What to know
- Israel appears to be intensifying its military campaign, with reports of strikes overnight and into today on Gaza City, refugee camps in central Gaza, and on the southern city of Khan Younis. The IDF issued evacuation orders yesterday for several refugee camps into already overcrowded shelters.
- A heavily negotiated resolution for desperately needed aid to Gaza was approved by the U.N. Security Council yesterday, calling for a pause in fighting to allow more aid deliveries, but it stopped short of demanding a cease-fire. The U.S. abstained from the vote, amid criticism that it had watered down the resolution.
- The resolution is legally binding though it remains to be seen how aspects of it, including the pause in fighting and protection of humanitarian aid routes, will be implemented in the coming days.
- Hamas reiterated its position today that it will not negotiate the release of hostages without a more permanent cease-fire. The militant group's senior leadership remains in Cairo and say they are, "open to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression on our people."
- More than 20,000 people — nearly 1% of the territory's prewar population — have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The vast majority of the enclave's 2.2 million people are displaced, and the U.N. said yesterday that more than half a million face starvation.
- Israeli military officials say 137 soldiers have been killed during the country's ground invasion in Gaza, which came after Hamas killed 1,200 people and seized about 240 hostages Oct. 7.
- NBC News’ Jay Gray and Josh Lederman are reporting from the region.
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U.S. Navy ship shoots down Houthi drones, responds to attacks on other vessels in Red Sea
Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles into international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea on Saturday, but no ships reported being impacted by the two anti-ship ballistic missiles, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
Between 3 and 8 p.m. local time, four unmanned aerial drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen were shot down by the USS Laboon — the ship the drones were heading toward — U.S. Central Command said, adding there were no injuries or damage from the incident.
USS Laboon then turned its attention to reports from two ships also in the Southern Red Sea that were under attack at approximately 8 p.m. local time, CENTCOM said.
A Houthi one-way attack drone nearly missed the M/V Blaamanen, a Norwegian-flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker, CENTCOM said. The M/V Saibaba, a Gabon-owned, Indian-flagged crude oil tanker reported it was hit by a one-way attack drone, according to CENTCOM.
Neither ship reported any injuries from the attacks, which mark the 14th and 15th on commercial shipping vessels by the Houthis since Oct. 17.
As the Houthi rebels continue to fire missiles at ships in the Southern Red Sea, a number of major companies are pausing shipments that pass through region.
Pro-Palestinian rally held at New Jersey mall
A pro-Palestine rally broke out at the Westfield Garden State Plaza, a mall in Paramus, New Jersey, Saturday.
Protesters carried a large banner emblazoned with the words “ceasefire now” while chanting slogans such as “while you’re shopping, bombs are dropping.”
The group also encouraged other shoppers to join their march.
Mall security broke up the group of about 20 demonstrators. Paramus police also aided in breaking up the group of protestors, video from NBC New York shows.
One man appeared to be handcuffed by police and led out of the mall, the video showed. The rest of the group was then escorted out by police.
One shopper who told NBC New York he was in favor of "the cause" said there is "a time and place for everything" and that these types of demonstrations can get "a bit out of hand," but added that this one was "peaceful."
Biden, Netanyahu discuss concerns over civilian deaths in Gaza, hostage releases
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone today and discussed Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Biden reiterated the importance of protecting civilians in Gaza, including those who are supporting the humanitarian aid efforts, according to a White House readout of the call. Biden said it is also crucial to allow those civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting, the White House said.
The leaders also discussed the importance of the release of all remaining hostages being held by Hamas.
IDF confirms deaths of 5 more soldiers
The IDF confirmed today that five more of its soldiers died in its war with Hamas.
Before the latest casualties, the IDF said 137 of its soldiers had been killed since the beginning of Israel's ground offensive in Gaza.
Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians; hundreds have been detained
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza and that Israel’s offensive is creating “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.
Also Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 of them to Israel for further interrogation, providing rare details on a controversial policy of mass roundups of Palestinian men. The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli lockups.
Naftali Bennett says quickest way to end war is cut fuel to Gaza
Naftali Bennett, the former prime minister of Israel, suggested that blocking fuel from entering Gaza could help quickly end the war.
"The pressure on Israel to allow fuel into Gaza/Hamas is morally and practically wrong," he said in a post Saturday on X. "This fuel quite literally fuels Hamas’ main weapon — the terror tunnels."
Bennett said that without fuel, Hamas would not have the electricity and ventilation needed to use the tunnels.
"No fuel=no tunnels=Hamas defeat. Hamas [siphons] a big share of all fuel that enters Gaza," he wrote. "Whoever wants to end the war must back Israel in preventing even one drop of fuel into Gaza."
Hospitals in Rafah are 'incapable of providing life-saving services' health ministry says
The southern city of Rafah has become a “distressed area” in terms of health, the health ministry in Gaza said today, adding that medical aid entering the strip was not enough to meet need.
Medical staff at hospitals in Rafah are “incapable of providing life-saving services” due to the small size of hospitals in the area and the growth of demand. Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar Hospital in the city has “lost control” of care provision to “hundreds of wounded people,” the ministry added.
“What enters Gaza does not exceed 70 trucks per day, while the needs of the population require the entry of a thousand aid trucks,” it said, adding that the volume of aid to the strip must “urgently” be increased, so that the situation does not reach “catastrophic” levels.
Contact lost with hostage group, Hamas says
Hamas has lost contact with a group of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for the militant organization said on Telegram today.
Hamas official Abu Ubaida said that as a result of bombing on the strip, “We lost contact with the group responsible for five Zionist prisoners.” He added that the group believed that “prisoners were killed in one of the Zionist raids on the Gaza Strip.”
129 people are believed to be in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah exchanges fire with IDF
Hezbollah targeted Bayad-Blida in Lebanon with "appropriate weapons" the group said in an update on Telegram today, and targeted Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Birket Risha in a separate attack, it said.
The IDF said sirens had sounded in Kiryat Shmona and Ashkelon and communities near the Gaza Strip. It did not report any deaths or injuries.
Israel also struck a number of Hezbollah targets overnight and this morning, the IDF said in an update on Telegram, and struck Lebanon using artillery.
100 journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip, says Palestinian government media office
The death of Palestinian journalist Muhammad Abu Huwaidi in an airstrike on the Gaza Strip brings the total number of journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war up to 100 since Oct. 7, the Palestinian Government Media Office said in a statement on Telegram today.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which is keeping a separate count of media workers who have been killed during the war, put its own tally at 68 today in an update on its website.
The period since Oct. 7 has been the deadliest for journalists since the CPJ started collecting data in 1992, it said, adding that journalists operating in Gaza are working under extremely high risk due to the Israeli ground assault and continued airstrikes, as well as disrupted communications, supply shortages and extensive power outages.
White House press secretary: President is doing 'everything' to bring hostages home
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told NBC’s “Weekend Today” that the administration was “heartbroken” by news of the death of Gadi Haggai, a 73-year-old dual American Israeli citizen who was being held hostage in Gaza.
Haggai and his wife, Judi, were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
“We are heartbroken, just heartbroken by the news of Gadi, obviously in his death. It is just devastating to hear,” Jean-Pierre said. “Judi, his wife, is still being held hostage and the president’s going to do everything that he can to bring her home and to bring hostages home ... American hostages home,” she added.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum announced Gadi's death on Friday, and said that his body was still being held in Gaza. He was critically injured during Hamas' attack on the kibbutz, it added.
Pro-Palestinian protests in London target Christmas shopping
LONDON — As the U.K.'s biggest Christmas shopping weekend kicked off, protesters descended on London's busy Regent Street, Carnaby Street and Oxford Street in the tourist and commercial center of Oxford Circus to protest businesses with ties to Israel.
Carrying Palestinian flags and banners supporting the BDS movement — a Palestinian-led program calling for boycotts of, divestment from and sanctions against Israel — protesters blocked off entrances to shops such as Puma and Zara while chanting slogans such as, “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping” and “Cease-fire now!”
Puma is the main international sponsor of the Israel Football Association, though earlier this month it announced it would stop sponsoring Israel's national soccer team in 2024. Zara has come under fire in the U.K. for an advertising campaign that featured a model holding what appeared to be a body in a white bag, which some said was reminiscent of imagery of dead bodies in Gaza. Zara pulled the campaign and apologized earlier in December.
"We say no business as usual as civilians are trapped under rubble," Sisters Uncut, a feminist organization in the U.K. that organized the protests, said in a post on X, adding: "Christmas is cancelled." The group said Zara, a Spanish multinational retail chain, shuttered its Oxford Street location in response to the protest. Inditex, which owns the brand, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
UNRWA unable to effectively distribute food due to airstrikes, official says
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said it is not able to "distribute food as we should" because the "sky is full of airstrikes."
The agency was able to provide only 10% of what was needed in Gaza, the UNRWA said.
93 trucks enter Gaza through Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossing
The reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing earlier this week for the first time since Oct. 7 will relieve some pressures at the Rafah crossing, international aid organizations have told NBC News, though it will not make a significant difference if aid cannot be distributed effectively.
Sixty-nine trucks carrying supplies and five ambulances entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing yesterday, at Gaza's southern tip, and 23 more entered through the Kerem Shalom crossing at Gaza's border with Israel and Egypt, according to an update from the U.N.'s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“We welcome the opening of a second crossing for desperately-needed aid to enter Gaza,” International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Jason Straziuso told NBC News. “However, we reiterate that the amount of aid entering cannot make a real difference if it cannot be safely and effectively distributed. The ongoing armed hostilities create challenges in doing this.”
During a press conference at the Kerem Shalom crossing yesterday, Israel's head of the coordination and liaison administration said Israeli inspection processes at the border crossings were efficient and denied that there was a food shortage in Gaza, blaming humanitarian organizations for distribution failures.
'No difference' between Israel, U.S. and England, says Iran's supreme leader
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in comments to IRNA, Iran's news agency, that "the veil has fallen from the face of Western civilization" after the U.S. "vetoed" a U.N. Security Council resolution for a cease-fire.
The U.S. has twice vetoed resolutions supporting cease-fires in Gaza at the United Nations. In a Security Council vote on increasing aid to Gaza yesterday, the U.S. did not use its veto power, although it did negotiate for several days to amend language in the resolution to remove calls for a "sustainable cessation of hostilities."
“The great victory of the Palestinian nation is that they discredited the West and America and their false claims of human rights,” Khamenei said, adding that “no one in the world makes a difference between the Zionist regime, and America and England.”
Iran has long been in a proxy war with Israel, with several of its leaders calling for the dissolution of the state. Though Iran has never directly acted against Israel, it provides funding and support to militant groups operating against Israel such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis.
Israeli airstrike on Gaza City kills 76 members of one family including U.N. worker
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza City killed 76 members of an extended family, rescue officials said today.
The strike on a building in Gaza's largest city on Friday was among the deadliest of the war so far, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense department. He provided a partial list of the names of those killed — 16 heads of households from the al-Mughrabi family — and said the dead included women and children.
Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the U.N. Development Program, his wife, and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The U.N. and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of UNDP. “This war must end.”
Crowds gather for food donations in Rafah as a quarter of the population faces starvation
Palestinians gather at a food donation point in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and one of the few places in Gaza regularly receiving humanitarian aid. According to the U.N., more than half a million people in Gaza are starving.
“It doesn’t get any worse,’’ Arif Husain, chief economist for the U.N.’s World Food Programme, told The Associated Press. “I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed.”
Hamas reiterates that it will not participate in hostage talks until cease-fire
CAIRO — Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, reiterated the group's public position that it will not negotiate for a hostage-for-prisoner exchange until Israel ends hostilities in Gaza.
Hamad added that they are, "however, open to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression on our people." Hamas’ senior leadership, including Ismail Haniyeh, its political leader, remain in Cairo to discuss a potential cease-fire and increased humanitarian aid, Hamad said.
Hamad blamed the U.S. for the lack of movement on a possible cease-fire, referring to its role in amending language calling for a cessation of hostilities in a resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council yesterday.
Earlier this week, Israel reportedly proposed a seven-day pause in fighting in exchange for 40 hostages, a deal Hamas rejected.
Palestine Red Crescent says 8 medical teams remain in Israeli detention
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), a humanitarian and medical aid organization working on the ground in Gaza, says eight teams remain in Israeli detention following raids on the ambulance center in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
On Thursday, the group reported that crews and paramedics were arrested and taken to an “unknown location” after communication was cut off from the center. PRCS said that some of them had been "subjected to beatings and torture."
The group also said that Awni Khattab, the head of the ambulance center, had been under arrest for over a month.
Providing a general response to NBC News, the IDF did not comment on this specific incident, but said it had “apprehended and questioned individuals in Gaza, including medical staff” and that “a regrettable outcome of Hamas’ exploitation of hospitals is the involvement of medical staff, including doctors, directly in Hamas’ terror activity.” Hamas has repeatedly denied using hospitals and civilian centers as outposts for its activity, and using medical staff in this way.
U.N chief says Israel's offensive creates 'massive obstacles' for aid in Gaza
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the way Israel is conducting its offensive is creating “massive obstacles” for the distribution of humanitarian aid.
His statement was made the day after the passing of a heavily contested U.N. Security Council resolution that stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, which Guterres had said was the only way to truly address Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
Guterres said that an “effective aid operation in Gaza” requires security, staff who can work safely, logistical capacity and the “resumption of commercial activity.” The war in Gaza has been the deadliest conflict for U.N. workers in such a short period of time.
Israel continues strikes across Gaza
Seventy-six members of an extended family were killed by an airstrike in Gaza City yesterday, according to The Associated Press. WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, reported another 18 people killed at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. In Khan Younis, mourners collected the bodies of people killed in a strike today.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information added that al-Mughraqa and al-Zahraa in central Gaza, and the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City, were also targeted by warplanes.
The military activity came even as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling for a pause in fighting to allow more aid into Gaza.
In a post on Telegram, the IDF also said it had used ground and air forces to strike a building that “served as a Hamas headquarters” in the north of Gaza City, eliminating “tens of terrorists.” It also continued ground and air operations in Al-Shati refugee camp and southern Gaza City. It did not specify how many people had been killed.
NBC News has been unable to independently verify these reports. Human rights organizations have frequently warned that fighting in the densely populated strip does not sufficiently discriminate between combatants and civilians.
Israel issues further evacuation orders for people in central Gaza
More than 150,000 people in central Gaza were ordered to evacuate yesterday by the Israeli military, the UNRWA, the U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency, said, as the IDF expands military operations in Gaza.
Posting on X, the UNRWA accused the Israeli army of ordering people “into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes.”
The Israeli military has come under strong criticism since the beginning of its war in Gaza for issuing confusing and impossible evacuation instructions, and for targeting areas it previously told civilians to move to.
“There is nowhere for people to go. Nowhere is safe,” said the UNRWA.
A morning strike in Khan Younis
People mourn as they collect the bodies of those killed in a bombing today in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Grieving and often overlooked, Palestinian Christians prepare for a somber Christmas amid war
It’s normally a moment of pure joy for the Rev. Khader Khalilia: the excitement, the giggles, the kisses, as his young daughters — in their Christmas pajamas — open their gifts. But this year, just the thought of it fills Khalilia with guilt.
“I’m struggling,” said the Palestinian American pastor of Redeemer-St. John’s Lutheran Church in New York. “How can I do it while the Palestinian children are suffering, have no shelter or a place to lay their heads?”
Thousands of miles away, near Jesus’ biblical birthplace of Bethlehem, Suzan Sahori has been working with artisans to bring olive wood Christmas ornaments into homes in Australia, Europe and North America. But Sahori is in no mood for festivities: “We’re broken, looking at all these children, all this killing.”
In a traditional season of merriment, many Palestinian Christians — in Bethlehem and beyond — are gripped with helplessness, pain and worry amid the Israel-Hamas war. Some are mourning, lobbying for the war to end, scrambling to get relatives to safety or seeking comfort in the Christmas message of hope.
UNICEF warns of ‘very high risk of famine in the Gaza Strip’
UNICEF estimates at least 1 of 4 houses in Gaza — more than half a million people — “are facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, the highest level of warning,” UNICEF said in a statement.
The statement added that an estimated 1.2 million people are facing “emergency levels of acute food insecurity,” noting that “famine thresholds for acute food insecurity have already been exceeded.”
“In short, this means for many families in Gaza, the threat of dying from hunger is already real,” the statement said.
Additionally, all children in Gaza under the age of 5 — totaling 335,000 — are at “high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase.”
According to a UNICEF estimate, “in the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods.”
While UNICEF said the situation in Gaza is “unacceptable,” it acknowledged that it can be reversed and a coming famine can be averted if there is an “immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire” so food and services can be brought into the enclave.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza seen as among the most destructive in recent history, experts say
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history.
In just over two months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.
The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. But from blast fragments found on-site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are U.S.-made. They say the weapons include 2,000-pound “bunker-busters” that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.
With the Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpassing 20,000, the international community is calling for a cease-fire. Israel vows to press ahead, saying it wants to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities following the militant group’s Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that triggered the war, in which it killed 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage.
The Biden administration has quietly continued to supply arms to Israel. Last week, however, President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged that Israel was losing international legitimacy for what he called its “indiscriminate bombing.”
Catch up with NBC News' latest coverage of the war
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How the White House persuaded Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza
About 20,000 people killed in Gaza, Health Ministry says
Palestinian support for ‘armed struggle’ is rising as Gaza death estimate tops 20,000