Gaza truce ends; IDF resumes airstrikes

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said Friday that his home was vandalized by activists pushing for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

A spokesperson from the congressman’s office told NBC News that Smith’s garage was vandalized with red spray paint calling for a cease-fire. The alleged incident in Bellevue, Washington, took place around the same time that Israel renewed its assault in Gaza after the end of a weeklong truce with Hamas.

“Last night, my house was vandalized by people advocating for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza,” Smith said in a statement. “This attack is sadly reflective of the coarsening of the political discourse in our country, and is completely unwarranted, unnecessary, and harmful to our political system.”

Smith’s office said that both the Bellevue police and U.S. Capitol Police were notified. Neither immediately responded to a request for comment.

Read the full story here.

TEL AVIV — As fighting resumes in Gaza, the family and friends of people still being held in Gaza are still hoping more hostages will be released.

Yair Moses' parents were kidnapped on Oct. 7. His mother was released on the first day of the case-fire, but his father is still being held.

"I don't know if he's alive. I believe yes, I hope yes, but I don't know the truth," Moses said.

During a podcast interview on the war between Israel and Hamas, actor Julianna Margulies asserted that Black people should be completely supporting Israel but have been “brainwashed to hate Jews.”

The claims that are just going viral were delivered on a Nov. 21 episode of “The Back Room With Andy Ostroy,” a podcast described as a humorous and honest take on politics and pop culture. The conversation was on the war in the Gaza Strip and Ostroy brought up “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” a 2022 documentary by Ken Burns.

Margulies, who is Jewish, jumped on it. “It should be mandatory watching, especially for the Black community, if I may, because Hitler got his entire playbook from the Jim Crow South,” she said.  

Margulies has not responded to a request for comment by NBC News, but she issued a statement apologizing for her words.

“I am horrified by the fact that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, communities I truly love and respect,” Margulies said to Deadline on Friday. “I want to be 100% clear: Racism, homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice against anyone’s personal beliefs or identity are abhorrent to me, full stop.”

Read the full story here.

Udi Goren, whose cousin was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, joins Yasmin Vossoughian in for Chris Jansing to discuss the end of the fighting pause, as well as The New York Times reporting that claims Israel knew about the attack plan more than a year before.

Goren said, “of course it was coming … if there is no endgame for this and if there is no exit strategy, this is all in vain. All of these people that are dying and suffering, it’s all in vain if this is not ended with a resolution, with a new regional order that makes sure that this does not reoccur.”

Israel’s consulate in Atlanta said Friday it was saddened that a protester set themself on fire outside its building earlier in the day.

The person, who has not been identified, was in critical condition, and a security guard who tried but was unable to stop the person also suffered burns to his wrist and leg, officials said.

“We are saddened to learn of the self-immolation at the entrance to the office building,” Anat Sultan-Dadon, consul general of Israel to the Southeastern United States, said in a statement. “It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way. The sanctity of life is our highest value.”

Police said at a news conference the incident appeared to be an extreme act of political protest. A Palestinian flag was found at the scene, police said. The city’s fire chief said there was evidence gasoline was used.

“Our prayers are with the security officer who was injured while trying to prevent this tragic act. We are grateful to the city of Atlanta’s law enforcement and first responders for all they do to ensure safety,” Sultan-Dadon said.

Kinnan Abdalhamid, one of the three Palestinian college students shot in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend, recalled Friday how he feared his friends were killed when he heard shots ringing out — and how their lives were likely saved by an emergency SOS call.

“I was shaking and genuinely believed both of my friends were dead,” Abdalhamid told NBC News.

He recounted the shock and fear that engulfed him when he and his friends Hisham Awartani and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all 20, were shot as they were out walking Nov. 25 in Burlington, Vermont.

Read the full story here.

An individual who set themself on fire in Atlanta today likely did so as "an extreme act of political protest," according to officials.

The fire happened outside the Israeli Consulate General building in Midtown, NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta reported.

An unidentified individual set themself on fire and received "100-degree burns" throughout their body, Atlanta Fire Chief Roderick M. Smith said at a news briefing today. A security guard attempted to stop the individual and sustained burns as well.

"This was likely an extreme act of political protest that occurred here today," Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said, adding that the person was part of a protest.

An explosive report from The New York Times states that Israel knew about Hamas’ plan to attack more than a year ago, but concluded that Hamas was not capable of executing the scale of the attack described in its plans. Former CIA Director John Brennan joined Andrea Mitchell to discuss the story.

“The Israelis could have even determined that it was aspirational at that point and Hamas didn’t have the capabilities to carry out such a broad attack. But that document should have been driving Israel’s intelligence collection effort over the last year,” Brennan told Mitchell. “I would even say that this is something that they should have shared with U.S. intelligence as a way to see whether or not the U.S. intelligence had any sense that Hamas was developing these types of capabilities.”

Brennan added, “It really does question just how broken the Israeli intelligence system was in the connection with policymakers and whether or not that system today is as strong as I think a lot of us saw it to be in years past.”

A member of the Hamas Political Bureau released a statement saying that the Biden administration gave the "green light to this Zionist aggression and war of genocide and ethnic cleansing."

The statement further claimed that the United States "brazenly repeats the Zionist lies" that Hamas is responsible for not extending the truce. The Hamas member then called President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "war criminals" who "act as mouthpieces for the dark Zionist propaganda apparatus."

Following this statement, the Islamic Jihad announced that it launched rockets toward Jerusalem.

Qatar is committed to efforts to return to a truce in Gaza, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said. Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron at COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

"His Excellency emphasized during the meeting that Qatar is committed to its partners in mediation and continuing efforts to restore pacification. He stresses that the continuation of bombardment on Gaza after the end of the truce complicates the mediation efforts and aggravates the Humanitarian tragedy in the strip," the ministry said.

The pair discussed the latest developments in "Gaza, the occupied Palestinian lands, and the way to de-escalate and cease-fire," according to the ministry.

Al Thani expressed "Qatar’s firm stance of condemning any targeting civilians and that killing innocent civilians, mainly women and children, and practicing collective punishment is unacceptable under any pretext," per the ministry.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Israel is preventing the entry of aid through the Rafah crossing.

“Today, Israeli occupation forces informed all organizations and entities operating at the Rafah border crossing that the entry of aid trucks from the Egyptian side to the #Gaza Strip is prohibited, starting from today until further notice," the organization wrote on its X account.

A total of 178 Palestinians have been killed and 589 injured in Gaza since the resumption of fighting today, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Most of those dead and injured are children and women, it said.

Video from the Israeli Defense Forces appears to show a series of explosions in the Gaza Strip as Israel’s bombardment of Hamas targets restarted.

The Gaza Health Ministry says the IDF is targeting Al-Awda Hospital and is calling for U.N. protection.

“The Ministry denounces the Israeli occupation’s direct targeting of the office of the Director of Al Awda Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna," the ministry's spokesperson, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement. "We call on UN institutions to work to protect medical institutions and staff immediately before more massacres are committed against them."

NBC News has not been able to independently verify if the IDF has targeted Al-Awda Hospital.

Doctors Without Borders is calling on Israel to revoke Gaza evacuation orders "immediately," according to a new statement.

In the statement titled "Nowhere in Gaza is safe," Executive Director Avril Benoît said that since the truce between Israel and Hamas broke today, "Israeli forces have called for people in some neighborhoods in the Central Gaza and Khan Younis to evacuate further south to Rafah," adding that clinics supported by the humanitarian organization are located in areas under the evacuation order.

“Nearly one million internally displaced people in the Strip have sought shelter in the south of Gaza, where they currently live in appalling conditions," she said. "Many civilians have already been displaced several times since October 7." Civilians have been ordered to move south, "but nowhere in Gaza is safe due to the indiscriminate bombing and continued fighting," she said

“We are calling on Israeli Forces to revoke their evacuation orders immediately. We urge all parties to protect civilians and vital infrastructure from harm. We need a sustained ceasefire now," Benoît said.

No aid has entered the Gaza Strip today, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The body of an Israeli hostage was found in Gaza, according to a joint statement from the IDF and Shin Bet.

“The body of the late abductee Ofir Sarfati was located in recent days by a joint force of the IDF and Shin Bet in the Gaza Strip, and brought to Israel," the statement read.

The body was identified and Sarfati's family was notified. Sarfati was kidnapped Oct. 7, according to IDF and Shin Bet.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered remarks during his visit to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, today where he said there will be accountability for Oct. 7.

"There is going to be plenty of opportunity for a full accounting of what happened on Oct. 7, including looking back to see what happened, who knew what when," he said on the tarmac in Dubai.

"There’ll be accountability, looking at what led up to Oct. 7," he said.

A total of 74 journalists have died since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Palestinian Information Ministry.

In Gaza, 46 journalists were killed, while three were killed on the border of Lebanon and Israel. As many as 25 "media sector workers" were also killed.

Two journalists are missing, according to the ministry.

A total of 31 Palestinian journalists were detained by Israel in the West Bank, the ministry says.

NBC News has not independently verified these claims.

Two people were killed by an Israeli artillery shell in southern Lebanon, according to Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV.

Al-Manar TV reports a woman and her son were killed in the town of Hula in southern Lebanon after their house was hit.

In retaliation, Hezbollah says it "targeted the deployment points of the Israeli occupation soldiers in the vicinity of the Ramya site."

NBC News has not independently verified this report.

Video from a security camera captured the moment Israeli police say two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop outside Jerusalem, killing at least three people and wounding others.

NBC News has not independently verified the identities or background of the gunmen.

The Qassam Brigades bombarded Tel Aviv with a missile barrage in response to what Hamas says are massacres committed by Israel against civilians, the organization said.

NBC News has not independently verified these claims.

A total of 109 people have been killed in Gaza since the truce between Israel and Hamas ended this morning, according to Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hundreds of people have also been wounded, he said.

Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli soldiers near southern Lebanon.

"In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance, at 16:00 on Friday, 12-1-2023, targeted a gathering of enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Jal al-Alam site with appropriate weapons," a statement from the group read.

In the statement, Hezbollah quoted a verse from the Quran that reads: “Permission [to fight] has been granted to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory.”

The IDF has struck more than 200 targets in north and south Gaza since 7:00 a.m. local time.

It is now 5:11 p.m.

The targets include ones in Khan Younis and by the Rafah border crossing, according to the IDF.

"The IDF struck areas booby-trapped with explosives, terror tunnel shafts, launch posts, and operational command centers designated by Hamas for use in the renewed fighting," it said in a statement.

NBC News has not independently verified the IDF's claims.

The White House says it is continuing efforts to renew a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

"We continue to work with Israel, Egypt, and Qatar on efforts to extend the humanitarian pause in Gaza," a National Security Council spokesperson said this morning. "Hamas has so far failed to produce a list of hostages that would enable a further extension of the pause," the spokesperson added.

More than 100 hostages were released in a seven-day truce that ended this morning as Israel restarted its bombing campaign in Gaza. That deal was brokered by diplomats in the Gulf state of Qatar alongside Egyptian and American officials.

"President Biden and his national security team will continue to remain deeply engaged as we look to free the remaining hostages and sustain and expand the international humanitarian response," the spokesperson said.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum announced today that two Israeli men and one woman kidnapped by Hamas have died.

The forum mourned the deaths of Arye Zalmanovich, 86, Ronen Engel, 46, and Maya Goren, 56. All three were both members of kibbutz Nir Oz, an Israeli village near the Gaza border; Zalmanovich was one of the kibbutz's founders.

"Arye was a man of the land his entire life, dealing in agriculture and field crops," the forum said in a statement, describing him as "an educated man with a broad knowledge of history and the land."

Engel was remembered as a "photographer, volunteer paramedic, and motorcycle enthusiast." The forum said his wife and two daughters were kidnapped Oct. 7 and released this week.

Goren was described as a devoted kindergarten teacher who had been "lovingly taking care of the kibbutz’s children for many years." She had four children: Asif, Bar, Gal, and Dekel. Her husband, Avner Goren, 56, was murdered on Oct. 7, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said.

Rubble, destruction and emergency teams trying desperately to save lives.

That's what an NBC News crew saw in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, just hours after Israel resumed airstrikes following the end of its temporary truce with Hamas this morning.

Emergency personnel and residents were scouring through the mangled debris of a building, looking for anyone who may have been killed or injured.

One person was seen being carried out on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance as crowds looked on.

TEL AVIV — It is possible that we could see a renewed truce deal struck, given that both sides are expressing a willingness to continue the cease-fire in principle.

Israel still wants the hostages out and Hamas says it is willing to release hostages, but after all-night negotiations the terms of those hostage releases seemingly couldn't be agreed upon.

Israel says that Hamas was stalling, Hamas says it was offering to release the bodies of some hostages who were killed previously and some old men but that Israel rejected that.

They are not disagreeing over the concept of releasing hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, so it is possible. But now the bombs are falling, the aid has stopped flowing and it is at the very least a setback.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was afraid that the Israel-Hamas war could take attention away from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

“We already can see the consequences of the global society switching [its attention] because of the tragedy in the Middle East,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press yesterday in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

He added that they would “fight for every bit of attention” as “no attention will mean no help” until it motivates the society, the military and Ukrainians.

Zelenskyy also said his country's war with Russia was in a new phase and winter might complicate the war after the summer’s counteroffensive did not get the “desired results” because of the lack of military forces.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Dubai to attend the COP28 climate conference after urging Israel to protect civilians in southern Gaza as the truce ends.

Before meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Blinken said to reporters yesterday that the U.S. would support Israel's right to defend itself but also “urged Israel to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm.”

“[It’s] imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not to be repeated in the south,” he said.

Dubai is the last stop on his third trip to the Middle East since Oct. 7.

Israeli forces stand guard as Palestinian Muslims perform the Friday noon prayer on a street in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.

After a week of respite, Palestinians in Gaza are describing the resumption of Israeli airstrikes on the enclave.

“Every 10-15 minutes, there have been strikes, some of it 500 meters (550 yards) away from us,” Mohammad Ghalayini, 44, who lives in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, told NBC News. “It’s been all around us” and “very apparent,” he said in a voice note, with what he said was the distinct buzz of an Israeli drone in the background.

Ghalayini was also among those to receive leaflets dropped by the Israeli military, warning Palestinians in Khan Younis to move even further south, to the border city of Rafah.

There has already been one exodus, from north to south Gaza, as the Israeli military warned Palestinians to evacuate the combat zone. Now many of these people are being asked to move again.

The United Nations secretary-general said today that he "deeply regrets" Israel resuming its military operations after a seven-day pause in fighting and hoped for a renewed truce in Gaza.

“I still hope that it will be possible to renew the pause that was established.” António Guterres wrote on X, adding that the return to hostility shows the significance of “a true humanitarian ceasefire.”

The pause in fighting expired at 7 a.m. local time (12:00 a.m. ET).  

TEL AVIV — Relatives of the hostages remaining in Hamas captivity are agonizing over the fate of their loved ones after the fighting resumed in Gaza this morning.

Gil Dickmann’s cousin, Carmel Gat, was kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 but was not among the 110 hostages released as part of the truce deal this week.

Dickmann’s other cousin, Alon Roman, is married to Yarden Roman, who was released Wednesday, reuniting with her husband and daughter who survived the Hamas attack.

But the relief was bittersweet, Dickmann said, as their fears are mounting for Gat who remains in Gaza as the fighting has resumed.

“It feels like it was a grand plan for Hamas to keep some of the women and the men there, so they could be kind of a human shield for Hamas,” Dickmann told NBC News in Tel Aviv. “And we are very, very [stressed] that they are going to use them and even hurt them as a way of showing that the violence hurts the abductees.”

He said he is trying to stay cautiously optimistic about Gat's release because just weeks ago, the release of any hostages seemed improbable, and it gave families hope to see that trust between two sides could be achieved, against all odds.

Still, they are trying not to get too hopeful, he added. “We are very, very frightened of being disappointed in the end. And the end could be very, very bad.”

An image taken from southern Israel shows a rocket being fired from inside the Gaza Strip toward Israel this morning.

Hamas said it holds Israel responsible for “the resumption of war,” according to a statement published on its website today.

“Negotiations took place throughout the night to extend the truce, during which the movement offered to exchange prisoners and the elderly,” the statement read.

Hamas added that it also offered to hand over the bodies of hostages who it said had died as a result of Israeli bombing, but said this offer was rejected.

TEL AVIV — As fighting in the Gaza Strip resumed this morning, Israel said 137 hostages were still being held by Hamas.

The truce agreement last week allowed 110 people, including 24 foreigners, to leave Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, according to numbers released by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But with the truce now over, concerns are growing about the fate of those remaining in Gaza. They include 117 men and 20 women, according the released numbers; 11 are foreigners. There are also two children under the age of 18 and 10 people over the age of 75.

Seven Israelis are still considered missing and are not confirmed as hostages.

At least one body was carried from the debris of what appeared to have been a residential apartment in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel resumed its bombardment of the area after the truce with Hamas expired early today.

The relative calm of the truce was broken early today when Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza, with airstrikes and exchanges of gunfire heard in the distance, aid worker Hisham Mhanna told NBC News in a telephone interview.

"I can see pillars of smoke 600 meters away," said Mhanna, who is working for the Red Cross in Rafah, southern Gaza, adding "it's become intense," and was getting only worse.

The truce had allowed more aid to be brought into Gaza, but Mhanna said it was not enough. People had only begun to move around a bit in the last few days, but now "we are back to square one," he said.

SDEROT, Israel — NBC News' crew on the border with northern Gaza can see smoke and hear loud rocket strikes into the Beit Hanoun area of the enclave after fighting resumed this morning.

The crew is in Sderot, an Israeli town less than a mile from Israel’s border with northern Gaza, and can also see rockets coming from Gaza being intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system.

Wrapped in blankets, a baby is carefully pulled from the wreckage by a group of men after an Israeli strike on the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip this morning.

A spokesman for UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency, said the resumption of fighting in Gaza today is the “the nightmare that everyone utterly feared."

James Elder told the British public broadcaster BBC this morning that the situation in south Gaza was “terrifying" as he spoke from inside a hospital in the area. As he was speaking, a missile landed 55 to 110 yards away from the facility, he said.

He said the hospital was “overflowing” with thousands of people, and that some families have been living on mattresses there for weeks.

NBC News crews in Gaza reported a number of dead and injured people in the central and the southern Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes resumed today.

Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said at least 32 people were killed and dozens injured within three hours of the truce ending. NBC News could not independently verify this number.

Wounded Palestinians arrive at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after explosions in the east of the city early today. This followed the end of the truce between Hamas and Israel with both sides blaming each other.

CAIRO — Qatar said it deeply regrets the resumption of fighting in Gaza, but said that negotiations over a possible return to cease-fire were ongoing this morning.

“The State of Qatar is committed, along with its mediation partners, to continuing the efforts that led to the humanitarian pause, and will not hesitate to do everything necessary to return to calm,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Qatar has been instrumental in negotiating the humanitarian pause and exchange of hostages last week, alongside Egypt and the United States.

But its Foreign Ministry warned that “continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the pause” complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the “humanitarian catastrophe” inside the enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces is urging residents to evacuate parts of southern Gaza just hours after the fighting in the enclave resumed early this morning after a weeklong truce.

An IDF leaflet obtained by NBC News’ team in the southern community of Khan Yunis today is asking residents in four areas east of the city to evacuate immediately and go to shelters in the Rafah area, close to the border with Egypt. “The city of Khan Younis is a dangerous combat zone,” it advised.

The IDF has also released what it called the “evacuation zone map” of the Gaza Strip, which it said divides the territory of the enclave areas according to recognizable areas to enable the residents to orient themselves and “understand the instructions” to evacuate if required.

Ahead of its ground operation last month, the Israeli military asked residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south. The north subsequently saw intense bombardment and fighting as Israel vowed to disable all Hamas infrastructure there.

Thick clouds of smoke rise from buildings in northern Gaza after Israel and Hamas resumed fighting this morning, breaking a truce.

A Palestinian woman cries as a child is moved to an ambulance, following a blast in Rafah, southern Gaza, this morning.

Israel’s military said it had “resumed combat” and was striking Gaza shortly after the truce deal was due to expire, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement.

NBC News reported airstrikes across north and south Gaza, as well as artillery shelling along the border to the east. A number of injured and dead people were seen being taken to hospitals in the center and south of the strip.

Sirens also sounded in southern Israeli communities near the border with the Palestinian enclave.

Smoke billows in Rafah following an Israeli air raid on the southern Gaza Strip city this morning.

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