What we know
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken said early Saturday that he discussed efforts to “meet Gaza’s humanitarian needs” with Arab leaders hours after the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the besieged enclave.
- His comments came as Israel pushes forward with its deadly assault on the southern Gaza Strip. The country’s military said warplanes had struck targets in the strip overnight and its forces had engaged in battles in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City.
- After visiting Gaza yesterday, World Food Programme Director Carl Skau said nothing prepared him for the “fear, the chaos, and the despair” he saw there. Desperate, hungry people were crowding into warehouses and distribution centers, he said, adding, “Gazans are simply not eating.”
- However, the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza is set to be reopened in the coming days for inspections of aid trucks to boost humanitarian operations in the Palestinian enclave.
- About 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, where health officials say the death toll has now surpassed 17,400 after weeks of Israeli attacks. The Israel Defense Forces estimates 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack, with around 140 people still held captive in Gaza.
- NBC News’ Richard Engel, Raf Sanchez, Hala Gorani, Hallie Jackson and Chantal Da Silva are reporting from the region.
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Solutions discussed for Gaza’s future range from workarounds to the catastrophic
Gaza is in ruins, with Israeli forces laying siege to the entire strip and leveling swaths of the enclave. An estimated 80% of its population of 2.2 million has been displaced — the majority now trapped in the south, increasingly pressed toward the Rafah border with Egypt.
Palestinians in Gaza say life has become a cruel choice between death and displacement. Yet an urgent question persists: What will Gaza’s future be after this war ends?
Several experts told NBC News that options being discussed by diplomats and officials range from workaround solutions, which ignore long-standing failures, to the catastrophic.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the U.S. in a video statement for blocking a cease-fire resolution at the U.N. Security Council yesterday, and said Israel's war against Hamas would continue.
The U.S. vetoed the resolution by the United Arab Emirates, which would have urged for an immediate cease-fire.
Robert Wood, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, said after the vote that the resolution called for a "unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war."
The United Kingdom abstained from the vote, saying it could not vote for a resolution that doesn't condemn Hamas' actions on Oct. 7.
Freed hostages at Tel Aviv rally recount captivity
TEL AVIV — Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv today demanding the release of all hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, while some of those freed during a recent cease-fire spoke in videos about the rough conditions of their captivity.
The protesters waved flags and carried pictures of Israelis still in Gaza. One sign held up read: “They trust us to get them out of hell.”
Margalit Moses, 77, in a video testimony told how she tried to take with her a machine that helps her breathe at night, but her captors took it away. Instead she was told to sit and lean her head back against the wall.
“I could breathe that way, but I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said.
Adina Moshe, 72, said close friends were left behind while she was released during the truce after 49 days in Gaza. Her friends are old, she said, with health problems and no access to medicines.
“The food situation there deteriorated; in the end we were eating just rice,” she said.
More than 100 hostages were freed in the week-long truce that ended on Dec. 1. Since then fighting has resumed with Israel pursuing its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Siblings Maya and Itay Regev, ages 21 and 18, were also among those released.
“Every day there was like hell,” Maya Regev said. “Unreal fear. No sleep at night. The yearnings are crazy and the lack of knowing (what’s happening) is just scary.”
Video shows devastation in Gaza, damage as people carry belongings through debris
A video released by UNICEF shows the devastation and damage in Gaza as a result of heavy Israeli bombardment.
Buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, can be seen reduced to rubble in the background as people carry belongings through the debris.
In another part of the video, people are seen living in tent camps, where laundry is hung on clotheslines, and crowded streets are packed with cars loaded with belongings. At a hospital a 3-year-old boy who lost his leg sits on a bed.
In a video posted to his Instagram, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder walks down a street as a group of people rides in a cart alongside him.
“I was in Ukraine when families just like these were forced to flee, and the world opened its heart to them," Elder said in the video. "I do not understand now why the world has closed its eyes."
Israel has ordered residents out of the center of Khan Younis, and pounded the length of the enclave.
Israel’s Arabic-language spokesperson posted a map on X highlighting six numbered blocks of Khan Younis that residents were told to evacuate “urgently." They included parts of the city centre that had not been subject to such orders before.
Since a truce collapsed last week, Israel has expanded its ground assault into the southern half of the Gaza Strip by pushing into Khan Younis. Simultaneously, both sides have reported a surge in fighting in the north.
An official toll of all deaths in Gaza compiled by the Palestinian health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave exceeded 17,700 on Saturday, with many thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble. The ministry has previously said about 40% of deaths were of children under 18.
ADL CEO hopes Penn president’s resignation will be ‘wake-up call’
The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League said today that he hopes the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s president will serve as a “wake-up call” for other college presidents to protect Jewish students.
Jonathan Greenblatt was responding to news that Penn President Liz Magill stepped down from her post following her testimony during a contentious congressional hearing in which she and other university presidents were grilled over incidents of campus antisemitism.
“Campus administrators must protect their Jewish students with the same passion they bring to protecting all students. They can’t hide behind language coached by their attorneys & look the other way when it comes to antisemitism,” Greenblatt wrote on X.
When asked during the hearing whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated each school’s code of conduct, Magill said it would be “context-dependent.”
IDF says Israeli hostage Sahar Baruch was killed by Hamas
Sahar Baruch, an Israeli man taken hostage Oct. 7 by Hamas, was killed by the terrorist organization, the Israel Defense Forces said today.
His death had been confirmed earlier in a joint statement from his community, Kibbutz Be’eri, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters.
Hamas said Friday that he was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces. The IDF said today it is “still verifying and investigating the details regarding the place of his murder,” according to a transcript of a briefing by spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
University of Pennsylvania president steps down amid criticism of antisemitism testimony
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her post Saturday after facing intense criticism from the White House, lawmakers and alumni for appearing to dodge a question at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Scott L. Bok, the chair of the Penn Board of Trustees, wrote in a message to the Penn community Saturday. “She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law.”
Shortly after Bok announced Magill’s resignation, he announced he would also step down from his position, according to a statement from Bok published by the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper. “I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart,” Bok said in the statement.
A university spokesman confirmed Bok’s resignation.
Gaza aid checks at Kerem Shalom being tested, crossing not open, U.N. official says
A new process for inspecting aid for Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing is being tested, but efforts to get permission for trucks to enter through the crossing and ramp up relief are still ongoing, a senior U.N. official told Reuters on Saturday.
Under the new system, trucks would come to the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between Israel, Gaza and Egypt for the first time from Jordan, before entering Gaza from Rafah, about 1.86 miles away.
But the trucks would need to be allowed to enter Gaza directly through Kerem Shalom to alleviate an increasingly desperate situation in the coastal enclave, said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme.
Israel has so far rebuffed pleas from the United Nations and others to open Kerem Shalom, but they both signaled on Thursday that Kerem Shalom could soon help process delivery of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
IDF says five soldiers have died
The Israel Defense Forces announced the death of five soldiers today.
The IDF identified four of the soldiers as Liav Atiya, 25, Omri Ben Shachar, 25, Maor Cohen Eisenkot, 19, and Jonathan Dean Jr. Haim, 25. All four died while fighting in southern Gaza.
Haim Meir Eden, 20, died of his wounds today after sustaining injuries on Oct. 7, the IDF said.
Pro-Palestinian supporters take to the streets for the 'National March for Palestine' in London
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters participated in the "National March for Palestine" in London on Saturday. The event calls for a full cease-fire and an end to the war in Gaza.