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Israel’s military said Tuesday that its ground operation in Gaza was at its “most intense day,” as it continued an offensive that has expanded to all of Gaza, not just the north of the territory.
Troops were pushing into Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, the Israel Defense Forces said.
IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said it was a “third phase” that targeted what he said were Hamas strongholds in the south.
The United Nations warned that “an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold” in southern Gaza. The offensive in the north involved orders for people to evacuate to the south, and the U.N.’s secretary-general said that people have nowhere safe to go.
In the United States, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the U.S. believes Israel is not doing enough to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and he said the roughly 100 trucks of aid and 70,000 liters of fuel are not enough.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a briefing that the only way to end the war is to use “overwhelming force,” and he said that Israel’s military would be the only force he would accept for the “demilitarization” of Gaza.
The World Food Programme warned that “resumption of hostilities in Gaza will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population.”
About 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, where health officials say the death toll has now surpassed 16,200 after weeks of Israeli attacks.
The IDF estimates 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, with around 140 people still held captive in Gaza.
Israeli strike in Lebanon kills soldier and wounds 3, army says
An Israeli strike in Lebanon killed one soldier of that country’s armed forces and wounded three others, the Lebanese Armed Forces said today.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged that it harmed members of the Lebanese Armed Forces and that it was a mistake.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike,” the IDF said. “The IDF expresses regret over the incident. The incident is under review.”
The militant group Hezbollah operates in Lebanon, but Lebanon’s armed forces are not part of the conflict. It appears to be the first report of a killing of a Lebanese soldier since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent war against Hamas by Israel.
The IDF said that its forces were acting against an “imminent threat” and that “the threat was identified within a known launch area and observation point of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, near al-Awadi.”
State Department thinks Israel isn't doing enough on allowing aid into Gaza
The 100 trucks of aid and 70,000 liters of fuel going into Gaza each day for humanitarian purposes is not enough, a spokesman for the State Department said today.
“They need more humanitarian assistance. They need more food and water,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a briefing. “And in that respect, we don’t think Israel is doing enough. We think they need to do more to allow humanitarian assistance in.”
Israel’s military has said it would expand its campaign against Hamas to all of Gaza.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that the U.S. does not want to see a return to the large-scale displacement and civilian deaths that occurred in Gaza when Israel attacked the north of the territory.
“We have seen them conducting the campaign in some ways in the south in a different fashion than they did in the north,” Miller said. He said that included Israel’s publishing “more limited evacuation zones.”
Mounting evidence suggests Hamas sexual assaults and other crimes against women
NBC News has reviewed evidence that suggests dozens of Israeli women were raped, sexually abused or mutilated during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Israeli officials say Hamas militants were instructed to systematically carry out sexual violence on women and children.
“This was systematic gender-based violence that was so horrific it’s hard for me to find the words,” said Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the chair of a newly created Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.
Over the last several weeks, NBC News has reviewed five interrogations of captured Hamas fighters, an Arabic-language document that instructed Hamas how to pronounce “Take off your pants” in Hebrew, six images of naked or partially naked deceased female bodies, seven eyewitness accounts of sexual violence, including both rape and mutilation, 11 testimonies of first responders and two accounts from workers in morgues who handled the bodies of women after they were recovered from the massacre.
The evidence, primarily from the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli officials, suggests that dozens of Israeli women were raped or sexually abused or mutilated during the Oct. 7 attacks.
Doug Emhoff aims for a role as consoler amid the Israel-Hamas war
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff spoke today to the owner of a Jewish-owned falafel restaurant in Philadelphia that was the target of protests the White House has called antisemitic, offering support amid heightened political tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
In the call, Emhoff and Michael Solomonov, the Israeli American chef and owner of Goldie, talked about how food was supposed to bring people together rather than be a source of division. Solomonov told Emhoff he was overwhelmed by the outreach he has received since the protest at his restaurant Sunday and thanked him, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, for their support, according to a source familiar with the call.
The roughly 10-minute conversation was just the latest of dozens Emhoff has quietly been having during the past two months with both political leaders and ordinary people affected by the fallout of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. They have been done with little fanfare, often coming about simply because he wants to check in on how the people and groups they represent are doing, making a personal connection at a fraught political moment, according to a source familiar with the calls.
IDF gunners reload on the Gaza border
Soldiers with an Israeli artillery unit load munitions near the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Israel pressed on with its expanded ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the expiration of a seven-day truce Friday, after which fighting resumed.
Netanyahu demands more international support — but says only Israel can demilitarize Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a briefing that the only way to end the war is to use “overwhelming force” and called on the international community to “stand with Israel, stand with civilization.”
But Netanyahu also said that the Israeli army is the only one that can demilitarize Gaza.
"Gaza must be demilitarized, for Gaza to be demilitarized there is only one force that can take care of this demilitarization and that force is Israel’s steering army. No international power can be responsible for this," he said.
"I am not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement."
Participant describes 'chaotic' meeting between hostage families and Israeli war cabinet
A person who attended a meeting between the families of Israeli hostages and the war cabinet described it as "chaotic."
According to the participant, the main message from concerned families was “time is running out.” One family member held up an hourglass to emphasize the point. There was a lot of emotion, crying and raised voices, the participant said.
Disagreements between the families and the cabinet were over the conduct of the hostage categorization process and who would get priority, such as older people, the young women still held hostage and the young men of military age. However, the families were united in wanting everyone back.
There were also concerns about the resumption of fighting, and whether hostage negotiations would start again. The participant said the cabinet members did not provide a lot of information or concrete answers to these concerns.
'Catastrophic hunger crisis’ will worsen in Gaza, World Food Programme warns
The World Food Programme is warning that "resumption of hostilities in Gaza will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population."
The seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas allowed the WFP "to scale up relief operations" and reach approximately 250,000 people in just one week, according to the organization.
"Tragically, this desperately needed progress is now being lost. The renewed fighting makes the distribution of aid almost impossible and endangers the lives of humanitarian workers. Above all, it is a disaster for the civilian population of Gaza, more than 2 million people, whose only lifeline is food assistance," WFP said in a statement.
The organization stressed that humanitarian staff need "safe, unimpeded, and sustained access" so they're able to distribute aid throughout Gaza, and reiterated calls for a cease-fire.
Vermont shooting victim says he is focused on the suffering in Gaza as he recovers
Kinnan Abdalhamid, one of the three Palestinian students shot in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend, said he and his friends are “completely focused” on the suffering in Gaza as they recover from their injuries.
Abdalhamid and two of his high school classmates, Hisham Awartani and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, grew up in the West Bank before attending separate colleges in the U.S. They were visiting family in Burlington when they were shot.
“My friends and I are almost unable to focus on ourselves because of what’s happening back home,” Abdalhamid said. “It’s like experiencing this makes us even more connected to what’s happening.”
A GoFundMe account created Saturday to raise money for Awartani’s medical expenses revealed he is paralyzed from the chest down after being shot in the spine.
Harvard, MIT, Penn presidents defend responses to campus antisemitism
The leaders of three elite universities were grilled by House Republicans today during a hearing on campus antisemitism since Oct. 7 and the start of the Israel-Hamas war. In testimony, the trio of college presidents acknowledged a sharp rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim rhetoric and behavior, but insisted they were taking steps to address the issue.
Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testified before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Gay said her job required a delicate balancing act: simultaneously protecting Jewish students and the rights enshrined in the First Amendment.
"I have sought to confront hate while preserving free expression," Gay told members of the House committee. "I know that I have not always gotten it right."
In testimony during the sometimes contentious hearing, Gay and her counterparts at Penn and MIT pointed to actions they have taken to combat antisemitism, including condemnations of the Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel and expanded security measures. (Harvard came under particular scrutiny after a coalition of pro-Palestinian students released a letter saying Israel was "entirely responsible" for the Hamas assault.)
"We have reiterated that speech that incites violence, threatens safety, or violates Harvard’s policies against bullying and harassment is unacceptable," Gay said in her opening statement.
Nearly three-quarters of Jewish college students in the U.S. experienced or witnessed antisemitism on their campus since the start of the academic year, according to a survey released last month by the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group.
The survey, first reported by NBC News and CNBC, found that prior to the Oct. 7 assault, 67% of Jewish students reported that they felt “physically safe” on campus, whereas after the terror attack, only 46% said as much. In the first survey, 66% of Jewish students felt “emotionally safe,” whereas only 33% said that in the second survey, according to the ADL report.
