At least 79 Americans have exited into Egypt as Biden calls for 'pause' to get hostages out of Gaza

WASHINGTON — As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens and the death toll among Palestinian civilians continues to rise, there is growing concern among top Biden administration officials, according to two current and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the internal discussions.

The concerns deal with how Israel is waging the war and uncertainty about whether they can be reined in, the officials said.

Biden and his top aides have in the past week adjusted the administration’s public message to emphasize concern for Palestinian civilians and U.S. efforts to get them humanitarian relief.

“If this really goes bad, we want to be able to point to our past statements,” a senior U.S. official said.

 The official said the administration is particularly worried about a narrative taking hold that Biden supports all Israeli military actions and that U.S.-provided weapons have been used to kill Palestinian civilians, many of them women and children.

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Residents dug through the rubble searching for survivors after an apparent airstrike destroyed buildings at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Thirteen Democrats in the Senate on Thursday night called for “a short-term cessation of hostilities that pose high-risk to civilians, aid workers and humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza.”

President Biden on Wednesday said there should be a “pause” in order to allow more time to try and get hostages freed and out of Gaza.

The U.S. is not calling for a full-scale cease-fire at this time, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said. Kirby said a cease-fire benefits Hamas. Israel has rejected calls for a cease-fire.

Kirby said today that they do advocate for localized pauses to get Americans out of Gaza or to get aid in.

The letter from the 13 Democratic senators identified three reasons for pauses, including delivering aid, focusing on hostages, and “opportunity for broader discussion amongst Israeli and Palestinian leadership” about long-term strategies for peace.

“The failure to adequately protect non-combatant civilians risks dramatic escalation of the conflict in the region and imposes severe damage on prospects for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians," they said in the letter.

“Based on the consensus opinion of U.S. and international aid officials, it is nearly impossible to deliver sufficient humanitarian aid to protect civilian life under current conditions,” the letter reads.

More than 70 Palestinian Americans passed through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt today as many U.S. citizens are still trapped in Gaza while Israel continues its ground offensive targeting Hamas.

The director general of the World Health Organization said today that the horror unfolding in Gaza is reaching a point where it is hard to describe, and he said there needs to be at least a humanitarian pause in fighting.

“We’re running out of words to describe the horror unfolding in Gaza,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing.

He said that 14 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are nonfunctional, that patients are crammed in hallways and that doctors are performing surgery without anesthesia.

Tedros said there needs to be hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day to support humanitarian needs. Around 500 trucks entered Gaza every day before the war, but since Oct. 7 there have been just 217, he said.

“It’s too late to help the dead now. But we can help the living,” he said.

“At the very least, we need a humanitarian pause in the fighting, and ideally a cease-fire,” he said.

Israel has rejected calls for a cease-fire. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said the U.S. believes a cease-fire only benefits Hamas, but he has said localized pauses, such as to get humanitarian aid in or hostages out, should be explored.

Hezbollah said that today it attacked “nineteen Zionist military sites and points with guided missiles, artillery shells, and direct weapons, and they achieved direct hits.”

Hezbollah, the militant group in Lebanon to Israel’s north, made the claim through its military media.

The Israel Defense Forces said that it does not comment on foreign reports.

The IDF said on social media earlier today that there had been a number of launches from Lebanon at Israeli territory, adding, “In response, the IDF is currently striking a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon.”

The U.S. military is flying unarmed drone flights over Gaza to help with hostage recovery, two U.S. officials said. 

The MQ-9 Reaper drones have been flying since after the Oct. 7 attacks, the officials said. The officials were not aware of any previous times U.S. military drones have flown missions over Gaza. 

The officials would not say where the drones are flying out of, citing operational security. 

The New York Times first reported the use of drones.

A video appears to show a group of Palestinian men being abused by Israeli soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces told NBC News that the conduct is “deplorable” and that it is investigating.

It's not clear when or where the incident took place.

Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians is sharply increasing after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7.

Four of its shelters were hit in the last 24 hours, the UNRWA says, causing several deaths and injuries.

“Today, a school-turned shelter was damaged at the Jabalia Refugee Camp, the largest in the Gaza Strip, reportedly killing at least 20 people and injuring five," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a statement.

"Earlier today, another school at Beach Refugee Camp was also damaged, with a child reportedly killed. Both locations are in the north of the Gaza Strip," the statement continued.

“Further south, two schools-turned-shelters in the Al Bureij Refugee Camp were hit. Two people were reportedly killed and 31 injured," it said.

Altogether, the shelters hosted nearly 20,000 refugees, according to recent UNRWA estimates.

The United Nations Intern Force in Lebanon said today that two projectiles landed and exploded yesterday 30 feet from one of its peacekeeping positions near Bayt Lif in south Lebanon, causing "minor damage" to some vehicles.

No one was injured, as personnel were in their bunkers at the time.

"UNIFIL reiterates its great concern that our positions are being hit in the exchange of fire, putting peacekeepers and any civilians who may be seeking shelter there at risk," the U.N. arm said on X.

The UNIFIL monitors ongoing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon and ensures humanitarian access to the civilian population.

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House passed a bill today that would provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel as it wages war against Hamas, but Democrats say it’s dead on arrival in the Senate, and Biden has vowed to veto it.

The Republican proposal would also rescind funds for the IRS in the same amount from funding approved in last year’s climate, health and tax law.

Democrats said the IRS cuts amounted to a poison pill, as the money was intended to amp up enforcement and catch tax cheats. A new Congressional Budget Office report says the overall measure would add nearly $27 billion to the deficit.

Biden and Senate Democrats are backing a broader approach, pushing for $106 billion for both Israel and Ukraine aid and humanitarian aid for Gaza, as well as funding for U.S. border operations, in one package.

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Israel’s political and security Cabinet has decided to deduct from Palestinian Authority funds that were due to go to Gaza, the government said in a statement.

“Israel cuts off all contact with Gaza,” the government press office said in a statement. “There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza and the workers who were in Israel on the day the war broke out will be returned to Gaza.”

ASHDOD, Israel — Israeli forces have "completed the encirclement of Gaza City," Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

Armored forces, infantry and the air force were "attacking launching positions and terrorist infrastructures used by the Hamas leadership," he said, adding that engineering forces were locating "charges and obstacles on the ground."

He said "face-to-face" battles were unfolding as the IDF moves "with full force against Hamas in the Gaza Strip."

The "concept of a cease-fire," he said, "is currently not on the table at all."

As antisemitic and anti-Muslim threats grow on college campuses across the U.S., the federal agency tasked with helping schools prepare to respond to physical attacks is swamped with requests for help — but it doesn’t have enough people to meet the demand quickly.

The Biden administration announced Monday it was stepping up its response to such incidents with an action plan that included 125 protective security advisers from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Their job is to visit college campuses and advise them on how to make them safer from physical attacks.

The number is not an increase from what the agency previously had on hand to help schools, houses of worship and other entities considered vulnerable critical infrastructure around the country, an agency spokesperson said. The protective agents are used not as on-site security agents but as consultants who can help colleges or other campuses, including K-12 schools, identify their physical vulnerabilities. A separate group of 100 advisers is tasked with protecting those potential targets from cyberthreats.

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WASHINGTON — House Republicans hope to pass a bill today that would provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel as it wages war against Hamas, but Democrats say it’s dead on arrival in the Senate, and Biden has vowed to veto the measure.

The bill, championed by newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is narrow in scope, pairing Israel aid with $14.3 billion in cuts to IRS funding that was approved through Biden’s sweeping 2022 climate, health and tax law.

The slim GOP majority may not get much help from Democrats, who mostly say they favor aid to Israel but plan to vote against the bill because of the IRS cuts, which they decry as a poison pill. The IRS funding was designed to amp up enforcement and catch tax cheats, bringing in more revenue; Democrats point to a new Congressional Budget Office report that says the overall measure would add nearly $27 billion to the deficit.

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ASHDOD, Israel — Israeli forces are pushing in through the outskirts of Gaza City, Netanyahu said today.

“We are on the outskirts of Gaza City and are advancing with determination,” he said at a news conference.

Earlier, he visited the IDF Marom Brigade. Addressing the soldiers, he said Israeli forces had already had "very impressive successes."

"I want to make one thing clear — nothing will stop us," he said.

IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi separately said troops were encircling Gaza City from "several directions, increasing our entries, as well as our achievements."

Blinken said before a trip to Israel and Jordan that "Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself and also to take steps to try to make sure that this never happens again." He also mentioned the need to protect "Palestinian civilians" during the conflict.

Regarding humanitarian aid, Blinken said 50 to 60 trucks a day are going into Gaza. He added that "we need that and want that to increase, and I expect you'll see that in the coming days." He added that "we're intensely focused every single day" on securing the release of hostages.

Blinken ended his comments by stressing the importance of setting the best conditions for "durable, sustainable peace" and security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said in an interview with NBC News’ Matt Bradley that his people have a “legal right to fight occupation” and will continue to do so.

The White House has not yet seen any indication that Hezbollah is prepared to enter the Israel-Gaza conflict, but emphasized its concerns about the possibility of the war spreading, said spokesperson John Kirby.

When asked about the airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp, Kirby also said he would not answer for Israel's targeting decisions in Gaza.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health released a statement announcing the reception of a group of 21 Palestinians coming through the Rafah crossing. Medical exams were given to 344 foreign nationals, including 72 children, before entry as well.

Dr. Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population in Egypt, "stressed the continued intensive work by the medical teams at the Ministry of Health, in coordination with all concerned authorities, to receive the injured and provide them with the best diagnostic and therapeutic services necessary."

The White House says 55 additional trucks with food, medicine and other supplies made it into Gaza today via the Rafah crossing, bringing the total number of aid trucks that have arrived in Gaza to 220. White House spokesperson John Kirby said the president is aware that this is "not enough" and is working to secure more aid.

Kirby also thanked governments in Qatar and Egypt for their assistance in getting Americans held in Gaza across to Egypt today. He said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo has deployed a consular team to the Rafah crossing.

"We believe that the vast majority of Americans in Gaza have made it down there [to Rafah]," said Kirby. "We aren't aware of American families that are trying to get down there but can't."

Kirby reiterated the White House's commitment to secure multiple humanitarian pauses to aid the release of hostages and to provide supplies to the people of Gaza. He emphasized that pauses would not mean a full cease-fire.

"When we're talking about humanitarian pause, what we're talking about is temporary, localized pauses in the fighting to meet specific goals," said Kirby.

Kirby said questions about the airstrike on the Jabalia camp, or the IDF's practices in Gaza, should be answered by Israel, not the White House.

United Nations experts warn that time is running out to prevent genocide in Gaza. “We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide,” they said. “The time for action is now. Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action,” the experts said.

They expressed "deepening horror" about Israeli airstrikes against the Jabalia refugee camp since Tuesday night, calling it "a brazen violation of international law." The experts further said, "Attacking a camp sheltering civilians including women and children is a complete breach of the rules of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians."

During her visit to London, Vice President Kamala Harris declined to weigh in on Israel's bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying, "We are not telling Israel how it should conduct this war, and so I'm not going to speak to that."

She also pledged her support for the right of Palestinians fleeing the war to return home: "Let me be unequivocally clear: The people who have been forced out have a right to return home, and there should be no forced displacement, no forced migration, and that's it."

According to a senior administration official, at least 79 Americans and family members exited through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Five of them exited yesterday, while the other 74 exited today. Today's number will continue to grow as the U.S. administration gathers more information about where the Americans are currently situated.

Ahead of his meeting with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader in the Oval Office, President Biden said at the very end that these 74 Americans are dual citizens. "Good news, we got, we got out today 74 American folks out that are dual citizens coming home," he said.

Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate has ramped up its news broadcasts to reach the Iranian diaspora and even viewers inside Iran, as well as global viewers in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

“Maintaining a continuous flow of information is one of our primary goals,” said Moshik Aviv, head of the diplomacy directorate.

The focus on Iranian news consumers comes after the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people. Hamas is heavily funded by Iran.

The Farsi broadcaster is Beni Sabti, 51, an Iranian Israeli who fled Iran as a child with his family after the bloody revolution.

“We want to talk to the Iranian people directly without censorship and with accurate data to tell them about the killings and murder by Hamas and paint an accurate picture,” Sabti said.

The newscasts are produced by American film producer Guy Ross from Los Angeles. Ross happened to be visiting family in Israel on Oct. 7. He and a team of about 30 volunteers are working around the clock to produce the news packages in coordination with the directorate.

“When you’re confronted with the materials and what happened, it’s shocking and reinforces the cause for which we are volunteering here,” Ross said.

According to Israeli police, a rocket hit the Rishon LeZion area, causing property damage. There are no known causalities at this time. Law enforcement in the region are working to isolate the site and searching for debris. Rishon LeZion is about 13 miles south of Tel Aviv.

"We urge residents to stay in protected spaces, avoid approaching impact sites, and refrain from touching rocket debris, as they may contain explosive materials," a police spokesperson said. "Please report any findings without delay to the Israel Police’s 100 emergency hotline."

While standing in front of armed, uniformed IDF soldiers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a video message to troops in the field, telling them that as they advance into Gaza, nothing will stop them.

"We will move forward. We will advance and win, and we will do it with God’s help and with the help of our heroic warriors," Netanyahu said. "I trust you, I believe in you. The people of Israel stand behind you — until victory."

A former national security adviser for Israel, retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, says a cease-fire would be a “huge mistake” for Israel.

His comments come after President Biden suggested a "pause" to help get hostages out of Gaza.

"An offensive has a momentum, and if you stop the momentum, to renew it is very costly, and it gives the other side time to reorganize,” Amidror said in a telephone interview from Israel today.

He said a war offensive can still account for a narrow corridor to take people through to get hostages out of Gaza and said a cease-fire would be “devastating” for Israel’s war effort to root out Hamas.

IDF troops are encircling Gaza City from several directions and are engaged in a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip, IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said. He said forces are supported by fire from the air and the sea, adding that the portion of the air force in the Gaza Strip is "less than half" of its total strength.

"The soldiers are fighting in an urban, crowded and complex area that necessitates fighting in a very professional and courageous way," Halevi said.

Halevi also described the overnight rescue operation to bring home IDF soldier Ori Megidish, who was held hostage by Hamas. He reaffirmed a deep commitment to bring home all the hostages in Gaza.

Dr. Barbara Zind, a Colorado pediatrician who was working in Gaza City with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, told MSNBC it took 12 hours to go from Gaza’s side of the Rafah crossing to safety in Cairo yesterday after the border opened.

In the past few weeks, Zind said she migrated south from Gaza City after the war broke out to three different United Nations centers where a variety of aid workers took safety. But southern Gaza was not a safe refuge, as there were constant missiles and rockets being exchanged nearby, Zind said.

And while conditions were bleak for the aid workers, they were even worse for the people of Gaza.

"The local Gazans who were living adjacent to where we were, they weren't getting water. I mean, we were limited on water; we'd run out of water for hygiene. ... They ran out long before we did," Zind said. "And they were running out of drinking water."

TEL AVIV — Families of those taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 gathered in Tel Aviv today to call on the Israeli government to do more to secure the release of their loved ones.

Demonstrators sat on the floor wearing red blindfolds with their hands zip-tied as they sought to keep the national focus on the effort to see those taken hostage freed.

"I need my four loved ones with me," said Inbar Goldstein, who has four relatives confirmed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, while others were killed in the Oct. 7 attack.

Goldstein, 35, said she hoped that by attending the event, she could "keep this discussion alive here in Israel."

"If we want the national morale to raise again, then we need them here," she said of those taken hostage. "They are the future."

Three Massachusetts residents and four New Jersey residents departed Gaza and entered Egypt safely through the Rafah crossing this morning. Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda and their 1-year-old son Yousef Okal are currently being transported to Cairo by the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs. They are with their New Jersey relatives, Haneen Okal and her three children.

The Okal family's lawyer told NBC Boston that they are exhausted, but overwhelmed with the love and support they have received from home and abroad. They also expressed their gratitude toward elected officials who fought for their return, and the State Department for providing them with safe departure. 

The Okal family asked for privacy during their return to their home in Medway, Massachusetts. They also expressed their hopes for "compassion and prayers for the innocent civilians in Gaza, who gave them shelter, who helped them find food and water, but who continue to be without their own supply of food, water, fuel, or medicine to live."

In the coastal Palestinian city of Deir al-Balah today, people made use of seawater to both wash clothes and bring home. Safe, clean water is in critically short supply throughout the Gaza Strip.

What will happen to the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip? That question, fraught with historical trauma and fears of the future, has hung in the suffocating air of the besieged enclave as Israel intensifies its aerial bombardment and ground assault.

Now, a paper by an Israeli government ministry proposing that Palestinians in Gaza be transferred to Egypt’s Sinai Desert has raised the specter of a long-standing but highly contentious idea of forced displacement. 

The proposal has drawn widespread outrage in the Arab world and has been denounced by Palestinian leaders. President Joe Biden said Sunday that he had spoken to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and that they had discussed “ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza are not displaced to Egypt or any other nation.”

Israel has downplayed the seriousness of the paper, but with Gazans’ fragile future the subject of its advancing military and furious global diplomacy, the idea does at least appear to be the subject of ongoing discussion. 

Read the full story here.

AIN EBEL, Lebanon — The church bells still ring in Ain Ebel, but there’s hardly anyone left to hear them.

The small Christian village of about 1,500 is only a few miles from Lebanon’s border with Israel — an island in an ocean of mostly Shiite Muslims governed by the dominant militant group, Hezbollah.

As cross-border shelling between Hezbollah and Israel has increased over the past few weeks, the majority of the women and children have fled, mostly to Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

That has left mostly adult men, about 40% of the population, and an eerie silence along empty streets lined with shuttered shops and restaurants.

The men who remain say they’re here to protect their homes from thieves. But they also answer to a deeper calling: Like so many vulnerable communities throughout the Middle East, they worry that leaving their homes could invite a kind of cleansing of the region’s only bastion of Christian identity — that abandoning their homes could allow their Shiite neighbors to swallow Ain Ebel whole.

Read the full story here.

Speaker Mike Johnson reaffirmed House Republicans' commitment to passing legislation for aid to Israel and rejected calls for a cease-fire.

"There was a cease-fire. It was before Oct. 7 and Hamas broke it," Johnson said in his first news briefing as speaker. "Israel doesn't need a cease-fire. It needs its allies to cease with the politics and deliver support now."

Johnson said he intends to cut government spending and reduce the size of the federal government to pay for American aid to Israel.

MAINZ, Germany — The Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has been banned by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser over allegations that the group glorifies terrorism and perpetuates antisemitism.

"The organizing of spontaneous 'jubilation celebrations' here in Germany in response to the terrible terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel shows Samidoun’s antisemitic, inhumane worldview in a particularly disgusting way," Faeser said.

Samidoun said in a statement to NBC News that allegations of antisemitism or glorification of terrorism are entirely false and described it as a "racist assault" on Palestinians and Arabs.

"This attack should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation," the group said.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense and finance ministers clashed yesterday over whether some West Bank tax revenues should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, underlining the tensions straining the government as Israeli forces push on with the war in Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians in parts of the West Bank under direct Israeli control to be disbursed without delay.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose hard-line religious nationalist party has strong support among Jewish settlers in the West Bank, responded that Gallant was making a “serious mistake” in demanding the release of the funds.

Under interim peace accords, the Israeli Finance Ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, but there have been constant wrangles over the arrangement.

Palestinians sift through the smoldering rubble of destroyed buildings at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza today.

BLETCHLEY, England — British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told NBC News today that the opening of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza was a “positive step.”

Speaking at the AI Safety Summit in the United Kingdom, he said the situation was “fragile” and “in order to continue having British nationals and other foreign nationals leaving Gaza, we will need to maintain this fragile coalition.” 

 Overnight, he said he had talked to his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry. He added that the U.K. had been speaking directly with people who have influence over the situation and through “intermediaries.” 

“We have been calling for these humanitarian pauses, temporary, localized to facilitate the evacuation of foreign nationals, including British nationals, and to help facilitate the inward movement of humanitarian aid. They have proven to be incredibly difficult to achieve,” he added.

A former Israeli military intelligence chief has criticized Netanyahu’s judgment during the war with Hamas.

Amos Malka told the 103FM radio station that Netanyahu had a tendency to play the “blame game” and disengage from responsibility, according to a post on X from the outlet quoting the interview.

“If he has the time to deal with whether the investigative committee will be a government or state committee, I say that he is not focused on the management of the fighting, but on survival,” Malka said.

As the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened to civilians for a second day, foreign passport holders stuck in the enclave flocked to the border to see if their names were on the list for today’s expected evacuations.

WASHINGTON — Biden was not announcing a new policy when he told a protester in Minnesota that he thought a “pause” was needed, a White House official told NBC News today.

The official said that Biden's comments last night emphasized his belief that to facilitate the release of additional hostages, a temporary cease-fire — or pause — would be necessary.

Biden, the official said, helped to convince Netanyahu to halt airstrikes for a short period in an area of Gaza to allow the transfer of two American Israeli hostages, Natalie and Judith Raanan.

The Biden administration has called for a pause in order to allow more humanitarian aid to enter, first called for by Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, and for a pause to allow for hostages to be released.

Palestinians use donkey-drawn carts for transportation amid fuel shortages in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip today.

The Rafah crossing opened to civilians yesterday, allowing people with foreign passports to finally depart Gaza, but many are still struggling to make the journey into Egypt.

Jammal Qaoud, an American passport holder, said he'd been waiting hours fighting to get into the border crossing even as Israeli airstrikes in Gaza continue nearby.

"Just about an hour ago, you heard the problem, a bomb came down and almost exploded everything," Qaoud said. "I have a heart condition, it’s like you know, it can collapse any time. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just trying to get to the other side and be safe.”

Ward Abu Shaaban and her daughter went to Rafah with their American passports, but her husband may have to remain behind. "My husband doesn't have a passport, he has papers submitted but he still didn't get his passport," Shaaban said. "I am pregnant. I want to get out. How am I supposed to get out without my husband?"

WASHINGTON — A threat by a senior Hamas official to repeatedly attack Israel was called “chilling” today by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Ghazi Hamad told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation that the militant group would repeat the Oct. 7 attack “time and again until Israel is annihilated.”

Kirby told reporters that everyone should pay attention and take such “chilling comments” seriously. “That’s what’s at stake for the people of Gaza — that Hamas is willing to continue this fight and will continue to try to slaughter innocent Israelis,” he said.

A total of 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement today.

Among those killed are 3,760 children killed in Gaza and more than 2,300 women, the ministry said.

NBC News has not independently verified these numbers.

Israeli soldiers are fighting face to face with Hamas militants in Gaza as the operation in the strip is progressing “as planned,” a spokesperson for the country’s military said today.

“The fighters continue to collapse the defense lines of Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip and take control of central areas,” Hagari told a news conference. “We continue to intensify the activity and move forward according to the plan and goals we have set for ourselves.”

One battle lasted “several hours” overnight as part of the ground operations, with air defenses offering support, he said.

A young boy peers through a countertop window as civilians leaving Gaza are processed at the Rafah border point with Egypt today.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Two hospitals in northern Gaza have run out of power because of fuel shortages, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported today.

The main power generator at the Indonesian Hospital, where victims of Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp were taken, is empty, the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the Turkish hospital, the only facility dedicated to cancer treatment in the enclave, has also ceased operations.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca later posted on X that his country was ready to support the cancer patients at the hospital. “The only option other than saving the lives of patients is to knowingly let them die,” he said.

NBC News has obtained a new list of foreign passport holders who will be allowed to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt.

It suggests that more than 370 Americans are set to leave the enclave via the Rafah border crossing today. The Gaza Crossings and Borders Authority confirmed the list's authenticity.

However, an NBC News review of the document found some duplicate names. At least one was of an American who was confirmed to have been evacuated yesterday.

At least 195 people were killed in two Israeli strikes in two days on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Hamas said in a Telegram post today.

Another 120 people are considered missing under rubble and 777 others were wounded, the post said. NBC News has not been able to independently verify these numbers.

The Israeli military said both strikes were targeting senior Hamas commanders.

Dr. Atef al-Kahlout, director of the Indonesian Hospital, told a news conference Tuesday that 400 people were either killed or injured in the first strike. It is unclear how many casualties there were in the second strike yesterday.

Relatives mourn lost family members outside the Nasser Hospital morgue in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, ahead of their burial today.

TEL AVIV — The number of hostages recorded by Israel has risen to 242, a military spokesperson told a briefing this morning.

Although a trickle of hostages have been released or freed, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that the number of families notified had ticked up again because of a complex counting and verification process.

The fate of the captives has heaped pressure on the Israeli government.

Hagari said, “We are committed to the national mission of returning everyone home.”

As many as 20 Australians, one permanent resident and two family members have successfully crossed from Gaza into Egypt today, Australian officials said.

“I can’t describe the situation there ... no one, no human being can handle this,” Mona Sakr, who left Gaza via the Rafah border crossing, told SBS Arabic News. “I’m very sad that all at the same time because I’m leaving my family behind with no food, no water and in a very scary situation,” she added.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said today that she was “relieved and grateful this cohort was able to cross.” She added that arrangements were being made for “them to get home free of charge.”

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts told ABC's "News Breakfast" that his government was aware of 65 Australians who are still in Gaza. “We are continuing to push for them to be able to make that passage across the Rafah crossing as soon as possible,” he said.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, social media users have been discussing the way Israel is labeled on Chinese-language online maps. Commenters note that Israel’s country name does not always appear on maps published by privately owned companies, such as the internet search giant Baidu, even though the names of neighboring countries, as well as key cities in Israel and elsewhere, are clearly marked.

China, which is known for its sensitivity around maps, particularly when it comes to the Beijing-claimed island of Taiwan, has tried to balance its relations with Israelis and Palestinians in the current conflict, and has been criticized for its refusal to explicitly condemn Hamas.

But the inconsistent depictions of Israel on Chinese-language maps do not appear to be a new phenomenon. In social media posts seen by NBC News, Chinese internet users have been discussing it as far back as 2015, with some commenters suggesting it could be a technical issue.

Asked about it this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted that China and Israel have full diplomatic relations, and that Israel “is clearly marked on the standard maps issued by the Chinese competent authorities.”

In a statement, Baidu Maps said, “Where space is limited, our maps may not display the names or flags of some territories. Users can find corresponding countries or areas on Baidu Maps by simply using the map’s search function.”  

The Israeli strikes on Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in Gaza, "cannot become the new normal," UNICEF said in a statement that once again called for a humanitarian cease-fire.

“Attacks of this scale on densely populated residential neighborhoods can have indiscriminate effects and are completely unacceptable,” the statement said. “Refugees and internally displaced people are protected under international humanitarian law.”

The organization went on to say that the "killing and captivity of children must stop."

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck the camp in a targeted attack on a Hamas official and blamed Hamas for building its infrastructure under civilian buildings. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured, according to a local hospital

After she defeated America’s Coco Gauff at the WTA Finals in Mexico yesterday, Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur tearfully told the crowd that she would donate part of her prize money “to help Palestinians."

Although she was pleased to win, she said in her post-match interview, “the situation in the world doesn’t make me happy,” adding that she felt “hopeless” watching videos and photos taken during the war.

“It’s very tough seeing children, babies dying every day,” Jabeur said. “It’s heartbreaking. So I’ve decided to donate part of my prize money to help the Palestinians. I cannot be happy with just this win, with what is happening.”

A combination image shows an overview of the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday, and the destruction in the same camp after it was hit by an Israeli strike.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Egypt is working to evacuate about 7,000 people from southern Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement this morning.

The statement said that people from "more than 60 countries" would be among those allowed to cross.

Evacuations began through the crossing yesterday for the first time since Israel imposed a siege and started airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave after the Hamas attack Oct. 7.

Some injured civilians crossed into Egypt and hundreds of foreign passport holders, including some American, were allowed to leave.

It’s estimated that 1.4 million people are currently displaced in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said in a statement today.

That would mean that more than half of the enclave's population of 2.3 million people had been uprooted from their homes.

The UNRWA statement added that an estimated 160,000 people are housed in 57 shelters in the north and in Gaza City, where the bulk of the Israeli airstrikes have taken place.

At a campaign event in Minnesota yesterday, Biden was interrupted by a protester calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Just as Biden was explaining how the deadly rally by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, inspired him to run for office again, he was interrupted.

“Mr. President, you care about Jewish people. As a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” said a woman who later identified herself to NBC News as Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. Rosenberg is part of the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace.

The crowd tried to drown her out, but Biden addressed Rosenberg: “I think we need a pause.”

Read the full story here.

Hundreds of more people with foreign passports, including Americans, were expected to make it out of Gaza today. Crowds were gathering this morning at the border crossing as they wait for permission to leave.

• Hamas is hoarding vast amounts of fuel as Gaza hospitals run low, U.S. officials say
• As he visits Minnesota, local Muslim leaders say they will ‘abandon Biden’
• The Gaza crisis is stoking antisemitism in the U.S.
• Amy Schumer gets response from MLK’s daughter after tweeting video of his support for Israel
• Why can’t Facebook stop Hamas from posting grisly videos of the killing of Israeli civilians?
• Sen. John Fetterman faces a left-wing backlash over his stance on Israel. He isn’t budging.
• First civilians leave Gaza through Rafah border crossing into Egypt