Blinken and Arab leaders disagree on cease-fire; U.N. condemns ambulance strikes

Tunnel warfare expert Daphne Richemond-Barak spoke to MSNBC's Alex Witt about Israel's efforts to locate and destroy Hamas' vast tunnel network under Gaza.

"It's very difficult to know where Hamas is, where the hostages might be inside the tunnel network," Richemond-Barak said, "and then try to get intelligence about that, but again, your traditional intelligence gathering techniques do not work when it comes to the underground."

Thousands gathered across the United States and around the world on Saturday to call for an end to Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza, where civilian casualties have been growing.

In California, protesters amassed at the Los Angeles Civic Center and beyond in a show of support for the Palestinian people who call Gaza home.

In San Francisco, demonstrators turned out with a list of demands. "To call on the U.S. government to call for a cease-fire now, to end the siege on Gaza now, and to end all U.S. military aid to Israel,” Suzanne Ali of Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area told NBC Bay Area.

As thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel, parts of Europe were alight with their own marches and displays.

In Paris, protesters filled streets, called for a cease-fire, and displayed a “Stop the massacre in Gaza” banner.

Nearly 17,000 people participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Dusseldorf, Germany, news agency dpa said, citing police. 

Police in Berlin estimated thousands were in the city streets as part of a pro-Palestinian protest, dpa reported. Police were able to contain antisemitic messaging that afflicted previous protests in the city, the agency reported.

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany condemned antisemitic incidents at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, dpa reported.

In London, Metropolitan Police reported 29 arrests during pro-Palestinian protests throughout the city. Most of the arrests were for allegedly violating public order and dispersal laws, but they also included arrests on allegations of inciting racial hatred, terror-related offenses over the wording of a banner, and possession of an illegal weapon, the department said.

Speaking at a rally in Milan, Matteo Salvini, a deputy prime minister, said antisemitism is, in his opinion, “a cancer, a virulent plague, something disgusting.’’

In another part of Milan, about 4,000 attended a pro-Palestinian rally, and in Rome several thousand marched.

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis protested outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem, calling on the Israeli leader to resign in the wake of the bloody Oct. 7 Hamas rampage that sparked the latest Israel-Hamas war.

Netanyahu has so far refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack, in which several thousand Hamas militants burst into Israel and killed over 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages back to Gaza. He says officials, including himself, will have to give answers to the public, but only after the war.

During Saturday night’s protest, demonstrators called on Netanyahu to step down and called for the return of the hostages. They also held a moment of silence for victims of the attack and those in captivity.

“Where were you in Kfar Azza,” chanted the protesters, referring to one of the Israeli border communities that was overrun by Hamas.

“I came here to rescue the country,” said Nava Hefetz, a rabbi and human rights activist, who attended the protest.

Photos show painted red handprints left tonight on a fence in front of the White House, where protesters had gathered, some holding Palestinian flags. Demonstrators marched in Washington today, some calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

In a statement tonight, U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said there had been an attempted gate trespass earlier which was "handled without incident" by the Secret Service and others.

He said demonstrators were beginning to leave the area.

"As of now, no arrests have been made by Secret Service personnel," Guglielmi said.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, said she would reintroduce a failed resolution to censure Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, Congress' only Palestinian American, over statements critical of Israel.

Greene said she planned to change a reference calling an Oct. 18 rally at the Capitol attended by Tlaib as an "insurrection" and instead describe it as an "illegal occupation."

In announcing the resolution's return today, Greene alleged that participants in the Oct. 18 event, during which about 300 demonstrators were arrested, "broke the same federal laws as Jan 6 and led to hundreds of arrest."

The deadly, riotous insurrection at the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, for which more than 1,100 were charged, sought to disrupt certification of President Joe Biden's Election Day victory over former President Donald Trump.

The Oct. 18 rally sought a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Greene has used the term antisemitic to describe Tlaib, who has made statements in support of Palestinian sovereignty and critical of the Israeli government and its treatment of Palestinians.

BEIRUT — The U.S. Central Command says the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group arrived in the Middle East and the CENTCOM area of responsibility as part of the increase in regional posture.

The Eisenhower sailed into the Mediterranean last Saturday as the American forces expand their presence in the Middle East to deter Iran and its proxy militant groups from trying to widen the Israel-Hamas war.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its strike group had moved through the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this week, putting two American carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, a rare sight in recent years.

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is already in the eastern Mediterranean, part of a buildup of forces as the U.S. supports Israel in its war against Hamas.

WASHINGTON — Rula Atieh told NBC News' Allie Raffa that her sister, nieces and nephews are still in Gaza as the war rages on and that they're unable to leave their home, even to get groceries.

"It's unsafe for her. They don't know. They don't feel safe walking around getting groceries," Atieh said.

She and thousands of others gathered today in the nation's capital to call for a cease-fire.

Another protestor, Shazia Chaudhry, has very close friends in Gaza and has been in touch with their family. She told Raffa they have heard from their family in Gaza "on and off" but generally have been having a hard time keeping in touch because of choppy cell connection.

"One of their aunts just was trying to cross the border [but] couldn't cross the border [and] died out of hunger," Chaudhry said.

WASHINGTON — Thousands gathered in Washington for a rally today, with some protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and an end to U.S. support of Israel.

One family who marched spoke to NBC News' Allie Raffa about what brought them there today.

"First and foremost ceasefire. Stop the killing. And then just let them be. Like any other humanitarian crisis, let them have the help that they need," Shazia Chaudhry said of the current crisis in Gaza.

Qasin Chaudhry said he was there to fight for the "humanitarian cause."

"You don't need to take political sides on this. It's not anti-semitic. It's not Islamophobic. ... It's just humanity. You can't see these videos of these intimate moments of these people dying left and right look away. And I think it's important to stand up for what's right," he added.

"I think every voice counts on anything small. Coming here is a big deal," Eman Chaudhry said. "Just to know that we're all standing together, just for America to know."

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said an additional 30 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing today. The trucks are carrying medical supplies, food, water and other relief.

A total of 451 trucks have entered Gaza since Oct. 21, but so far none have been allowed to carry fuel.

On a visit to Israel's northern border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed that the IDF will eliminate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and warned Hezbollah that the IDF has prepared its air force to fight on the northern border if necessary. He maintained that Israel has no interest in going to war with Hezbollah.

“Sinwar sealed Hamas’ fate in Gaza. If Nasrallah will make a mistake, he will determine Lebanon’s fate,” said Gallant, in reference to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

Gallant said the IDF has killed 12 Hamas battalion commanders and destroyed the terrorist group's communication rooms, bunkers and underground tunnels.

BERLIN — Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of Berlin waving flags and demanding the end of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

German news agency dpa reported that about 6,000 protesters marched through Berlin’s center after calls from Arab and German leftist organizations to join the demonstration on Saturday afternoon.

Around 1,000 police officers were on duty to prevent possible clashes after several previous pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin turned violent in the past four weeks.

Police banned any kind of public or written statements that are antisemitic, anti-Israeli or glorify violence or terror.

Several thousand protesters also marched through the western German city of Dusseldorf in support of Palestinians.

People protesting Israel's war in Gaza tried to block a U.S. military ship from leaving the port of Oakland, California, today, alleging that it carried military equipment and weapons for Israel.

“It’s a message of solidarity for the Palestinian people who are are struggling to survive that we will not consent to weapons being sent to Israel to be used against the Palestinian people,” said Anna Baltzer, a member of the anti-Zionist activist group Jewish Voice for Peace.

Protesters made appeals to the ship’s workers, and held on to the side of the ship to stop it from moving. Organizers said three protesters holding on to the ship's ladder were detained.

By late afternoon, the ship, known as The Cape Orlando, left the port of Oakland, bound for Tacoma, Washington. Protesters are using #BlocktheBoat on social media to encourage people to gather in Tacoma on Sunday to stage a similar protest.

NBC News has not independently confirmed whether the ship carried military supplies for Israel.

A senior administration official at the National Security Council said negotiations to get Americans out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing were delayed by Hamas trying to include its own fighters in the list of wounded Palestinians.

On an initial list sent to the council by Hamas, one-third of the names hoping to leave Gaza were members of the terrorist organization, the official said.

"It was just unacceptable to Egypt, to us, to Israel," said the official. "And so, this went on for some time. Eventually what was worked out was that the wounded Palestinian civilians leaving with the foreign nationals were not Hamas fighters."

Six-thousand foreign nationals, including around 400-500 U.S. citizens and their families, cannot leave Gaza, "because Hamas would not allow anybody to leave," the official said.

The official added that another cause for delay when opening the Rafah crossing was the need to resolve Egypt’s concerns stemming from a 2008 episode when thousands of Palestinian civilians breached the crossing into Egypt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of “deliberately attempting to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system,” in a statement in which he condemned ongoing Israeli attacks on the enclave and accused the international community of “turning a blind eye” to the situation.

In a statement released on the social media platform X by Turkey’s Directorate of Communications, Erdoğan said that Netanyahu was the “main person to blame” for the ongoing siege of Gaza. “For us, Netanyahu is no longer approachable,” Erdoğan said. “We severed ties with him.”

Erdoğan added that Turkey would not support “gradually erasing Palestinians from history.” Separately, he told reporters that Gaza must be part of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state, once the Israel-Hamas war is over, according to Reuters.

Erdoğan's increasing hostility to Netanyahu has put him at odds with other NATO members and the European Union, which Turkey has long hoped to join. The Turkish president initially pitched himself as a potential mediator in Israel’s war with Hamas, having previously had relations with both parties.

The Israel Defense Forces and Hamas each issued statements accusing the other of disrupting the safe passage of civilians in Gaza.

The IDF alleged that after it announced a three-hour window in which residents of the northern Gaza strip could evacuate the area and travel south via a safe route, Hamas fighters fired mortars and anti-tank missiles at IDF troops operating the route. No IDF injuries were reported.

"This incident further proves that Hamas exploits the Gazan population and prevents them from acting in the interest of their own safety," the IDF said.

Hamas, meanwhile, said that a convoy of ambulances was bombed by the IDF yesterday as it was carrying wounded civilians south to the Rafah crossing. Hamas said the convoy was organized in partnership with the Red Cross and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

"The agreement was the exit of foreigners and the wounded. This agreement was violated and disrupted by targeting ambulances transporting the wounded, and not allowing them to transport the wounded from the north to the Rafah crossing," the Hamas statement said.

Israel acknowledged that it had bombed an ambulance on Friday but said the vehicle was being used by a Hamas "terrorist cell."

At a rally in Washington, D.C., thousands of protesters marched on Freedom Plaza to call for a cease-fire in Gaza as civilian casualties mount there.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will include Turkey in his tour of Asia, officials announced, as relations between Ankara and Jerusalem plummet amid Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza.

Blinken, who met with Arab leaders in Jordan today, will travel on to Ankara before making his way to Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi, according to a schedule update.

Turkey's criticism of Israel has become increasingly severe over the course of the war, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan breaking ranks with other NATO allies to describe Israel as “deliberately attempting to destroy” Gaza’s health-care infrastructure. He also accused the European Union — which Turkey has long hoped to join — of being unfair in its approach to the conflict.

Video footage shows Palestinians digging through rubble in search of survivors after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a home in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. A shrouded woman can be seen carried by a bulldozer to an ambulance.

In a press conference in Jordan following diplomatic talks there, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt spoke about their shared commitment to achieving peace between Israel and Hamas. But they disagreed about pushing for a cease-fire.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza “without any conditions.” He added that Israel should stop “hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid” and called for an investigation into violations of international law during this war.

Blinken, however, said the U.S. supports a humanitarian pause in the conflict but not a cease-fire.

“It’s our view that cease-fire now would simply leave Hamas in place able to regroup and repeat Oct. 7,” he said, reaffirming the U.S. stance that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”

Humanitarian pauses, Blinken said, would allow necessary aid to reach Gaza while simultaneously allowing Israel to continue its fight against Hamas.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, meanwhile, emphasized that long term, a return to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo is not feasible and that instead a two-state solution should be pursued.

All three officials reiterated a shared desire to protect Palestinian civilians and end hatred in the region.

“We should all work towards a future where a Palestinian child sees an Israeli child and sees in them a potential friend,” Safadi said.

Gazans who were in Israel to receive medical treatment when the war between Hamas and Israel erupted are now stuck there as the violence continues, unable to return home.

A young patient receiving cancer treatment and his mom told NBC News about what it has been like to be separated from the other half of their family — the boy's father and two siblings — in Gaza.

ASHDOD, Israel — Israel’s military said it carried out a deadly strike in Gaza City on Friday on an ambulance that was being “used by a Hamas terrorist cell.” Palestinian health authorities say the vehicle was part of a convoy carrying wounded people from Gaza’s besieged north to the south.

At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in the strike, which unfolded outside Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital, Palestinian health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a televised interview aired by Al Jazeera. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, corroborated the information in a statement.

NBC News was not able to independently verify the death toll or the circumstances surrounding the strike.

Video posted to social media and verified by NBC News showed chaotic scenes: people lying bloodied and motionless on the ground, a man wailing as he carried a boy whose face was covered in blood, blood trailing behind the wounded as they were pulled from the frenzy. A horse also appeared to lie dead on the ground, while several vehicles were damaged and spattered in blood, including at least one ambulance.

Read the full story here.

Five days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7, Mohamad Mattar says, he and two other Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were detained by a group of Israeli troops and settlers wearing military uniforms.

Mattar, 46, a social and humanitarian worker for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, told NBC News that he and his companions were taken to a sheep barn. There, they were stripped to their underwear, bound, beaten, photographed and urinated on, he said.

“He was telling me that he is going to kill me, he is going to make my kids hungry,” Mattar said of one of his assailants. “He poured cold water on my body and made me roll over all the manure. Then he kept beating me up.”

This account is part of a growing crisis in the West Bank, according to the United Nations, human rights groups and locals, who say that Israeli security forces and extremist settlers have been intimidating, abusing and killing Palestinians there.

When asked about the incident, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that “the manner in which the arrest was carried out, and the conduct of the force in the field, was contrary to the standards expected of soldiers and commanders in the IDF.”

The IDF added that it had opened an investigation and dismissed the commander of the unit that led the arrest.

Read the full story here.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that he was “utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients” in Gaza.

Patients, health workers and medical facilities “must be protected,” he said.

The Gaza health ministry said 15 people were killed and 60 injured in the airstrike on an ambulance convoy near Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday.

The WHO has repeatedly warned against the targeting of health care workers, facilities, patients and civilians, and has called for a humanitarian truce.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv following "Israel’s rejection of calls for cease-fire, continued attacks against civilians" in Gaza, according to the state-run Turkish news service Anadolu Agency.

The announcement follows mounting criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's bombardment of Gaza from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who earlier told the press that he had "severed ties" with Netanyahu.

Israel recalled its own diplomats in Ankara following "increasingly harsh statements" from the Turkish government last week, according to a post from Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on X, formerly Twitter, last Saturday.

AMMAN, Jordan — Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared his “condolences to those who lost their lives trying to help others” and commended the “extraordinary work” of U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) workers.

Speaking to reporters alongside UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini outside the organization’s headquarters in the Jordanian capital Amman, the secretary of state said “every single day” that UNRWA workers continued to show up in Gaza was “a lifeline for Palestinians.”

“Our condolences to those who lost their lives in trying to help others and admiration for those who continue this line of work,” Blinken added.

Seventy UNRWA workers have died so far as a result of Israeli bombardment of Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the agency.

In the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, rescuers work in the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli strikes today.

At least 41 children have been killed by violence in the West Bank since the Hamas attacks on Israel, Save the Children said in a statement today.

Settler-related violence has also forced the displacement of at least 111 families, including 356 children since the beginning of the ongoing escalation, with displacement as a result of settler violence up by 43%, it said.

“Children across the occupied Palestinian territory are increasingly caught up in a horrifying spiral of violence, while the world is watching,” Jason Lee, country director for the occupied Palestinian territories, said in the statement.

He added that even before Oct. 7, this year was the deadliest year on record for Palestinian children.

A deadly attack on the Al Fakhoura School, in Gaza City’s Jabalia refugee camp, has killed 15 people and wounded 70, a spokesperson from Gaza’s ministry of health said Saturday.

Displaced civilians were using the school as shelter, the spokesperson added.

The U.N. refugee agency in Gaza confirmed the school strike to Reuters today, adding that children were among those killed. “At least one strike hit the schoolyard where there were tents for displaced families. Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread,” the agency told Reuters.

The attack followed an earlier strike on Osama bin Zaid school in northern Gaza, which killed 20 people on Friday, according to the health ministry. In a statement, a Hamas official said that the group held “the U.S. administration and President Biden himself fully responsible” for the attacks, accusing the president of giving Israel a “green light” for a “genocidal war” on Gaza’s population.

The death toll in Gaza has climbed to 9,488, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza said today.

The figure included 3,900 children and 2,509 women, the spokesperson said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is navigating a Middle East where diplomacy has taken a back seat to military and political calculations. Amid all the anger and division, many will view his mission with skepticism.

After he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday and called for a pause in the conflict, he was met with a defiant response on television. No, Netanyahu said, to even a temporary cease-fire that does not include the release of hostages.

Today in Jordan, the secretary of state will be told by Arab states that there needs to be a cease-fire now to end the bloodshed. The view from some Middle Eastern states is that the successful negotiation to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt might lead to a little more trust and ultimately a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.

NATO member Turkey proposed a peace conference this week, and a diplomatic source in Ankara told NBC News that the country was working on a proposal to have third parties provide security for Israel and Gaza in an effort to “restart discussions for a diplomatic solution.” But Turkey’s relations with Israel are in crisis. In recent weeks President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Israel as “out of its mind.”

The Israeli military has announced that it will allow passage along the Salah al-Din Road, Gaza's main highway spanning north to south, between 1 p.m. (7 a.m. ET) and 4 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) today for civilians to move to the south of the strip.

"For your safety, make use of the upcoming time to move to the south beyond Wadi Gaza," said Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson for the Arab media, referring to the river that cuts across the strip, dividing north from south.

The IDF has repeatedly told Gaza residents to move to the southern parts of the strip, claiming to focus efforts to combat Hamas in the northern part of the coastal enclave. Both the north and south of Gaza have faced heavy shelling by the Israeli military since Hamas' attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Several members of the same family were among 55 people arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight, the Palestinian Commission for the Affairs of Prisoners and ex-Prisoners said in a statement today.

The largest portion of the arrests were in the Al Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, where 25 people were arrested, although some people were later released, the statement said. Others were detained in Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The statement came after Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Friday that Israeli forces are using military-like tactics to arrest Palestinians.

Jewish settlers were attacking Palestinians and telling them to either leave their homes or be killed, she added.

Former President Barack Obama said in a speech last night that the world feels “more unstable and more dangerous” than it has in a long time, referencing the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

He added that it was hard to be hopeful and that the images of families mourning and bodies pulled from rubble “force a moral reckoning on all of us.”

An Israeli airstrike on a convoy of ambulances near Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City — which killed and wounded dozens — prompted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to renew calls for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.

“I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital,” Guterres said in a statement issued late Friday. “The images of bodies strewn on the street outside the hospital are harrowing.”

Humanitarian access must be safely allowed into Gaza “at a scale commensurate with this dramatic situation,” Guterres added, describing the humanitarian situation across the strip as “horrific.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, whose economically and politically ravaged country is home to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed force hostile to Israel.

Neither Blinken nor Mikati spoke to reporters at the top of their meeting at a hotel in Amman, Jordan. Blinken also met with Qatar’s foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose country has emerged as the most influential interlocutor with Hamas and has been key to negotiating the limited release of hostages held by the group.

The U.S. has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has already stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the war as the nation's assault on Gaza continues.

In a recorded address yesterday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah did not forecast the group's greater involvement, but said a wider conflict could not be ruled out.

Before early October, Motaz Azaiza’s Instagram account documented life in Gaza to about 25,000 followers with a mix of daily life and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

That began to change in the days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and the retaliation on Gaza. Since then, more than 12.4 million people have begun following Azaiza’s feed, which has become a daily chronicle of Israeli strikes.

Many other journalists, digital creators and people active on social media based in the region have seen a similar uptick in followers. Plestia Alaqad, a journalist whose work has been featured by NBC News, has gained more than 2.1 million, according to the social media analytics company Social Blade. Mohammed Aborjela, a digital creator, gained 230,000.

The unfiltered coverage, as seen in the Instagram post below, adds a unique element to the broader journalistic efforts to capture what’s happening in Gaza.

Read the full story here.

NBC News’ Jay Gray got a rare look at the “Oasis of Peace,” a small village in central Israel — about 30 miles from Gaza — where Israelis and Palestinians have lived side by side for decades.

One woman who lives in the community said there have been open discussions about the Israel-Hamas conflict among Jews and Arabs alike.

Honduras recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations today as it condemned what it called “genocide and other serious violations of international law” in the Israel-Hamas war.

The Central American country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina wrote on the social media platform X that President Xiomara Castro had decided to immediately recall the ambassador in light of “the serious humanitarian situation the civilian Palestinian population is suffering in the Gaza Strip.”

The Foreign Affairs Ministry added in a statement that “Honduras energetically condemns the genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law that the civilian Palestinian population is suffering in the Gaza Strip.”

Castro, a leftist who took office in January 2022 as the first female president of Honduras, has sought to align with other leftist governments in the hemisphere like Venezuela and Cuba, but without completely alienating the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken touched down in Amman, Jordan, today following a trip to Israel.

He will meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II, the prime minister of Qatar, and Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, as well as foreign ministers from Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE.

Blinken will also meet with officials from the United Nations' Palestine aid agency, including by video with their staff in Gaza. The secretary of state had called for a "humanitarian pause" to allow for badly needed aid to enter the Gaza Strip, which has so far gone unheeded by Israel.

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