Deal for release of hostages held by Hamas may be taking shape

SINGAPORE/CAPE TOWN/LONDON — The re-routing of a growing number of ships around Africa to avoid potential attacks in the Red Sea is altering refueling patterns and boosting demand for bunker fuel at far-flung ports, from the Mauritius to South Africa to the Canary Islands.

Ships are also expected to top up more at Singapore and Rotterdam, the two busiest bunkering ports and where fuel is competitively priced, as they try to hedge against uncertainty over route changes, traders and analysts said.

The attacks by the Iran-allied Houthis, which they say are in support of Palestinians, target a route that accounts for about 15% of the world’s shipping traffic and acts as a vital conduit between Europe and Asia. Hundreds of large vessels have rerouted around the southern tip of Africa, adding 10-14 days of travel, to avoid drone and missile attacks by the Houthis.

“Ships are diverting away from the Red Sea and re-routing around the coast of South and West Africa — this increased traffic has created huge congestion in bunkering ports around Africa and placed significant pressure on port infrastructure,” John A. Bassadone, founder and CEO of independent bunker supplier Peninsula, told Reuters.

Bunker fuel demand has risen at ports including Mauritius’ Port Louis, Gibraltar and ports in the Canary Islands and South Africa, said traders and industry sources, with sales jumping in Cape Town and Durban.

\Weather-related disruption at ports in northern Europe and the diversion of vessels away from the Red Sea are causing congestion at container terminals, A.P. Moller-Maersk said in an update to customers today.

Maersk and other shipping groups have diverted vessels away from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden following attacks by Yemen’s Houthis, sending them on a long journey around Africa rather than through the Suez Canal shortcut.

Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great-aunt of 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war with Hamas to keep himself in office, thwarting potential deals to release the more than 100 hostages who remain in Gaza.

Naftali made the remarks during a news conference today on Capitol Hill, where hostages' loved ones spoke alongside U.S. senators. She cited the November hostage exchange deal that secured Abigail's release as evidence that negotiations work and noted that hostage families are frustrated at the lack of movement toward a new agreement.

"What I want to take a moment to talk about is that this hold-up is really not with the U.S. or with the Qataris," Naftali said. "This holdup is with the Netanyahu government."

She accused Netanyahu of being unwilling to agree to the terms that would make more hostage releases possible, saying that the war is "too long" and that "too many lives are at stake."

"He wants to keep this war going to remain in office," she said. "And we need Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to stop making this priority himself but to make this priority the return of the hostages through a deal."

The image of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh has been replicated in a mural in Dublin by an artist known for depicting pro-Palestinian causes.

Emmalene Blake, a Dublin-based artist, posted the portrait of Dahdouh to Instagram and thanked the journalist for "relentlessly showing the world" what is happening in Gaza.

Since the war began on Oct. 7, Dahdouh has lost his wife, two sons, a 7-year-old daughter and a grandson in Israeli airstrikes, but he continues his work as a journalist. He was also injured in a blast that killed his colleague and was recently flown to Qatar to receive medical treatment.

"I cannot begin to imagine the pain, trauma and grief this man is going through," Blake wrote. "And after each blow he has taken, he got straight back in front of the camera, stood strong and informed us about the atrocities Israel is committing. The strength is incomprehensible, and is a strength no human should have to possess.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the U.S. and U.K. governments are violating international law by attacking Houthi targets in Yemen.

During his annual news conference, Lavrov insisted that the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Houthi attacks in the Red Sea did not "grant any right to bomb Yemen." He also criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken for remarking that countries in the Middle East desire a U.S. presence.

"We know of at least one country that doesn’t want it — it’s Iraq, which already a couple years ago said that it wants U.S. forces to leave, but Washington did not make any moves," Lavrov said. "So a diplomatic dialogue is essential to solve problems."

Lavrov also told reporters that the two countries must stop their aggression in Yemen as “the more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis are to talk,” according to Agence France Presse.

Israel became one of the leading countries imprisoning journalists following the outbreak of violence on Oct. 7, as the number of jailed members of the media globally approached an all-time high, the Committee to Protect Journalists found.

Israel ranked sixth in a tie with Iran, after China, Myanmar, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam, the New York-based nonprofit organization said.

“Israel’s standing in CPJ’s 2023 prison census is evidence that a fundamental democratic norm — press freedom — is fraying as Israel exploits draconian methods to silence Palestinian journalists,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement. “This practice must stop.”

About 320 journalists were in prison on Dec. 1, 2023 — a decrease from 360 in 2022 — reaching the second-highest number on record since the group began the census in 1992, CPJ said.

Over 65% of the journalists behind bars face “anti-state charges such as false news and terrorism in retaliation for their critical coverage,” the group added.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats aggressively pushed back Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has informed the U.S. that he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state at the conclusion of the war in Gaza.

A key lawmaker, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., warned that Netanyahu’s remarks could complicate delicate bipartisan negotiations in the Senate on a supplemental package that calls for military aid for Israel coupled with immigration measures and aid for Ukraine.

“I think when Netanyahu says things like that, it does not help win votes from people who are skeptical about the future of a Palestinian state,” Murphy, the Democrats’ top negotiator on the package, told reporters. “That statement is not helpful and, yes, we’re going to need to get … a lot of Democratic votes to pass this.”

Progressives in the Senate, who’ve already been critical of Israel’s military assault in Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians, openly questioned whether the U.S. should continue to send aid to Israel. The close U.S. ally launched its military campaign after Hamas carried out a brazen terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,000 people.

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DAVOS, Switzerland — Saudi Arabia is working with the White House and the United Nations to "reach a roadmap for peace in Yemen" as it hopes to calm tensions in the Middle East, according to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.

"We all need to work towards de-escalation," he told NBC News. "The region is already in turmoil. Our message to everyone, including to our neighbors in Iran, is that we need to work towards de-escalation."

The war in Yemen has been something of a proxy battle between the Saudi and Iranian governments, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels fought to overthrow the Yemeni government in 2014 and Saudi Arabia backed the established regime as a civil war broke out. Saudi Arabia sent a delegation to meet with Houthi officials last year in the hopes of establishing a permanent cease-fire.

The Houthis are now actively attacking vessels in the Red Sea it believes to be supporting Israel, assaults it has said will continue until Israel ends its siege on Gaza.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Iran today as "the head of the octopus," blaming the regime for the actions of both the Houthis and Hamas.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have no intention of standing down in the Red Sea, with leader Abdulmalik Badr El-Din al-Houthi saying today that "aggression will not change anything" regarding the group's position in support of Palestinians.

Al-Houthi said in a speech that it was an "honor" to fight against Israel, the U.S. and British forces, as the group continually attacks shipping vessels in the Red Sea that it believes support Israel. He also criticized the U.S. as being morally bankrupt and a sponsor of "Zionist crime."

"America is putting all its enormous and advanced capabilities and international influence into the aggression against the Palestinian people, to whom only simple weapons are available," he said.

The speech came just a day after another group leader, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, told NBC News that the Yemeni group would “still confront America and confront justice and tyranny anywhere.” 

DAVOS, Switzerland — Saudi Arabia is prepared to move to establish normalized diplomatic relations with Israel, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told NBC News, but there also needs to be a "credible pathway" to Palestinian sovereignty, he said.

"I think before Oct. 7 we were making very, very good progress. It’s hard for me to describe how close we were. It’s something I can’t really quantify," Al-Saud said. "We were working towards the Palestinian issue — which was key for us as well — but we were making good progress."

The outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas has delayed the yearslong diplomatic push by the United States to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. aims to build on the Abraham Accords, which were reached under then-President Donald Trump and established relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in 2020.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu equated those talking about the "day after Netanyahu" to people referring to the establishment of a Palestinian state, following a question today about NBC News' report on the U.S. officials hoping to create a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia in exchange for a two-state solution.

The prime minister said the current conflict is not about the absence of a Palestinian state but the "existence of the state of Israel," adding that areas in the region that Israel has vacated have continued hostilities.

"With or without the settlement, the State of Israel must have security control over the entire territory," Netanyahu said. "This conflicts with the idea of sovereignty. I also say this to the U.S. A  prime minister in Israel should be able to say ‘no’ even to our best friends, that's how I drive."

HuffPost reported last week that U.S. officials were concerned about a proposed U.S. plan to establish relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel by leveraging some assistance to Palestinians. A National Security Council spokesperson denied the report at the time.

NBC News reported on the framework today, with one former U.S. official saying that Saudi Arabia’s insistence that any deal bring with it a realistic pathway to a Palestinian state would be seen as contentious among Netanyahu's right-wing coalition. Two Israeli officials also told NBC News that the idea is too premature for the Israeli public to consider, as the nation is still reeling from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and waiting for more than 100 hostages to return home.

Children in Gaza and their families are “suffering some of the most horrific conditions I have ever seen,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said in a statement.

“Since my last visit, the situation has gone from catastrophic to near collapse,” Chaiban said today, having concluded a three-day visit to Gaza.

The director added that the current conflict in Gaza is “a war on children” as 70% of the people killed are reported to be women and children, calling the enclave “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”

“The killing of children must cease immediately,” he said.

Chaiban also called on lifting restrictions on the kinds of aid that are allowed to enter the city, saying the distribution of aid “is a matter of life and death.” He also urged their access to northern Gaza, where the information available to humanitarian agencies is highly restricted.

“We cannot wait any longer for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the daily killing and injuring of children and their families, enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed aid and the safe and unconditional release of the two remaining Israeli children still held hostage in Gaza,” he said in his statement. “This cannot go on.”

A “near-total” blackout of internet and mobile services continued for about 120 hours in Gaza, a London-based internet advocacy group said.

The six-day disruption set a record for the longest sustained telecoms outage since Oct. 7, NetBlocks said in a post on X yesterday.

According to the live metrics the group posted, the internet connectivity has dropped drastically in the whole enclave, from nearly 100% in most regions to 6% to 43%.

Sitting next to the photo of Hamas' youngest hostage, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israelis can't think about peace talks until they know that they won't be attacked by their neighbors again.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Herzog said Kfir Bibas turned 1 in custody today.

Three months ago, he was kidnapped from his kibbutz, Nir Oz, along with his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden.

"His whereabout are known," Herzog said, adding that they know Kfir and his family "are going through hell."

Herzog said that while people in Israel "do not shy away from the fact that the Palestinians are our neighbors," the average Israeli is not thinking about peace agreements because they want to know if they can be promised "real safety" in the future.

"Every Israeli wants to know that he will not be attacked in the same way from north or south or east," he added.

TEL AVIV — Relatives of Kfir Bibas, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, gathered with supporters in Tel Aviv's "Hostage Square" today to mark his first birthday without him as he remains captive in Gaza, along with his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas.

Dozens of orange balloons were released into the sky, some with "Happy birthday" messages and hearts scrawled on them, while performers sang songs, including The Beatles' "Let It Be," in Hebrew.

Shiri Bibas' cousin, Yifat Zailer, said she was devastated that Kfir would be spending his first birthday in captivity. "I didn't know it's even possible to feel this way. I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm depressed. I'm anxious. I'm worried," Zailer, 37, told NBC News. "This is my every day. Every hour. It's a nightmare. And it doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon."

Hamas said in November, without providing evidence, that Kfir, Ariel and Shiri had been killed in an Israeli bombing, while the Israeli Defense Forces said the claims were unverified and accused Hamas of “psychological terrorism.” Zailer said it felt difficult to hold onto hope without certainty over whether her loved ones were safe.

In an emotional speech delivered to a crowd of supporters, Zailer stressed that there was more than "one way" to see her loved ones released — and the other more than 100 people who remain held hostage. She later expanded on her comments, telling NBC News she believed the best way forward was for Israeli leadership to focus on negotiating a hostage deal with Hamas, rather than on applying military pressure. "They should have done this in the first week, when the whole world wanted to help us," she said, adding that she hoped to see the war in Gaza come to an end.

"We appreciate life, not only war and death," she said. "I have every reason to be mad and say, I want everyone dead. And I'm not. Because I believe in humanity."

TEL AVIV — A nurse who has remained at Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after thousands of people fled the facility this week, says just a handful of medical workers are still there, treating the patients who were unable to escape.

"I never left the hospital despite the bombing that happened. I could not leave the patients," Mohammed Qudaih told NBC News in a WhatsApp message today.

He said Khan Younis' main hospital is now "almost completely empty of the displaced," with only a handful of doctors and nurses remaining to treat the patients who couldn't be transferred. He said they have been working "nonstop" to help the injured, adding: "We could not sleep or eat for a very long time."

NBC News’ team on the ground had reported intense bombardment in Khan Younis and Qudaih said thousands of people had fled Al Nasser to seek refuge further south.

NBC News was not immediately able to independently confirm the situation at the hospital, specifically, and the IDF declined to comment on the situation. Video shared on social media that NBC News geolocated to the hospital appeared to show sounds of gunfire in the area, with people running in the vicinity.

DAVOS, Switzerland— Israel is praying that an emergency shipment brought to the Gaza border through Egypt, in a deal arranged by Qatar and France, will reach hostages held by Hamas in the besieged Palestinian enclave, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday.

“We are praying that all the medication .... will reach them, but that’s only the beginning,” Herzog told the World Economic Forum in Davos, sitting next to a picture of the youngest of the 132 hostages, 1-year-old Kfir Bibas.

Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, repeated his government’s stand that the Gaza war must result in the removal of the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas, which carried out a shock cross-border rampage in southern Israel on Oct 7.

While saying he was not shying away from the “human tragedy” inflicted on Gaza civilians, Herzog cast the Israeli offensive as a step toward more peaceful relations with the Palestinians in the future, and as bolstering global security.

The Israeli military has indicated to NBC News that it conducted search and rescue operations, including for the bodies of dead hostages, in a cemetery in Gaza.

Asked to respond to claims made by residents in Gaza that Israeli soldiers had desecrated a cemetery in the southern neighborhood of Khan Younis yesterday, the IDF said in a statement that it is "committed to fulfilling its urgent mission to rescue the hostages, and find and return the bodies of hostages that are held in Gaza."

"When critical intelligence or operational information is received, the IDF conducts precise hostage rescue operations in the specific locations where information indicates that the bodies of hostages may be located," the IDF said in the statement, which was issued today. "The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased. Bodies determined not be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect."

It added: "If not for Hamas’ reprehensible decision to take Israeli men, women, children and babies hostages, the need for such searches for our hostages would not exist."

The population of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza has almost quadrupled during the war to 1.2 million, the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said today.

“There’s very little info about the north Gaza Strip & access remains highly restricted,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a post on X. “In middle areas, overcrowding is claustrophobic, people struggle for food & medicine, feeling cold & damp,” the agency added.

Around 1.9 million people in the enclave have been displaced as of Saturday, according to UNRWA, which added that 150 of its staff have been killed.

Many residents of northern Gaza fled south through designated routes as Israel urged them to flee fighting and bombardment. But strikes have intensified in the south, as the IDF's operation in the north appears to have eased in intensity.

The U.S. carried out new strikes in Yemen to protect cargo ships in the Red Sea. This comes as Pakistan launches retaliatory strikes in Iran.

Families of hostages held a vigil at the U.S. Capitol as they prepare for a meeting at the White House today, trying to keep the spotlight on their loved ones held captive for more than 100 days. 

This photograph, provided by the Indian navy today, shows U.S.-owned ship Genco Picardy, which came under attack yesterday from a bomb-carrying drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden.

Sirens sounded in the coastal city of Eilat in southern Israel today, followed by the Israeli military saying that it had intercepted a target over the Red Sea.

The IDF said the interceptor was launched after identifying a “suspicious aerial target” that was “approaching” Israel, but did not say the source of the target.

“The incident has concluded and there is no risk of a security incident,” it added.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Talks to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas are progressing, three senior diplomats have told NBC News. One of the diplomats said the negotiations were part of a bigger deal that would see the normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"Arab states are in advanced discussions on an initiative to secure a cease-fire and a release of hostages, part of a broader plan that could offer Israel normalization of ties with Arab and Muslim states, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia if [Israel] agreed to irreversible steps to the creation of a Palestinian state," a senior Arab official told NBC News on the condition of anonymity.

A Western diplomat who also spoke on the condition of anonymity told NBC News that a proposal for a "humanitarian pause" lasting between a month or longer, followed by a permanent cease-fire, is on the table.

The initial pause in fighting would enable more hostages to be released, the source said. Two of the diplomats said Hamas was refusing to agree to a deal without the promise of a permanent cease-fire — something that Israeli officials have balked at.

Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said an agreement by Saudi Arabia to take part in the reconstruction of Gaza and officially recognize Israel, "is key to be able to exit the current war in Gaza."

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said such a comprehensive agreement would need to include statehood for the Palestinians.

At least 16 members of a family were among 19 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in the early hours of the morning, staff at el-Najjar Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah told an NBC News crew.

The hospital shared a list of the dead with names of the 16 members of the Al Zamili family — eight of them children and five women, including one who was pregnant. Three people were unidentifiable, according to the staff.

Dr. Talat Barhoum at el-Najjar also confirmed the death toll from the strike in Rafah and said dozens more were wounded, in comments to The Associated Press.

The Palestinian Ministry of Information first mentioned the strike in a statement on their Telegram channel.

"After midnight, Israeli fighter jets targeted an inhabited house for the Al-Zamili family in the Al-Geneina neighborhood in Rafah, east of Gaza Strip, resulting in the tragic death of nearly 16 Palestinians."

NBC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

JERUSALEM — The decision by the U.S. to put Yemen’s Houthis back on its list of specially designated terrorists “won’t change anything in reality,” one of the rebel group’s senior leaders told NBC News yesterday, hours after the sanctions came into effect. 

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi government in Yemen, said the group could “still confront America and confront justice and tyranny anywhere.” 

Speaking before the U.S. military fired another wave of ship and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen, he said that “America should have maintained the reputation that it protects rights and freedoms through its leadership in fighting crime.”

Rather than designate the Houthis as terrorists, al-Houthi said, Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be added to the list because of the situation in Gaza. 

“Our stance is supporting the people of Gaza,” he said. “We are calling for fuel, water, food, medicine, and to stop the aggression on the Gaza people,” he added.

At least nine people were killed after Pakistan carried out strikes against militant targets inside Iran overnight, Iranian state media has said.

The deaths were reported in one of the border villages in the Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran’s southeast, state-run news agency IRNA said. The agency initially reported three women and four children were killed, but later said two men also died as the result of the strikes.

The strikes appeared to be in retaliation for attacks by Tehran days ago against militants on the Pakistani side of the border. Those followed similar Iranian attacks in Iraq and Syria, raising fears of a wider escalation amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement today that the country's military conducted "a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts" in the Sistan-Baluchestan province. It said the attack was a demonstration of Pakistan's "unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats," while adding that it fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran.

The Israeli military said it killed about 60 "terrorists" in the Gaza Strip over the past day, including 40 in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The IDF said its troops conducted a targeted raid on the residence of a "terrorist" in the city, where a number of weapons were located. It added that four other "terrorists" were destroyed by tank fire when they moved toward the Israeli troops in Khan Younis.

In the north of the enclave, the IDF said two "armed terrorists" who planned to ambush its troops were killed. It also said it located "terrorists rigging a vehicle with explosives" in the area and killed one of them.

NBC News could not verify the IDF's claims and who the people targeted were.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The family of baby Kfir Bibas, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, is marking his 1st birthday without him today as he remains in captivity.

Kfir was 10 months old when he was kidnapped from his kibbutz, Nir Oz, along with his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas.

Relatives of the family are expected to gather in “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv this afternoon to mark the difficult milestone. Calling it one of the “saddest birthdays in the world,” the Hostage and Missing Persons Families Forum said the relatives would “make an impassioned plea” for Kfir's release at the event. They said some of Israel’s leading children’s entertainers would also perform.

TEL AVIV — Shachar was born five weeks ago with curious eyes and two older sisters who adore her. But she’s missing one thing: Her father, Sagui Dekel-Chen, is one of the six American hostages still being held in Gaza. 

He’s never held his daughter. He doesn’t know her name, which means “Dawn” in Hebrew. He may not even know that his family survived the Oct. 7 attack. 

Dekel-Chen’s father, Jonathan, told NBC News that Sagui secured his wife, Avital, who was seven months pregnant, and their two daughters in a safe room before going out to confront the Hamas terrorists who had overrun their home in kibbutz Nir Oz.

When his family emerged from the safe room 10 hours later, Sagui was gone — kidnapped and taken into Gaza. 

“He actually does not know whether his wife and his daughter survived the attack. And so, the birth of Shachar is an enormous blessing for all of us but also a cause of even greater heartache because he simply cannot know in captivity,” Jonathan said. 

Pakistani security officials at a roadside checkpoint in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, yesterday.

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