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There were reports Sunday of widespread devastation across Gaza’s hospital system. Due to Israel’s fuel embargo, the area’s major hospitals are unable to operate properly without sufficient power and are also running out of food and water, health officials said.
The World Health Organization said it lost all communication with contacts at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, with 37 premature babies at the hospital at risk of dying as fuel in the facility continues running out.
The Al-Quds hospital in Gaza is now “out of service” and “no longer operational,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Sunday.
Al-Shifa has also gone “out of service,” and multiple babies and ICU patients have already died, as intense fighting carries on outside the hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Medical devices like incubators for premature babies and oxygen for ICU patients need fuel to operate, and the hospitals are facing power outages.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday announced evacuation routes from three hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, so people could safely move south.
Israel also said it would work to relocate at-risk babies, but two doctors at Al-Shifa told NBC News they hadn’t heard of evacuation plans. One said he was not aware of anyone leaving the hospital to take the IDF evacuation route. The other doctor agreed.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that his country offered fuel to Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital Saturday night, but it was “refused.”
However, Dr. Marwan Abusada, a surgeon at Al-Shifa hospital, said the offer was not nearly enough to operate the hospital, even for a day. Abusada said the IDF left only 200 liters and that the hospital needs at least 10,000 liters per day just to run vital parts of the facility.
The IDF said it left 300 liters of fuel outside the hospital but that Hamas prevented hospital staff from taking it.
Rafah crossing reopens for limited evacuations
A group of foreigners and injured Palestinians were evacuated after the Rafah border crossing reopened on Sunday, four Egyptian security sources said.
Crossings were suspended on Friday after issues transporting injured Palestinians from northern Gaza.
Adel Salam, a U.S. citizen trapped in Gaza, confirmed to NBC News that he and his wife crossed into Egypt Sunday morning and were met by U.S. Embassy staff.
More than 100,000 march in Paris against soaring antisemitism
PARIS — More than 100,000 people marched in Paris on Sunday to protest against rising antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left, conservatives and centrists of President Emmanuel Macron’s party as well as far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended today's march in the French capital amid tight security. Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism.”
However, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march, saying last week on X, formerly Twitter, that the march would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” in Gaza.
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, antisemitic acts today open old scars.
Holding a French flag, Robert Fiel said marching against antisemitism is “more than a duty.”
Christie meets with families of hostages, visits destroyed kibbutz
Chris Christie concluded his trip to Israel, where he spent time with injured victims of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and families of those taken hostage in Gaza.
Christie spoke to two wounded victims at a hospital in Tel Aviv who have American citizenship. One, Yadin, is a first responder soldier who was wounded during the fighting on Oct. 7 in the Gaza envelope.
The other, Sheerel Gabay, was at the Tribe of Nova music festival in the Israeli desert and was shot in the knee after being told to take cover in a bomb shelter. She told Christie that Hamas shot everyone in the bomb shelter and that she had to hide under dead bodies for seven hours.
Christie later met with two families of hostages in Gaza — the Chen Family, whose son, Itay, has dual citizenship with America, and the Munder family, who had five family members taken. Together, they discussed ways to help bring their families home.
Christie also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at his home and went to kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was attacked on Oct. 7.
"I came here because I wanted to see this for myself. I think no matter what reports you can get from media or from other sources, to be able to walk through a neighborhood like this and seeing what was done to people, to still be able to walk into one of these homes and smell the death, still a month later, is something that I think the American people need to know and hear directly from someone who’s seen it himself," Christie said.
Chris Christie doubts U.S. troops will have to fight, praises Biden's handling of the war during Israel trip
TEL AVIV — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became the first GOP presidential candidate to visit Israel this weekend and marked his trip by praising Biden's handling of the war, meeting with families of Israeli hostages in Gaza and with wounded victims in Tel Aviv.
Christie said in an interview with NBC News' Josh Lederman that he does not think the U.S. will have to send troops to the Middle East to fight for Israel "because the IDF is the best-equipped, best-trained force in the Middle East."
Biden previously said on CBS' "60 Minutes" he does not think it is "necessary" to send U.S. troops into combat in the Middle East.
Christie said it's a "hard call" to say who should govern Gaza when the war is over, but he made it clear that an Israeli occupation would not be in Israel's "long-term interests for their own safety and security."
Speaking about getting hostages home, Christie acknowledged difficulties in negotiating with a terrorist organization and said the U.S. should be relying on allies who have relationships with Hamas.
"Whenever you’re negotiating with terrorists, it's fraught with danger. But our alternative is to not to seek the return of these people at all, which is unacceptable," he said.
He said the photos and videos of innocent Gazans dying as a result of Israeli strikes are "awful," but he blamed Hamas for starting the war, adding that a cease-fire was in place on Oct. 6, which Hamas violated when it infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 and killed hundreds of civilians.
Christie said he is not second-guessing how Israel is waging war, and he praised how it has been working to warn Palestinians to leave areas it intends to attack.
"They’ve given fair warning. Now I think Hamas wants to keep those people in the areas to use as human shields," he said.
The IDF has been warning civilians in Gaza to evacuate south to lessen the number of civilian casualties, dropping flyers from planes onto northern Gaza with the message. Some civilians in the north and humanitarian groups have said it is difficult for people to flee south safely. The south has not been immune from Israel's bombardment, and refugee camps and residential areas have been struck.
He praised Biden's handling of the war — saying the president "has done a good job since Oct. 7 in showing solidarity with Israel" — and hammered home the importance of rescuing hostages. He also criticized former President Donald Trump, saying the Israeli people wouldn't be "in any better condition at this moment because of Donald Trump."
U.S. strikes Iran-affiliated forces in Syria
U.S. military forces struck facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran-affiliated groups in response to their continued attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today.
A U.S. defense official said a fighter aircraft conducted strikes on two facilities in Eastern Syria: a training facility and safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively.
The official said the training facility was assessed to also function as a logistics and weapons storage facility, and the safe house was a headquarters facility for groups in the area associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The official confirmed the presence of IRGC-related militia personnel, but could not provide information on casualties.
It was the third time since late October that U.S. forces had conducted retaliatory strikes on proxy forces for Iran based in Syria. Previous strikes took place on Oct. 26 and Wednesday.
The Syria-based forces, believed to be linked to the IRGC, began a wave of attacks on locations hosting U.S. personnel on Oct. 17, 10 days after Hamas' incursion into Israel sparked war.
Austin said President Joe Biden directed today's strikes because he "has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel."
Families of hostages hope for their release; Netanyahu says there 'could be' potential deal
TEL AVIV — As the images of urban warfare, bombings and piles of bodies in Gaza appear on TV screens around the world, one group watching and praying are the families and friends of the hostages taken on Oct. 7.
"I try to think that the army knows what it’s doing and that it will not harm all and the other hostages," said Michael Levy, 40, whose been told his brother Or is one of those held by Hamas. "But as you can imagine, it’s frightening to see it and know that he’s somewhere inside."
Or Levy, 33, and his wife, Eynav Levy, arrived at the Nova Festival 10 minutes before it was attacked by Hamas.
They hid in a shelter but were discovered along with many others. Eynav was killed, Or was taken. Her body was found after four days. It took eight days for the family to be told Or was a hostage.
Now the family wait for news, caring for the couples 2-year-old son, hoping he won’t be left without a mother or father.
"They were one of those couples that were always together. Always. Even on the last video that I have from inside the shelter, they were together," Michael Levy said. "Every morning I text the person from the army, the officer from the army, if there’s something new every morning. But every morning, the answer is, unfortunately not, not yet."
On Sunday, Netanyahu told "Meet the Press," that there “could be” a potential hostage deal, as “the result of pressure, military pressure” from Israeli forces.
MIT suspends some students after protesters refused to leave building
BOSTON — Administrators of MIT suspended a number of students Thursday from the prestigious technology school after Israel-Hamas war protesters took over a prominent building for much of the day and then some refused to leave by a set deadline.
Sally Kornbluth, the school’s president, sent a letter to all students outlining the “boundaries of protest on campus” during a pro-Palestinian demonstration that she described as “disruptive” and “loud.” The protest in the building called Lobby 7 lasted much of the day and attracted counterprotesters.
When some protesters refused to leave after a deadline was set, the school said it would suspend them. But after hearing concerns, including visa issues, Kornbluth said they would be “suspended from non-academic campus activities.” It was unclear how many students would be affected and when that would happen.
People on both sides criticized the response.
“Our love and fight for the people of Gaza will not be swayed by the administration’s fear tactics,” MIT-wide Coalition for Palestine organizer Mohamed Mohamed said in a statement. “While the administration may possess the means to send letters and emails to all students, staff, faculty, and workers, we possess something even more potent — a just cause and the collective voices of thousands in the MIT community who remain committed to advocating for an end to the genocide and an end to the occupation.”
At the same time, the MIT Israel Alliance criticized the university for not academically suspending any of the protesters, whom they accused of preventing students from attending classes.
“Instead of dispersing the mob or de-escalating the situation by rerouting all students from Lobby 7, Jewish students specifically were warned not to enter MIT’s front entrance due to a risk to their physical safety,” the group said in a statement. “The onus to protect Jewish students should not be on the students themselves.”
Photo: Destruction in northern Gaza
A plume of smoke rises after an airstrike in northern Gaza today.
Civilians injured in northern Israel as clashes with Hezbollah continue
Several civilians were injured after anti-tank missiles were shot toward Dovev, a village in northern Israel near its border with Lebanon, an IDF spokesperson said.
The IDF attacked the source of the shooting with artillery, the spokesperson said. Overnight, uncrewed aerial vehicles also attacked a “terrorist squad” trying to launch anti-tank missiles toward Metula, another northern town, they added. NBC News has not been able to independently verify the claims.
Though Hezbollah has thus far appeared unwilling to enter all-out war with Israel, tensions along the blue line border region have been growing in recent days. Hezbollah’s death toll rose to 78 on Friday after Israel killed seven fighters on its northern border, exceeding the number of those killed during its 2006 war with Israel.
In a televised address released yesterday, the leader of the militant group, Hassan Nasrallah, promised that the front with Israel would “remain active.” Later, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that might happen.”
Asked whether he bears any responsibility for "missing" Hamas militants' terrorist attack Oct. 7, Netanyahu said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that "we all bear responsibility."
Netanyahu said that after the war against Hamas, there will be a "thorough investigation," during which "everybody will have to answer some very tough questions, including myself."
But he said the question of who bears responsibility isn't top of mind right now. Rather, it's winning this war and uniting his country.
Netanyahu told Kristen Welker his government wasn't "distracted at all" by months of protests against his judicial reforms, and he said that now isn't the time to "relitigate the past."
"I think right now we have to focus every ounce of energy, every ounce of will and resolve, to achieve our goal of destroying Hamas, because our future depends on it," he said.
