letter that the U.N. has failed to end a "text-book case of genocide" in the Gaza Strip.

Craig Mokhiber wrote that "the current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate."

Mokhiber's retirement goes into effect tomorrow, and a spokesman for the U.N. said there will be a recruitment process to fill the vacant post.

“Mr. Mokhiber informed the UN back in March 2023 of his upcoming retirement," it said in a statement. "The views in a letter made public today are his personal views."

Mokhiber condemned the U.S., the United Kingdom and much of Europe for allowing the "horrific assault" on Palestinians to continue and "giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel's atrocities."

Mokhiber began working for the U.N. in 1992 and lived in Gaza as a U.N. human rights adviser. He cited his experience with the campaigns against the Tutsis, the Yazidi and the Rohingya that informed his use of the word "genocide" to describe the situation in Gaza.

"High Commissioner, we are failing again," he wrote in his letter, addressed to the high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk.

A spokesperson for the IDF said earlier today the military did not yet know the extent of collateral damage caused by an airstrike in the Gaza Strip that it said killed a major Hamas figure.

“I can understand that there are reports of civilian casualties. They are still unconfirmed,” an IDF spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a video posted to social media.

“We do not know yet from a verifiable source how many noncombatants have been killed,” he said. He said the military takes “every precaution in order to minimize collateral damage.”

The strike killed Ibrahim Biari, a senior Hamas commander who was one of the architects of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the IDF has said.

The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza said dozens of other people were killed and hundreds were wounded. NBC News has not independently verified figures of casualties.

Another IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said today that when it struck Biari, it caused the collapse of adjacent buildings. He said Hamas is using the civilian population “as protective armor,” adding, “This is intentional and devastatingly barbaric.”

In a video address, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called upon world leaders to make sure the Jewish community is protected from global antisemitism. Jewish people all over the world are embroiled in the conflict together, he said.

"When they criticize Israel defending its people and fighting against the most brutal attack that humanity has seen in the last generation, they mean no Jews," Herzog said.

He said Israel is fighting a battle on behalf of the entire world. Just because this conflict started with Jews in Israel, he said, does not mean it ends there. "Europe will be next," he said.