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What we know
- Israel is “close to dismantling the military system in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF's chief of staff said. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi added that more of the enclave’s regions will be targeted after the IDF urged residents of several neighborhoods in Khan Younis in southern Gaza to evacuate.
- Israeli forces searched several hospitals in northern Gaza, saying they had found tunnels, weapons and at least one vehicle. The IDF has so far not provided definitive evidence that Hamas command centers exist beneath Al-Shifa and other hospitals, a claim that Israeli and American officials have repeatedly made and Hamas and doctors have forcefully denied.
- The IDF said it had found the body of Yehudit Weiss, a hostage abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack, and that of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old soldier taken hostage by Hamas. The military describe both as being found "adjacent" to Al-Shifa Hospital.
- Civilians in Gaza are at immediate risk of starvation given that "food and water are practically non-existent there," according to the United Nations World Food Programme.
- More than 1.6 million people have been displaced in Gaza, and health officials there say 12,000 have been killed. Israel estimates 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas terrorist attack Oct. 7, with 239 people still held hostage in Gaza.
- NBC News’ Keir Simmons, Raf Sanchez, Erin McLaughlin, Matt Bradley, Jay Gray and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
Biden tells two different stories about the Israel-Hamas war in letters to Americans
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is delivering different messages on the war in the Middle East to pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel Americans, according to copies of official White House correspondence obtained by NBC News.
While one letter emphasizes Biden’s support for Israel against the “pure evil” of terrorism, the other focuses on the administration’s work to protect civilians in Gaza.
Though the two letters do not contradict one another — or Biden’s own policies — it is not common for the White House correspondence office to craft versions of a letter on the same topic that diverge so dramatically in their emphasis. Yet they reflect the political tightrope Biden is trying to navigate as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian elements of his coalition fray over the war.
Talks to secure release of hostages in Gaza are ‘very fluid’
NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell sits down with Kristen Welker about the latest developments in the attempts to secure the release of hostages, progress toward fuel deliveries and an uptick in violence in the West Bank.
PRCS: Several killed in strike on West Bank refugee camp
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Several people were killed and at least two more injured in a strike on a building in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said early on Saturday, local time.
The Israeli military did not immediately provide comment on the incident at Balata refugee camp, in the central city of Nablus.
The PRCS earlier said its medics were dealing with several serious injuries from the blast.
NBC News could not independently confirm the details of the incident.
The West Bank, part of territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, has seen a sharp surge in violence since the deadly attack on southern Israel by Hamas gunmen from Gaza last month.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in NYC, Washington
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in Manhattan on Friday, and protesters also gathered at Union Station in Washington, D.C., almost six weeks after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel responded with bombardments and military action in Gaza.
At Union Station in the nation’s capital, a speaker called for “Palestinian liberation” and accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, video from the scene showed. A sign said “Free Gaza.”
In Manhattan, helicopter video from NBC New York showed a crowd of people with signs marching in the street in the area of 34th Street, not far from the Macy’s store.
Some were holding signs and a few wore Palestinian flags draped over their backs, and traffic appeared to be forced to stay stopped as they passed, the video showed.
A New York City police spokesperson said they had no reports of arrests or people detained.
Tanzanian student believed kidnapped has died, foreign ministry says
Tanzania’s Foreign Ministry on Friday announced the death of Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, one of two Tanzanian agriculture interns believed kidnapped by Palestinian militants on Oct. 7.
The statement did not provide details on how the Tanzanian government had learned of his death or the location of his remains.
Clemence and 21-year-old Joshua Loitu Mollel were working on cow farms not far from the Gaza Strip — Clemence had been placed at Nir Oz and Joshua was living at Nahal Oz. They had arrived in Israel in mid-September.
Photo: Protesters demanding cease-fire target Fox News
Protesters took over the lobby of News Corp. headquarters in New York on Friday during a demonstration calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
As many as 16 people were taken into custody, according to the New York Police Department.
Some internet and phone service restored in Gaza thanks to fuel shipment
Some areas in Gaza have renewed access to internet and phone service after a relief organization provided emergency fuel service to the area's largest telecom provider.
Telecommunications were almost completely cut off in Gaza for more than 24 hours after the dominant provider in the area, Paltel, ran out of generator fuel.
Paltel announced on Facebook that thanks to a shipment of fuel from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, it was able to restart some service.
"We would like to announce the partial return of telecom services (landline, cell and internet) in various areas within the Gaza Strip, after a limited amount of fuel has been provided," Paltel said.
People in southern Gaza ‘should stay out of harm's way,’ IDF warns
It may take days to ascertain the extent to which Hamas was embedded in hospitals in northern Gaza as Israel claims, the country’s Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told NBC News.
What he says is a terror base “built over the course of 16 years” and laden with explosive devices “will take time to expose.”
“We need to be patient,” he added.
Last night in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s language was slightly different. He said Hamas “command and control nodes are located either in or under hospitals.”
Hamas and many doctors in Gaza deny hospitals harbored Hamas.
But already Israel Defense Forces are preparing to push on, Lerner said. “Hamas are not just operating in the north,” he said. “But they’re continuing to launch rockets from the south. So they are targets.”
Having urged Palestinians to move to the south of Gaza, Lerner said the IDF was now “instructing people to get out of harm’s way” in the south.
As for the hostages, Lerner said they were “a national priority.”
“We are utilizing all of the tools in our capability in order to identify where they are,” he said, adding that Israeli forces were “pushing forward in order to increase the pressure on Hamas because we believe that that will retrieve a better result for the hostage relief or rescue.”
Pope to meet relatives of hostages and Palestinians
Pope Francis will meet with relatives of hostages taken to Gaza and separately with relatives of Palestinians suffering in the ongoing Israeli bombardment, the Vatican said.
The meetings will take place Wednesday when the pope holds a general audience with the public at the Vatican, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.
"With these meetings, of an exclusively humanitarian nature, Pope Francis wants to demonstrate his spiritual closeness to the suffering of each one, because, as already stated at the end of the Angelus recitation last Sunday, 'Every human being, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, of any people and religion, every human being is sacred, precious in the eyes of God and has the right to live in peace,'" Bruni said.
IDF says it has taken a Palestinian Islamic Jihad outpost
The IDF said it has taken over an outpost belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said it destroyed the Al Burkan outpost, "eliminated the terrorists who were there" and "collected all the infrastructure."
NBC News did not independently verify the IDF's claims.
Hagari also said the IDF is continuing to deepen its operation at Al-Shifa Hospital.
"Today we located more underground infrastructures and collected every piece of information about the abductees," he said, not specifying where these underground infrastructures were found.
Hagari said "the battle in Gaza is complex and requires time."
"We are determined and continue to destroy, kill terrorists and eliminate everything that remains of the infrastructure of the Hamas organization," he said.