An estimated 20,000 people are dead in Gaza, Hamas media office says

The three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers fled Hamas five days before their deaths, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said today. A GoPro was found that was attached to a search and attack dog used by IDF units. IDF found evidence of their fleeing five days before their deaths, it said.

During the incident, a dog was sent into the buildings where they were being held and was shot by Hamas fighters, according to the IDF. Officials said the voices of the three hostages could be heard on GoPro video they reviewed.

"This complex was 1 kilometer from where the three were killed later on. From analyzing the audio, we understand that the Hamas fighter were killed, which allowed the three hostages to flee. They survived for five days until they were tragically killed," Hagari said.

An aid worker told NBC News today that he saw “injured kids sleeping on the hospital floor” at a medical facility in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Fares Abu Fares, 53, a volunteer with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, said in a telephone interview that there were “injured people everywhere” at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

He said there is no food in the facility. "Even if you have money, it doesn't matter," he said.

Even if flour was available in some markets, it could be 100 times more expensive than usual.

"We are not on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. We are in a crisis," he said.

Ofir Engel, 18, whom Hamas kidnapped Oct. 7, returned today to the kibbutz Be’eri from where he was taken and called for the release of the hostages still captive in Gaza.

"They all have to come home now," Engel said in a speech in front of members of the media.

An estimated 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to a statement today from Hamas' government media office.

That toll includes 8,000 children and more than 6,000 women. An estimated 6,700 people are missing.

"Free Gaza" graffiti was painted on the Lincoln Memorial, the National Parks Service said today. The vandalism was spotted in the Lincoln Memorial Circle and the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

“National Park Service conservators have begun the process of removing the paint this morning, though it may take multiple treatments over several days to remove all of it," an agency spokesperson said. "The steps on the west side of the Reflecting Pool are closed to visitors while the conservation work takes place.”

The head of the World Health Organization sounded the alarm today over a "toxic mix of disease, hunger and lack of hygiene and sanitation" faced by people in the Gaza Strip.

In a post on the social media platform X, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned" about health issues in the besieged Palestinian enclave, adding that "Gaza is already experiencing soaring rates of infectious disease outbreaks."

Tedros said cases of diarrhea among kids under age 5 are "25 times what they were before the conflict" between Israel and Hamas. He warned that such illnesses can be "lethal for malnourished children, more so in the absence of functioning health services."

Gaza's medical infrastructure has been crippled by Israel's military offensive in the region. In closing, Tedros said: "We need a cease-fire now."

NBC’s Jay Gray joins José Díaz-Balart from Tel Aviv after speaking with Ella Ben Ami, the daughter of one of the 129 hostages who are still being held in Gaza. Ella described how their lives were upended on Oct. 7, saying “they just came into my home and took him.”

At least 66% of employment has been lost in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on Oct. 7, according to the U.N. agency the International Labour Organization.

“The repercussions on the lives and livelihoods of affected communities are beyond anything seen in the Occupied Palestinian Territory before," ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat said in a statement, adding that the impact has “grave cascading implications” on the West Bank as well.

According to ILO, around 468,000 jobs are estimated to have been lost in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It added that the job losses translate into $20.5 million of income lost per day.

“The Palestinians of Gaza are in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions,” Jaradat said.

A survivor is pulled out of the rubble after a strike in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Dec. 20.

The U.N. Security Council vote on a UAE-led effort to bolster humanitarian access and aid delivery in Gaza has been pushed back for the third day this week at the request of the U.S., according to a U.S. official familiar with the negotiations. 

The U.S. has vetoed previous drafts demanding a humanitarian cease-fire. The latest sticking point, according to the official, is the resolution’s call for a U.N. mechanism to exclusively monitor the humanitarian relief process — which now rests largely under Israeli control.

“We continue to engage extensively and constructively with a number of countries to try to resolve some of the outstanding issues in this in the Security Council resolution,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today. “The purpose of the resolution as stated by the countries that put it forward is to facilitate and help expand humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza, and we fully support that.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tweeted that 9 out of 10 people in parts of Gaza have been without food for a full day and night.

This follows news from the World Food Program that an aid convoy has reached Gaza from Jordan for the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The mother of Yotam Haim, one of three hostages mistakenly killed by the IDF, addressed the battalion involved in the incident and told them it is "completely not your fault."

"Don’t hesitate for a single moment — if you see a terrorist, don’t think that you have deliberately killed a hostage," Iris Haim said, according to a release from the Israeli government today. "You need to protect yourselves because that’s the only way you would be able to protect us."

Iris Haim said the soldiers did the "right thing" at that moment. She finished by inviting the battalion to visit her and her family, saying that "none of us are judging you or angry with you."

"It’s nobody’s fault — except Hamas, may their name and memory be wiped off the face of the earth," she said. 

The leaders of Hamas’ political wing have started talking with their counterparts in the group’s military faction about how to govern Gaza and the West Bank after the conflict with Israel ends, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We don’t fight just because we want to fight. We are not partisans of a zero-sum game,” Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’ political bureau in Doha, Qatar, told the Journal. “We want the war to end.”

Badran said that Hamas’ political faction wants to “establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.” (Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2006. The West Bank is occupied by Israel and governed partly by the Palestinian Authority. Jerusalem, which is controlled by Israel, is claimed as a capital by both Israelis and Palestinians.)

Hamas’ political leaders have reportedly said they would be willing to join the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which represents Palestinian people at the United Nations. The two groups have long been at odds, and while Hamas officially does not recognize Israel, it has indicated it would be open to doing so.

However, Badran told the Journal that Hamas does not have plans to demilitarize or alter its position on Israel, at least while the occupation continues.

“The world has no right to ask when people are being killed,” he told the newspaper. “It’s not logical to ask this question at this time.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that the Israeli government "does not have to choose between removing the threat of Hamas and minimizing the toll of civilians in Gaza," where nearly 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the war on Oct. 7.

"It has an obligation to do both and it has a strategic interest to do both," Blinken said in remarks at a year-end news conference.

Blinken added that the U.S. was "more determined than ever to ensure that out of this horrific tragedy comes a moment of possibility — for Israelis, for Palestinians, for the region."

In other comments, Blinken said the U.S. was working in "pretty good faith" with other countries on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would allow for humanitarian aid deliveries in Gaza.

The U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution on Dec. 8 that would have demanded an immediate cease-fire in the besieged Palestinian enclave. The resolution was supported by nearly all the Security Council's members.

The Palestine Red Crescent tweeted earlier today that its headquarters lost had contact with its operations facility in Gaza due to an interruption of internet services.

This loss of communication hinders the PRCS in their ability to respond quickly to medical emergencies.

Survivors of an overnight blast at a Khan Younis home were taken to the city’s Nasser Hospital by a steady stream of ambulances. As dawn broke, those killed in the explosion were being prepared for burial as families mourned.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement today reiterated that Israel will continue fighting until it can "achieve all the goals" it has set.

This comes amid mounting pressure for a cease-fire and hostage deal. He said that Israel will continue the war "until Hamas is eliminated, until victory."

The goals that Netanyahu laid out include "the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the removal of the threat from Gaza." He closed the statement by saying that "all Hamas terrorists, from the first to the last, are mortal. They only have two options: surrender or die."

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man who “tried to carry out a drive-by attack” in the occupied West Bank, the country's military said in a statement today.

The man was identified by WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, as Basil Wajiya Abd al-Afo al-Muhtaseb.

NBC News could not independently confirm his details.

A detained Palestinian journalist is suffering with “difficult health conditions” while he is being held in an Israeli prison, an advocacy group said yesterday.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement that Moaz Ibrahim Amarneh has chronic diabetes, which has worsened during his detention in the Megiddo prison in northern Israel. It added that he was also experiencing cloudy vision in his right eye.

Amarneh has been detained since Oct. 16, the statement said. It added that the 36-year-old from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, was also suffering with headaches because of the cold weather as he did not have enough clothes to keep warm.

NBC News reached out to the Israel security agency, Shin Bet, for comment.

People search through the rubble after a blast at the Ali bin Abi Taleb Mosque in Rafah, southern Gaza, today.

The U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has pleaded with President Joe Biden for a cease-fire in Gaza in a post on X today.

“President Biden, please, please intervene to stop this senseless carnage of innocent civilians in Gaza,” Francesca Albanese wrote.

Every additional day the international society fails to stop the war is “another nail in the coffin of humanity and the international law base order,” she added.

The Security Council is facing “severe opposition” from the U.S. over a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today.

The U.S. “takes a one-sided position and, as usual, tries to usurp any processes and any initiatives,” Lavrov said at the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in the Morrocan city of Marrakesh.

Both Russia and the U.S. hold veto powers in the council. The U.S. has vetoed previous resolutions demanding an end to hostilities in the enclave.

Israeli warplanes struck a series of targets belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the country's military said today in a post on X.

Infrastructure and military sites were hit, the Israel Defense Forces said.

NBC News could not independently verify the claims.

Earlier this week, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the Iran-back group had been “increasing its attacks against Israel” since Hamas launched its attacks Oct. 7.

Israeli forces have “surrounded” and “besieged” an ambulance center in Jabalia in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on X today.

NBC News was not able to verify this and has approached the IDF for comment.

A 46-truck convoy carried “life-saving food” into Gaza from Jordan for the first time since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the U.N. World Food Programme said in news release today.

More than 750 metric tons of food was carried into the enclave, the release said, adding that the “crucial first step could pave the way for a more sustainable aid corridor through Jordan.”

“Establishing a corridor through Jordan will increase the flow of aid and remove some of the pressure and congestion we are currently facing,” said Samer AbdelJaber, the WFP's Palestine representative and country director.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society published video today which it said showed the aftermath of a deadly attack on a home in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah city.

At least eight people were killed and dozens more were wounded, the relief organization said.

Having delayed a cease-fire vote yesterday to avoid a U.S. veto, the U.N. Security Council will reconvene again today to vote on a resolution brokered by Arab nations to halt the fighting in Gaza and allow more aid into the enclave.

Some of Israel's closest allies including France, Britain and Germany, joined global calls for a cease-fire over the weekend and talks are continuing in the hopes of getting the U.S. to abstain or vote “yes” on the resolution after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.

Inside Israel, protesters have also called for negotiations with Hamas to facilitate the release of scores of hostages still being held by the group.

When UNICEF featured 12-year-old Dina on its Instagram feed Sunday, she said she would “become a lawyer so that I can enjoy my rights and the rights of all children.”

The following day, UNICEF said she was killed at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

In Sunday’s post, the organization said she was being treated for wounds and her right leg had been amputated.

In Monday’s update, it said the killing of children “must stop.”

Smoke rises over Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during an Israeli bombardment, as seen from Rafah this morning.

The Israeli military said in a statement today that it struck 300 targets "over the last day."

The statement added that that its troops “carried out a targeted raid on military command and control centers” in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Weapons were stored and fired from them, the statement said.

JERUSALEM — The son of 83-year-old Israeli hostage Yoram Metzger told NBC News yesterday that he was “really worried" after seeing his father in a video released by Hamas.

Guy Metzger said his father looked “very, very tired.”

“He looks very sick, also his friends. We are really worried about their condition,” Metzger added.

Three hostages in the Hamas video are members of Nir Oz in southern Israel, a spokesperson for the kibbutz said in a statement.

Palestinians wait to receive food and humanitarian aid in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza yesterday. Following advice from the Israeli military to move out of northern Gaza, many Palestinians traveled to the city.

Children in the southern Gaza Strip have access to just 1.5 to 2 litres of water each day, "well below the recommended requirements just for survival," the United Nations Children's Fund said in a news release.

“According to humanitarian standards, the minimum amount of water needed in an emergency is 15 litres, which includes water for drinking, washing and cooking. For survival alone, the estimated minimum is 3 litres per day,” the release said.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in the release that access to sufficient amounts of clean water was “a matter of life and death, and children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink.”

A blackout of internet and cellphone service is affecting areas of the southern Gaza Strip, according to NetBlocks, a British company that monitors global connectivity.

“The incident affects areas in the south where telecoms had been partially restored over the last few days,” the company said in a post on X.

A video of two male hostages was released yesterday on Telegram by the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

Gadi Moses, 79, Elad Katzir, 47, were taken captive at kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. Both men were unshaven and appeared to have lost weight.

The pair pleaded for their release in the video, which was heavily edited with words being cut from longer sentences, and Moses described their situation as “unbearable.”

Katzir's mother, Hanna Katzir, 77, was released Nov. 24 as part of a temporary trucee deal.

Hamas’ political leader arrived in Cairo today to discuss developments with Egyptian officials, a statement on the militant group's website said.

Egypt, along with Qatar — where Haniyeh is believed to be based — helped mediate a weeklong truce in November in which Hamas released more than 100 hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 240 Palestinian prisoners, including women and minors.

Hamas said Haniyeh would discuss the war but provided no further details on what the talks would entail.

A group of Democratic lawmakers who served in the military or CIA are urging the Biden White House to pressure Israel into changing its approach in Gaza. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., joins "Morning Joe" to discuss.

A Palestinian woman stands outside the ruins of a building in Rafah, in southern Gaza, this morning after it was struck by an Israeli bombardment.

Pro-Israel and humanitarian artists in Los Angeles have plastered an office building with “bring them home” posters and signage in an effort to increase support for freeing hostages still held by Hamas militants in Gaza.

The project in Culver City, a municipality on L.A. County’s westside, is the result of the building’s occupant, television production company Ample Entertainment, teaming up with the nonprofit groups Artists for Israel and Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The display features massive banners that feature the words “#BRINGTHEMHOMENOW” and “KIDNAPPED,” as well as oversize, vinyl missing persons posters featuring photos of 173 people abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“We dare you to try to take this down,” Artists for Israel CEO Craig Dershowitz told NBC Los Angeles. He was referring to a spate of incidents in which people have been captured on video ripping down “bring them home” posters.

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