Israel vows Rafah ground assault by Ramadan if hostages are not freed

U.S. Central Command forces conducted self-defense strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi groups in Yemen on Monday, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

One of the strikes was against a mobile missile launcher and the other was against an unmanned aerial system, the sources said, noting they were conducted between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sanaa time. 

Also on Monday, Houthis shot at two U.S.-owned ships, according to the officials. The M/V Sea Champion, a U.S.-owned but Greek-flagged vessel, was shot at by an anti-ship ballistic missile, with no harm noted.

The second ship, the U.S.-owned and Marshall Island-flagged M/V Novice Fortune, was shot at by an unmanned aerial system, the two U.S. officials said. The UAV did not directly strike the ship, but minor damage was noted.

Yemen's Houthi rebels announced today that the group has officially designated both the U.S. and the U.K. as enemy countries over their support of Israel.

Houthi President Mahdi Al-Mashat ratified a law that states it will deal with both Western countries "according to the principle of confrontation." The news comes as Houthis continue to express support for Palestinians and attack vessels in the Red Sea believed to have ties to Israel.

Many countries have condemned the Houthi attacks and their impact on global trade. The U.S. and U.K. have responded by striking the group at sea and in Yemen.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States has circulated a rival U.N. Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza after rejecting an Arab-backed resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the conflict-wracked territory.

The U.S. draft resolution, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, would underscore that a temporary cease-fire “as soon as practicable” requires the release of all hostages taken from Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, and calls for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The U.S. draft says both of those actions “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” as called for in a resolution adopted by the council on Dec. 22.

Amnesty International released a statement today calling for the end of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, saying the country holds a "draconian system of control."

The statement comes as the International Court of Justice holds proceedings over the legality of Israel's decadeslong occupation. It also criticized Israel's practice of "de facto annexation" by expanding its settlements in the West Bank.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said countries must examine ties to Israel and call for an end to the occupation.

"Israel’s occupation of Palestine is the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world," Callamard said. "For decades it has been characterized by widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians. The occupation has also enabled and entrenched Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians."

An analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster shows the mortal threat children are facing in the Gaza Strip as malnutrition continues to surge in the enclave, the World Health Organization said in a release.

According to the analysis, more than 5% of children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished, and almost 3% "suffer from severe wasting." Even in places that have more consistent access to humanitarian aid, such as Rafah, the analysis found 5% of children are malnourished.

WHO remarked that hunger and disease are a deadly combination, as weakened children are more likely to become sick and sick children are less capable of absorbing nutrients.

The issue is putting Gaza at the precipice of "an explosion in preventable child deaths," said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations.

"If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences," Chaiban said.

Security footage released by the Israel Defense Forces today appears to show the Bibas family following their Oct. 7 kidnapping.

NBC News could not independently geolocate the footage nor independently confirm the date or identities of those pictured in the footage. According to IDF, the footage is from security cameras in the area of Khan Younis and show the family being kidnapped and transferred into a car. 

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement that the images show Shiri Bibas along with her sons, Kfir and Ariel. Shiri Bibas’ husband, Yarden, was also kidnapped but separated from the family, he said.

“In a photograph taken by our forces in the field, you can see how a number of armed terrorists force Shiri to wrap herself in a large cloth, thus trying to hide the hostages,” Hagari said in the statement. “Ariel’s little red head pokes through the fabric but Kafir cannot be seen. We estimate that he is attached in a carrier to Shiri’s body, as we saw in the shocking kidnapping video.”

Ariel was 4-years-old at the time of the kidnapping. Kfir, who was 10 months at the time, is believed to be the youngest person taken. The military wing of Hamas has said that the three hostages were killed in November as a result of Israeli bombing.

NBC News could not verify the claim. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

“From the information available to us, we fear and are very concerned about the condition and safety of Shiri and the children and are making every effort to obtain more information about their fate. We will not rest until we bring them home,” Hagari said in the statement.

In response to the release of the footage, Israel Prime Benjamin Netanyahu said the video “touches the heart and reminds us of who we are dealing with — cruel baby kidnappers. We will hold them to account.”

QatarEnergy, one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, said today that the Red Sea shipping disruptions would limit the arrival of products to customers in the long term and that diversions were not ideal as they added to the cost and length of journeys.

“It’s going to add cost, it’s going to add time and it’s also going to add constraint on actual deliveries,” the company’s chief executive, Saad al-Kaabi, said at the groundbreaking ceremony of a new complex in Qatar.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group has since November been attacking vessels in the Red Sea, part of a route that accounts for about 12% of the world’s shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians in the war with Israel.

QatarEnergy said in January it had stopped sending tankers via the Red Sea on security concerns.

When 6-year-old Hind Rajab called the Palestine Red Crescent Society for help, she said she sat just meters away from Israeli tanks closing in on the car where she was trapped alongside the bodies of her family members. 

“The tank is next to me,” the terrified girl is heard telling the dispatchers, in a new audio recording released by PRCS yesterday. “Very, very close,” she says in a small voice. For 12 days she waited for a rescue surrounded by bodies of her family, gunfire and blown-up vehicles.

“When someone comes and gets me, you can hang up,” she told the dispatchers, but when Israeli troops finally allowed for first responders to reach her, she was found dead, along with her family.

“It’s almost night. I am scared,” she had told them.

The World Health Organization shared footage of its mission yesterday to evacuate 14 patients out of the now-inoperable Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Video of the mission was posted to social media with a walkthrough of the hospital narrated by trauma surgeon Dr. Anthanasios Gargavanis. He called it a "complex mission" as eight of the critical patients were unable to walk and two of the patients needed ventilation.

One of the patients had a tracheostomy, which is a surgically created airway created by inserting a tube in the trachea to help oxygen flow into the lungs.

"There are still patients left in Nasser Medical Complex, but nobody in their ICU," Gargavanis said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, posted the video to his X account and noted that there are still more than 180 patients in Nasser without access to food, water or electricity. The 15 doctors and nurses who remain are using a backup generator to power some of the lifesaving machinery.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is proposing an agreement to the Knesset on the rejection of a Palestinian state, which he says he expects to pass as it has already received unanimous acceptance by different parties.

The prime minster alleged that there has been international pressure "attempting to unilaterally impose the establishment of a Palestinian state" in recent days and this proposal has come as a response.

"All Israeli citizens know that I have been the one blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger our existence for decades," Netanyahu said in a video statement. "My stance has remained clear and has only strengthened after the terrible massacre on Oct. 7."

It's unclear what Netanyahu refers to by a "unilaterally" imposed state, but the U.S. has publicly said it supports a path to Palestinian statehood as part of a postwar plan. The Washington Post reported last week that the Biden administration was discussing a potential peace plan for the region that could include early recognition of a Palestinian state.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke to NBC News' Andrea Mitchell at the Munich Security Conference about Germany’s role in the diplomatic efforts to secure a deal to release the hostages and provide humanitarian aid for Palestinians.

"Imagine it was your children not having parents anymore?" Baerbock said. "Because they were killed at an attack not having water and food? Is it not our obligation to provide this humanitarian assistance?"

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari pushed back at recent comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli leader said that Qatar must do more to pressure Hamas into releasing the hostages.

In a post on X, al-Ansari alleged that Netanyahu's rhetoric is "nothing but a new attempt to stall and prolong the war for reasons that have become obvious to everyone."

"The Israeli Prime Minister knows very well that Qatar has been committed from day one to mediation efforts, ending the crisis and freeing the hostages," al-Ansari said.

Officials from Qatar, along with Egypt and the U.S., have worked for months to secure hostage deals, including the weeklong cease-fire in November during which more than 100 captives were released.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson went on to say that Qatar "will not be deterred by rhetoric" and asked Netanyahu to focus on the negotiations to bring security to the region.

Yesterday, the World Health Organization gained access into the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza after previously being denied entry. In a statement on X, the WHO said that 14 critical patients were medically referred and two patients needed continuous manual ventilation. Nine patients are now in the care of other facilities. There are still more than 180 patients and nurses inside of Nasser after this visit.

But the problem is not solved. "The hospital is still experiencing an acute shortage of food, basic medical supplies, and oxygen. There is no tap water and no electricity, except a backup generator maintaining some lifesaving machines," the WHO wrote on X.

The World Health Organization said that hospitals in Rafah are struggling to keep up as other facilities have been rendered inoperable and the threat of a full-scale assault on the border city looms.

"Nearby hostilities could weaken hospitals’ ability to provide lifesaving care, potentially making them non-functional by obstructing access for patients, health workers, and partners," the organization said.

Two of the largest hospitals in nearby Khan Younis, Nasser and Al-Amal, have been hit by surrounding violence as well as being subjected to raids.

The IDF struck what it described as two Hezbollah storage facilities near Sidon, a large coastal city in south Lebanon.

According to the IDF, its fighter jets targeted the area "in response" to a drone it believes was launched from Lebanon toward the Lower Galilee region in northern Israel earlier today. National News Agency, Lebanon's state news, said that one strike hit a warehouse used to manufacture tires and generators while the other was in the vicinity of a factory for manufacturing stone marble. 

The strikes were on either side of the Ghazieh highway and caused "major destruction," NNA reported. A total of 14 people, most of whom were Syrian and Palestinian workers, were injured.

Aside from the drone strike in a Beirut suburb last month, this is the farthest strike from the Israel-Lebanon border and the first direct hit on Sidon since the start of the war. Sidon is one of Lebanon's largest cities, along with Beirut and Tripoli, which are located farther north.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry called on members of the international community who seek calm in the region to condemn Israel's attacks in Lebanon in a statement following the Sidon strikes.

The international community should "put pressure on Israel to stop its provocative attempts to expand the circle of war, and to lure Lebanon into a war that it is striving to prevent, given its threat to the security and stability of Lebanon and the entire region, and will only result in calamities and devastation," the statement added.

As the International Court of Justice opens a week of proceedings examining the legality of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on X today that the country "does not recognize the legitimacy" of the court.

"The proceedings in The Hague are part of the Palestinian attempt to dictate the results of the diplomatic settlement without negotiations," the post said. "We will continue to reject this; the Government and the Knesset are united in rejecting this unacceptable course of action."

Israel is not a member state of the international court and there is no enforcement mechanism for its rulings. The statement from the prime minister’s office is a reiteration of Israel’s stance that the ICJ has no jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian children line up to receive clean water distributed by mobile tanks belonging to charity organizations in Rafah, Gaza, today.

Israel will allow freedom of worship during Ramadan at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque but limit access according to security concerns, Netanyahu's office said today.

The prime minister will make "a balanced decision that allows freedom of worship within the limits of the security needs set by the professional authorities," his office said when asked about the possibility of blocking access to the flashpoint site for Israeli Muslims.

A government spokesperson later said no final decision had been made. "We are waiting for an opinion from the Israel police and of course decisions will be made in accordance with interests of public safety and security," Eylon Levy said.

The U.S. is considering sending bombs and other weapons to Israel but nothing has been finalized yet, two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the proposed arms transfer told NBC News.

The officials said the U.S. has provided these weapons to Israel before and explained that they are part of long-standing U.S. aid supplied to Israel, which includes additional tranches of military assistance, unrelated to the foreign aid package, that can be adjusted based on Israel’s needs.

The Biden administration plans to notify Congress if the plans are finalized, but unlike arms shipments to many other countries, congressional approval is not required for arms shipments that are part of long-standing U.S. aid to Israel.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The top court of the United Nations has held its first day of hearings into Israel's decadeslong occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian foreign minister accused Israel of apartheid and urged the court to declare that its occupation is illegal and must end immediately to maintain any hope of a two-state future. Pointing to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, Riyad al-Maliki said that “More than 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, are subjected to colonization of their territory and racist violence that enables it.”

Israel is not scheduled to speak during the hearings, but could submit a written statement. In a statement on X this morning, Israel's foreign ministry accused Palestinian leader of using the international legal system as "a political tool to attack Israel" and urged the court to rule that Palestinians should instead return to direct negotiations over the future of Gaza, the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

The hearings will continue for a week at the International Court of Justice’s headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands, where over 52 states including the U.S. are expected to take part in the oral proceedings.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva is “an unwelcome personality in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his words,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said today on X.

Yesterday, Lula likened Israel's campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust, which Katz called a "serious anti-Semitic attack."

The Brazilian ambassador to Israel was summoned this morning to Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial, for Lula’s remarks, Katz said.

At least 29,092 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, with 107 people killed in the past 24 hours, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said today in a statement.

The ministry added that over 69,000 people have also been injured since the war began and a number of victims are still under rubble with Israeli forces restricting access for the emergency services.

Israel will launch its invasion of Rafah unless Hamas returns all hostages by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war Cabinet said yesterday.

“They can surrender, release the abductees, and so the residents of Gaza can celebrate Ramadan,” Benny Gantz said at a conference of American Jewish organizations in Jerusalem.

He added that Israel would conduct its operations after evacuating civilians from Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where more than 1 million Palestinians are currently seeking shelter.

A cargo ship attacked by Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden is at risk of sinking, the Yemen-based militants said today in a statement.

The Houthis added that the crew had left safely after it targeted the ship with a number of naval missiles. The Belize-flagged Rubymar was traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The U.K.'s Maritime Trade Operations also said today that the crew had abandoned the ship, adding "military authorities remain on scene to provide assistance."

Hamas has called Israel’s decision to restrict Palestinians from Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan “a violation of freedom of worship” at the holy site.

Israeli authorities plan to restrict access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, ahead of Ramadan, war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz said over the weekend.

A statement from the militant group said the move “indicates the occupation’s intention to escalate its aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan” and called it “an intensification of the Zionist crime and religious war led by the group of extremist settlers in the terrorist occupation government.”

It called on Palestinians living in “occupied territories" to "reject this criminal decision, to resist the arrogance of the occupation, and to mobilize and march and be present in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The group also warned that restricting access to the mosque “will not pass without accountability.”

An image released by the Israeli Army on Saturday shows soldiers during ongoing ground operations at an undisclosed location in Gaza.

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