Israel-Hamas war: Cease-fire could happen by next week, Biden says

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urged congressional leaders to pass supplemental national security funding to supply both Ukraine and Israel, according to a White House readout.

Biden met with leaders from the Senate and the House to discuss the need to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. But he also addressed supplementing funding for wars in both the Middle East and Ukraine.

In addition to helping to bolster Israel's air defenses, Biden said, the national security budget "contains a significant portion having to do with humanitarian assistance into the Palestinian area, which I think is important."

Israel's military is being accused of stalling a medical evacuation convoy in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, detaining a paramedic and forcing others to remove their clothes.

The United Nations Humanitarian Office, or OCHA, said the incident occurred Sunday during the evacuation of 24 patients from Al-Amal Hospital, which aid agencies and Palestinian officials say has been under siege.

“Despite prior coordination for all staff members and vehicles with the Israeli side, the Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led [World Health Organization] convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.

IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi said in a statement today that Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, will pay a "very big price" for choosing to fire at Israel during its war with Hamas.

Halevi said that many residents who were displaced from Israeli border communities have returned due, in part, to the efforts of IDF troops. He also said it is “completely clear to us that we need to take the enemy.”

The IDF also released a statement saying it is "currently striking Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon."

Tensions between Israel's military and Hezbollah appear to be escalating amid an exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Yesterday, Israel hit the northern Lebanese city of Baalbek, the furthest target it has struck within Lebanon since Oct. 7.

Hezbollah launched a barrage of 35 rockets in retaliation today, claiming to have hit the headquarters of the IDF's 146th Battalion. Halevi conducted a tour with the battalion's commander today but did not mention a strike against the base.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees said that at least 84 schools it operates have been hit or damaged since the war began.

As of Saturday, more than 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza were sheltering inside or in the vicinity of UNRWA facilities, according to the agency. At least 400 people have been killed while in or around a UNRWA facility and more than 1,300 have been injured, it said.

"No place is safe, including these @UN shelters," the agency wrote in a post on X. "A ceasefire is the only way forward."

Gaza's Ministry of Health said that two infants in northern Gaza died due to malnutrition and dehydration.

The deaths were reported from Kamal Adwan Hospital, but no additional details were provided by the ministry.

NBC News has reached out to Israeli officials for a response but did not immediately hear back.

Northern areas of the Gaza Strip have not had consistent access to aid, and even in southern parts of the enclave, reports have indicated that civilians are struggling to find basic supplies.

Israel held local elections under the shadow of war today, with tens of thousands of voters who have been evacuated from areas near Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon forced to wait until later in the year to cast a ballot.

While 242 municipalities will be voting, the decision to postpone the vote in 11 districts in exposed areas was a concrete example of the impact on Israel of one of the biggest security disasters in its 75-year history.

Life in big cities like Tel Aviv has returned to near-normal since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, but the almost five-month-long war in Gaza and the near daily exchanges of rocket fire in the north have left many border areas almost deserted.

“Maybe it’s a smart decision to postpone the election for later, when people will be less scared to go back home,” said 24 year-old Yaara Maimon in Sderot, a southern town on the edge of Gaza where dozens of people were killed in the attack and where the local elections have been postponed until November.

“If you walk around the town you still see places that are broken and missile hits and stuff like that, so maybe people are scared to come back.”

In the north, where towns and kibbutzim along the border are also largely empty, the Israeli army said it hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon today, after around 35 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards the Mount Meron area.

Already the vote had been delayed past its originally scheduled date of Oct. 31 and then further delayed in January because of the fighting. But with the war set to enter its sixth month next week, the government decided to go ahead.

There has been a "concerning shift" in strikes across the Israel-Lebanon border, the United Nations' Interim Force in Lebanon said in a statement today.

UNIFIL was put in place by the U.N. Security Council in 1978 to monitor the Blue Line, or the demarcation of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. It has also been tasked with managing hostilities between the two countries since the 2006 war.

Now, UNIFIL said, months of strikes between Israel’s military and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, have caused significant damage to infrastructure and displaced both Lebanese and Israeli civilians.

"It has jeopardized the livelihoods and changed the life of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Blue Line," the statement said. "Yet we now see an expansion and intensification of strikes."

Recent exchanges of fire have caused civilian casualties and jeopardized the possibility of a "political solution," UNIFIL said. The peacekeeping force urged Hezbollah and Israel to de-escalate and work toward a diplomatic solution in order to restore stability to the region.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accepted the resignation of his prime minister and the members of his Cabinet yesterday, the Palestinian news agency, Wafaa, reported.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh's government will serve as a caretaker administration until a new government can be formed. Abbas posted a photo of him with Shtayyeh on his Facebook page.

The move appears to be a step toward reforming the body, which many Palestinians have criticized for years as being inefficient and corrupt.

Israeli officials had been calling for changes in the Palestinian Authority's leadership. The U.S. has taken the position that the authority should step in as the sole Palestinian government in Gaza after the war.

Negotiators are still aiming to implement a cease-fire deal in the next two weeks, before the start of Ramadan, Majed Mohammed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, said today.

"Obviously I will have to start with the usual disclaimer that I cannot disclose any information about the ongoing negotiations going on right now," al-Ansari told reporters in a briefing. "What I can say is we are pushing hard for the proposals put forward and the agreement that took place in Paris to take place."

He added that details of any potential deal, including the numbers of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners who would be released, are still subject to discussion.