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What we know
- Trapped in and around Rafah, more than 1 million Palestinians are bracing themselves as Israel plans to launch a ground assault against Hamas fighters in Gaza’s southernmost city. Aid agencies have warned that large numbers of civilians could die in the offensive. “People have no idea where to go,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNRWA agency, said yesterday.
- His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the military had been ordered to develop a plan “for evacuating the population and destroying” four Hamas battalions it said were deployed in Rafah. The U.S. said it would not back an assault that did not protect civilians, and had briefed Israel on a new national security memorandum reminding countries receiving American arms to adhere to international law.
- CIA Director Bill Burns is going to Egypt on Tuesday to work on the next steps for achieving the release of the estimated 136 hostages still being held in Gaza, according to a senior administration official.
- Six-year-old Hind Rajab has been found dead, 12 days after she made a desperate plea for help in a call with an emergency dispatcher from the car where she was trapped alongside some of her relatives, all of whom died, the Palestine Red Crescent told NBC News today. Two first responders who set out to rescue the little girl were also found dead in their ambulance, the PRCS said.
- More than 28,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 67,400 have been injured, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
- Israeli military officials said at least 224 soldiers have been killed during the ground invasion of Gaza.
- NBC News’ Raf Sanchez, Matt Bradley and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
CIA Director Bill Burns to travel to Egypt for hostage negotiations
CIA Director Bill Burns is going to Egypt on Tuesday to continue hostage negotiations, a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News.
The trip was first reported by Axios.
Burns has been negotiating with officials from Egypt and Qatar, who are representing Hamas, as well as with Israeli intelligence officials from Mossad, Shin Bet and the IDF on behalf of Israel’s government.
The U.S. official said Burns will be working on the next steps for achieving the release of the estimated 136 hostages still being held in Gaza. Last week, Hamas delivered a counteroffer to the original proposal that Burns and other negotiators had agreed upon in Paris last month.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that while some of the elements of the Hamas counteroffer were “nonstarters,” the Hamas response also contained elements that the U.S. could work with.
Other U.S. officials, and Qatari diplomats, described the Hamas response as “positive.” But shortly after Blinken spoke to reporters, Netanyahu held his own news conference and denounced the Hamas proposal as “delusional.”
The Israeli leader also repeated his pledge to keep fighting until Hamas is defeated, a goal U.S. officials do not believe is achievable without risking the lives of the hostages and killing a high number of Palestinian civilians.
On Thursday night, President Joe Biden publicly criticized Israel’s rejection of the proposal as “over the top.”
According to a second senior administration official, the most immediate disagreement between the U.S. and Netanyahu is over Israel’s plans for a ground invasion in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have been sheltering in makeshift tents.
Separately, other Arab leaders have told the U.S. and Israel time is running out to reach an agreement if they want to free the remaining hostages while they are still alive.
2 killed, 5 injured after shots fired inside Nasser Hospital, Doctors without Borders says
Two people were killed and five were injured after shots were fired inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Doctors without Borders staff reported.
One of the injured, a nurse, was severely wounded, the humanitarian organization said on X.
"Medical staff are afraid to move within and around the hospital due to fear of being shot," the organization wrote.
Israeli vehicles surrounded the Nasser complex today, reached its northern gate and closed the southern road leading to it, according an NBC team in Gaza.
Israeli army vehicles fired a sound shell in front of the hospital’s eastern gate, causing injuries among the displaced.
The crew reported shooting in the eastern hospital yard by snipers and quadcopter drones more than once during the night and dawn hours, which led to the death of a civilian, Hazem Abu Rajila, as a result of a gunshot to the abdomen.
Israeli army forces are preventing access to the body of a civilian who died yesterday in front of the northern gate of the complex, and are opening fire on anyone who moves to retrieve her.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information said that two civilians were killed today in a sniper attack inside the Nasser Medical Complex.
The complex has been under Israeli siege for 20 days, according to the ministry.
UAE deeply concerned about planned Israeli operation in Rafah
The United Arab Emirates is deeply concerned about the Israeli military's plan to launch an operation in Rafah, according to a news release from the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry warned of "the serious humanitarian repercussions that may result from the operation," and that it "threatens to cause the loss of more innocent life."
"The Ministry reaffirmed its strong condemnation of any forced displacement of the brotherly Palestinian people, and all practices that violate the resolutions of international legitimacy and international and humanitarian law," the ministry said in the statement.
The ministry reiterated its calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Qatar condemns planned Israeli offensive in Rafah, warns of 'humanitarian catastrophe'
Qatar condemned Israel's planned offensive in Rafah and warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe," the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X.
The ministry said the southern Gaza city is "a final refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced people inside the besieged Strip."
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the UN Security Council to take urgent action to prevent the Israeli occupation forces from invading Rafah and committing genocide in the city, and to provide full protection of civilians under international law and international humanitarian law," the ministry said in the statement.
Qatar reiterated its rejection of the displacement of Palestinians and its support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israeli military operation in Rafah 'can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy,' UNRWA commissioner says
An Israeli military operation in Rafah "can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy," said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
There are around 1.4 million displaced people in Rafah, according to UNRWA.
"There is a sense of growing anxiety and growing panic in Rafah. People have absolutely no idea where else to go," Lazzarini wrote on X.
Red Cross pays tribute to Hind Rajab, 6, girl found dead in Gaza
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies described the death of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old child trapped inside a car by Israeli tanks, and the health care workers sent to rescue her as “tragic,” as it paid tribute to her and to its colleagues.
“Since the beginning of the conflict, we lost 17 of our network,” the IFRC said in a statement, including 14 in the occupied Palestinian territories and 3 in Israel.
Hind was fleeing Gaza City with her family when their vehicle was surrounded by tanks, according to audio records of calls between Hind and emergency staff. First responders who discovered her and her family’s bodies found signs of shooting and shelling, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement earlier. Two PRCS ambulance workers, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, were also killed in an attempted rescue mission.
Zeino and al Madhoun were “on duty when their ambulance was hit,” the IFRC added.
Israeli offensive on Rafah would be a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' German foreign minister says
An Israeli offensive on Rafah would be a "humanitarian catastrophe," said German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock.
"The distress in #Rafah is already unbelievable. 1.3 million people are seeking protection from the fighting in a very small space," Baerbock wrote on X.
"The people in #Gaza cannot disappear into thin air."
While Israel has a right to defend itself, Baerbock added in another post on X, it needs to do what it can to "alleviate the suffering of the civilian population."
The minister for foreign affairs will travel to Israel next week where she plans on discussing another cease-fire "so that the hostages can finally be released," she wrote.
Iraq calls for international intervention in Gaza
Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs today called for "international intervention" to prevent "the mass forced displacement" that would occur as a result of an Israeli military operation in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.
More than 1.4 million people are living in Rafah, many in makeshift camps or inside schools and medical facilities.
The Iraqi foreign ministry described a potential military operation in the city as "a new humanitarian catastrophe and massacre" and reiterated demands to "stop military operations against the Palestinians" and the need for the delivery of humanitarian aid in the strip.
Shipment of food for Gaza stuck at Israeli port, UNRWA says
A shipment of food for 1.1 million people in Gaza is stuck in an Israeli port due to restrictions from Israeli authorities, said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"1,049 containers of rice, flour, chickpeas, sugar & cooking oil are stuck as families in #Gaza face hunger & starvation," the agency wrote on X.
UNRWA previously said that half of the U.N. requests to deliver aid to Gaza have been denied.
U.S. Central Command conducts more strikes on Yemen
U.S. Central Command (Centcom) conducted a number of strikes against vessels and missiles it says were preparing to launch against ships in the Red Sea yesterday, according to a statement.
Centcom forces struck two mobile unmanned surface vessels, four mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, and one mobile land attack cruise missile, the command said.
The missiles and vessels were identified in "Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen," the statement said and were thought to present "an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region."
The fresh strikes follow statements from President Joe Biden in January that military action against the Houthi movement in Yemen would continue, even as he acknowledged that they may not be hindering attacks.
