Smoke billowing in different regions of Gaza as the Israeli army conducts the most intense air attacks on the 21st day in Gaza Strip, Gaza on Oct. 27, 2023
This was CNBC's live blog tracking developments in the Israel-Hamas war. Click here for the latest Israel news and updates on Gaza.
The Israeli army is increasing its air attacks in Gaza and its ground forces are "expanding their activity" in the Gaza Strip, according to a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. The news Friday came as a Palestinian data provider said internet service in the Gaza Strip has been cut off by Israeli bombardment.
A spokesperson for IDF said Hamas is running part of its campaign from underneath the al-Shifa Hospital in central Gaza. The IDF shared more details of its recent strikes, saying ground troops, fighter jets and drones struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command centers and control centers. The IDF also said operatives of Palestinian militant group Hamas were hit.
A large Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip still appears likely, but humanitarian groups have warned against such a move, citing the worsening conditions for those trapped in the resource-deprived and blockaded enclave.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
On Thursday, violence in the Middle East escalated as U.S. President Biden ordered fighter jet strikes in eastern Syria, targeting facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The U.S. Department of Defense said the strikes were in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces.
"These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement.
Money Report
Videos of Hamas attack suggest that jihadism has evolved in chilling new ways
The brutality and elation of Hamas militants as they killed Israeli civilians — including babies, young children and the elderly — is evident in an Israeli government compilation of videos shown to about two dozen journalists in New York on Friday.
The videos, which were aired for the first time outside of Israel, consist mostly of GoPro, cell phone and dash cam footage recorded by the attackers themselves. The atrocities and war crimes shown suggest that jihadism has evolved in chilling and perverse new ways.
Hamas appears to have combined the tactics of the Islamic State militant group, the Taliban and other organizations by mounting large-scale attacks that included an estimated 2,000 fighters, mass hostage-taking, rape, beheadings and livestreaming.
On October 7th, Hamas killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians in the worst terrorist attack in the country's 75 year history. The militants appear at ease in the videos, slowly searching houses filled with signs of everyday life — a freshly-made breakfast, an iPad, a pair of shoes — as Israelis civilians hid in nearby safe rooms. Hamas members appear amazed and elated by the success of their operation and the slow response of Israeli security forces.
Israeli officials who attended the screening told reporters that Hamas attacked more than 30 locations and that it took hours for Israeli forces to dislodge them. "In some places, it took 8 to 12 hours," said retired Maj. General Mickey Edelstein, currently serving as a reservist. "In some places, it took over a day."
Read the full NBC News report here.
— NBC News
Biden says U.S. 'stands ready to take further action' following attacks by Iran-linked groups
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday that the United States "stands ready to take further action" following attacks by Iran-linked groups against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
Biden's comments in the letter came after U.S. fighter jets carried out air strikes in eastern Syria on Friday.
— Reuters
New York City’s Grand Central Terminal closed Friday night due to demonstrations
New York City's Grand Central Terminal closed Friday night due to demonstrations by a group calling for peace in Israel and Gaza, NBC News reported, citing officials.
Metro-North Railroad said on X that the terminal was closed due to demonstrations.
— Riya Bhattacharjee
'We're not drawing red lines for Israel,' White House official says
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby repeatedly refused to comment on Israel saying its ground forces were expanding activity in Gaza and also refused to comment on what a satisfactory long-term objective might be for the fighting.
"We're not drawing red lines for Israel," Kirby said Friday on a call with reporters. "We're going to continue to support them" but "since the very beginning we have, and will continue to have, conversations about the manner that they are doing this."
Kirby said the U.S. is still evaluating the impact of airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias and "we will not hesitate to take further actions in our own self-defense."
He also said 10 additional trucks filled with humanitarian aid had made it to Gaza, bringing the total to 84, but that the U.S. is aware that fuel there "is only anticipated to last a couple of days."
The White House previously said President Joe Biden was briefed Friday morning by his national security team on the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.
— Associated Press
Explosions shatter the night sky over Gaza as Israel expands bombing
The dull orange glow of Israeli flares shone in the night sky over Gaza, slowly descending through the haze to illuminate targets for warplanes before eventually flickering out, plunging the scene back into darkness.
Multiple explosions from Israeli airstrikes tore into northern Gaza on Friday, quick flashes of bright orange silhouetted against the rooftops of Palestinian apartments and refugee camps. The sharp crunching sound of the bombs followed each time, seconds later, one after another.
Overhead, the buzz of Israeli military drones cut through, growing quieter and louder as the crafts circled the airspace overhead.
For most Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, their world has shrunk to these few sounds and colors.
Israel dramatically ramped up its bombardment Friday after knocking out internet and communication in Gaza, largely cutting off the tiny besieged enclave's 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world.
— Associated Press
UN official: 'Gaza has lost contact with the outside world'
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings posted on social media that "Gaza has lost contact with the outside world amid reports of intensified bombardment."
Hastings said phone lines, internet and mobile networks had stopped working and that it was impossible for hospitals and humanitarian operations to continue without communications, energy, food, water and medicine. She said that the safety of civilians, including health workers, journalists and UN staff were at grave risk.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also posted on X that the agency had lost touch with its staff in Gaza as well as health facilities, health workers and other humanitarian partners on the ground.
— Riya Bhattacharjee
Oil prices tick higher Friday but end the week lower
Global oil prices ticked higher Friday as Israel increased its air attacks on Gaza. Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate futures closed 1.8% and 2% higher for the day, respectively.
Despite that uptick, however, both benchmarks were about 4% lower for the week and down about 4.5% from than their October highs.
Prices spiked after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, but have since moderated. However, analysts worry an expanded conflict in the region could cause major disruptions in supply and lead to much higher prices.
— Gabriel Cortes
Gaza’s largest hospital struggles to keep its neonatal units running as Israel tightens siege
Editor's note: The following post contains a photograph with graphic content.
Premature babies wiggle and squirm, some with oxygen tubes under their noses, in rows of clear plastic incubators inside the neonatal unit of Gaza's largest hospital, which, like the rest of the besieged Palestinian territory, is running out of fuel, food, water and electricity.
Doctors in Gaza say conditions have reached catastrophic levels. They say a lack of basic supplies has left them struggling to maintain hygiene and sanitation, and hospital grounds are overcrowded with displaced civilians seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes.
"We have noticed an increase in premature birth cases," said Dr. Nasser Bulbul, head of the NICU at al-Shifa Hospital.
"We had to perform a premature delivery of the fetus from the mother's womb while she's dying," he said. "Many of these infants are orphaned, and we don't know the fate of their relatives or have information about their identities."
Around 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, with around 5,500 due to give birth within the next 30 days, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
If fuel supplies run out, neonatal intensive care units will be impacted and planned or emergency caesarean sections will be impossible, the U.N. agency said.
— Associated Press
About 1.4 million people displaced in Gaza, UN says
Lynn Hastings, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva that there are about 1.4 million people displaced in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
Hastings said that nearly 630,000 of those displaced are taking shelter in United Nations Relief and Works Agency facilities. She added that the shelters are crowded and are at least double their capacity.
— Amanda Macias
UN adopts resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce
The United Nations adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce as the Israel-Hamas conflict enters its third week.
The resolution, that was put forward by Jordan, received 120 votes in favor, 14 against and 45 abstentions.
The measure also calls for the "continuous, sufficient and unhindered" provision of critical humanitarian supplies and services for civilians trapped inside Gaza.
— Amanda Macias
US Ambassador to UN meets with International Committee of the Red Cross to discuss humanitarian assistance
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield met with the International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger to discuss the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza.
"Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield emphasized strong U.S. support for sustained and unhindered humanitarian access and for the protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law," wrote U.S. Mission to the United Nations spokesman Nate Evans in a statement.
She also expressed gratitude on behalf of the Biden administration for ICRC's efforts in the release of two Americans held hostage by Hamas.
— Amanda Macias
Israel says Hamas 'terrorist headquarters is under Gaza's central Shifa Hospital'
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said Hamas is running part of its terror campaign from underneath the Shifa hospital in central Gaza.
The IDF added that Hamas also built a fuel storage facility in the hospital, which is the largest medical center in all of Gaza.
The Consulate General of Israel in New York described the facility as a "command-and-control center for its terror operations."
"Hamas also built entrances to its terror tunnel network directly inside the hospital's wards," the Israeli Consulate wrote in a statement.
Hamas issued a statement calling IDF's claims "false allegations, which we categorically deny, and we warn that they pave the way for targeting the hospital."
— Amanda Macias
Biden discussed Middle East with Chinese Foreign Minister
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that President Joe Biden discussed the ongoing crisis in the Middle East triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
"What's going on in the Middle East was a topic of discussion with our Chinese counterparts," Kirby told reporters on a conference call.
Earlier in the day, Wang met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken for two hours at the State Department. Wang is slated to meet later in the day with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan where the two are also expected to discuss Israel.
— Amanda Macias
About 85 trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrive in Gaza
The White House confirmed that about 85 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza but added that the region desperately needs fuel.
"No fuel has yet been allowed in," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a conference call.
"The U.N. Relief Agency was able to get hold of a little bit over a day's worth of fuel from a commercial facility in Gaza," he said, adding that the fuel in Gaza is expected to run out soon.
— Amanda Macias
Palestinian data provider says internet service has been cut off in Gaza Strip
The Palestinian telecommunications provider Paltel says internet service in Gaza Strip has been cut off by Israeli bombardment. Services were cut Friday evening, following a heavy round of Israeli airstrikes that lit up the night sky over the darkened territory.
Rights groups and journalists also say they lost contact with colleagues in the enclave. The Associated Press's attempts to contact people in Gaza did not go through.
— The Associated Press
Harris and first gentleman Emhoff meet with families of Americans still missing
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff met with the families of Americans still unaccounted for following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.
"They listened to the families' experiences over the past several weeks, which has been an agonizing ordeal, and expressed their support," according to a readout of the meeting provided by the White House.
"The Vice President also underscored that securing the hostages remains front and center in our diplomatic conversations and that we are working with partners in the Middle East to ensure that any country with influence over Hamas brings that influence to bear to help secure the release of hostages," the readout added.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has previously said 10 Americans are missing.
— Amanda Macias
Israeli army says ground forces ‘expanding their activity’ in Gaza
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said the bombing in Gaza has intensified in preparation for a looming ground operation.
"In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening," a spokesman wrote on social media site X, according to an NBC News translation.
"The IDF works powerfully in all dimensions in order to achieve the goals of the war," the post on X added.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the IDF's operations during a conference call with reporters.
"Just not going to speak about what they're doing or how they're doing it, or what progress they may or may not be making. That is something for only the Israeli Defense Forces to speak to," Kirby said.
"We're not going to get into the habit of chiming in from the sidelines here on what they're trying to do on the ground," Kirby added.
— Amanda Macias
Biden briefed on latest situation in Gaza
The White House said President Joe Biden met with his national security team to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden was briefed by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Bill Burns.
— Amanda Macias
'Misery is growing by the minute,' UN chief says
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described the humanitarian system in Gaza as facing "total collapse."
"Misery is growing by the minute. Without a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering," Guterres said in a statement provided by the United Nations.
Guterres said that before the conflict began on Oct. 7, approximately 500 trucks carrying supplies entered Gaza. But that number has plummeted.
"In recent days, an average of only 12 trucks per day have entered, despite needs being far greater than at any time before," the U.N. chief added.
— Amanda Macias
Lufthansa, Delta extend Israel flight cancellations
Lufthansa Group said it will extend its cancellations of flights to Tel Aviv through Nov. 30 as airlines' concerns about safety due to the Israel-Hamas war continue.
The cancellations affect its namesake airline as well as Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines units.
"Again, we regret having to make this decision in this way," the carrier said. "The Lufthansa Group is continuing to monitor the security situation in Israel closely and stays in close contact with the authorities."
Delta Air Lines has also suspended its Tel Aviv service from New York through Nov. 15 after canceling service earlier this month from Atlanta and Boston through at least the end of October "and beyond."
— Leslie Josephs
At least 20 attacks against U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East over the last 10 days, official says
A defense official confirmed to NBC News' Courtney Kube that U.S. forces were engaged in a "one-way attack drone" near Al-Assad Air Base in Iraq.
The U.S. service members were able to successfully shoot down the drone, according to the defense official.
In the past 10 days, NBC News has recorded approximately 20 attacks against bases in the Middle East that house U.S. forces. The Biden administration has previously warned malign actors in the region to not escalate tensions amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
— Amanda Macias
Three injured after rocket hits Tel Aviv apartment
Three people were injured on Friday after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a Tel Aviv apartment, according United Hatzalah, a volunteer medical response group.
"The scene was one of significant destruction," United Hatzalah volunteer emergency medical technician (EMT) Yonatan Uziyahu told NBC News.
"Together with additional EMTs, we provided initial treatment to a young man in his 20s who was moderately injured and to two additional people who sustained light injuries," he added.
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system typically intercepts most rockets from Gaza, though not all.
— Karen Gilchrist
EU Council to hold peace conference on two-state solution
The Council of the European Union plans is to hold a peace conference in around six months to renew the push for a two-state solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Reuters reported Friday, citing Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
In a meeting currently underway in Brussels, EU member states fell short of unified calls for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing conflict, but backed a wider push from world leaders and aid agencies for "humanitarian pauses" and the opening of aid corridors for civilians trapped in Gaza.
— Karen Gilchrist
Israelis take cover in Tel Aviv during rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip
Israelis take cover in Tel Aviv during rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip in what has become part of daily life since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks from Palestinian militant group Hamas.
— Getty Images
Kremlin defends receiving a delegation from Hamas
The delegation of Palestinian militant group Hamas that visited Moscow on Thursday had no contact with the Kremlin, the Russian administration's spokesperson said Friday.
"In this case, these representatives do not have any 'Kremlin program'; they have no contacts with the Kremlin," Dmitry Peskov said Friday, according to Google-translated comments reported by Russian state news agency Tass.
The Hamas delegation arrived in Moscow to discuss the release of the over two hundred foreign hostages that the group is currently holding in Gaza.
Pressed by journalists over whether Moscow is concerned that its engagement with Hamas will prompt a negative reaction from Israel, Peskov said, "In this case, I have nothing to add."
Throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia has been divided between its loyalties to Israel and Hamas-supporting Iran. It has engaged with all three parties, as well as the Palestinian Authority.
Itself under Western sanctions, Moscow has repeatedly said the Israel-Hamas war is as a result of an alleged failure of U.S. diplomacy.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Iraqi cleric calls for closure of U.S. embassy in Baghdad
Iraqi Shi'ite cleric leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for the Iraqi government and parliament to vote to close the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, in response to Washington's support of Israel's activity in the Gaza Strip.
In a Google-translated statement published on social media, al-Sadr said he would communicate another position later, if the government and parliament do not respond.
Populist leader al-Sadr commanders considerable sway with the Iraqi people and has previously shown the ability to rally large groups of supporters to the streets. In a rare stance, he opposes both Iranian and U.S. influence in Iraq.
Iran has historically supported and celebrated the Oct. 7 terror attacks perpetrated by Hamas against Israel, while the U.S. has been a staunch ally of Israel throughout its retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip.
— Ruxandra Iordache
EU leaders are worried about potential broader conflict in the Middle East
EU heads of state are worried about a potential broader conflict in the Middle East, given the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
— Natasha Turak
Volunteers of the new Israeli civilian guard unit receive their new M5 automatic assault rifles during the unit's inauguration ceremony in Ashkelon
Volunteers of the new civilian guard unit receive their new M5 automatic assault rifles during the unit's inauguration ceremony attended by police officers and the national security minister, in the southern city of Ashkelon.
— Getty Images
UNESCO urges humanitarian ceasefire
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has joined calls for a ceasefire in Israel-Hamas hostilities, saying more than 200 schools have been damaged in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict.
This represents around 40% of the total number of schools in the enclave, with forty of these institutions now "very seriously" impaired, UNESCO said in a Friday statement.
A number of schools have been repurposed as shelters for the internally displaced Palestinian population throughout the conflict. This includes many run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which looks after 183 schools in the Gaza Strip, according to UNESCO.
"The Organization calls for the protection of educational establishments, which often serve as shelters for the population, and recalls that targeting them or using them for military purposes constitute violations of international law," UNESCO said.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Israeli military says a Hamas commander killed in air strike
Another Hamas commander was killed in an Israeli air strike, the Israel Defense Forces said on social media on Friday.
The Hamas official was Madhath Mubashar, commander of the western battalion for the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF said it also struck over 250 Hamas targets, including a tunnel network in the Gaza Strip that detonated as a result of secondary explosions, without specifying when this operation took place.
CNBC could not independently verify the report.
The IDF has been carrying out a war campaign in the blockaded Gaza Strip, looking to demilitarize Hamas and remove its commanders. It has said that multiple Hamas senior commanders have been killed over the past two weeks.
The IDF has previously said that a complete surrender of Hamas and the return of the more-than 200 hostages that the group abducted could end hostilities.
— Ruxandra Iordache
'History will judge us all if there is no ceasefire in Gaza': UNRWA Chief
The handful of aid trucks that have entered Gaza are a "drop in the ocean" of need and history will judge those who allowed the mounting humanitarian catastrophe to happen, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.
"Mothers do not know how they can clean their children. Pregnant women pray that they will not face complications during delivery because hospitals have no capacity to receive them," Lazzarini said.
The U.N. has condemned the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7., he said, but warned that "history will judge us all if there is no ceasefire in Gaza ... let there be no shadow of a doubt — this does not justify the ongoing crimes against the civilian population of Gaza, including its 1 million children."
"The reality today in Gaza is that there is not much humanity left and hell is settling in," he said.
— Natasha Turak
U.S. slaps second round of sanctions on Hamas
The U.S. has slapped a second round of sanctions on key individuals linked to Hamas and financial networks affiliated to the Palestinian militant group, following its terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
The Friday measures target further assets in the investment portfolio of Hamas and individuals who are assisting the group to evade sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said.
Among those sanctioned is a Hamas official in Iran, members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as a Gaza-based entity that the Treasury said has funneled Iranian funds to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group. Iran has long supported Hamas and praised its early-October offensives against Israel, but denied involvement in the attack.
The U.S. issued an earlier round of sanctions targeting Hamas on Oct. 18.
"We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas's ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding," said Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Wally Adeyemo on Friday.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Eight more trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip expected
Eight more aid trucks carrying humanitarian aid are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We're expecting another eight or so today," she added, in comments reported by Reuters.
She said the U.N. is in talks with Israel to find a faster mechanism for aid to be delivered to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which has been deprived of Israel's food, water, fuel and fuel deliveries for nearly three weeks. Security, technical and political issues are slowing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, Hastings said.
Trucks have been transporting aid through the Rafah crossing linking the Gaza enclave and Egypt since last weekend, but human rights groups say the resources brought in can only meet a fraction of the needs of the local Palestinian people.
In a televised interview with PBS, Thomas White, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said the verification process run by Israel on the Egyptian-Israeli border is currently very slow, and called for a new inspection process that can handle over 100 trucks per day.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Fifty hostages killed in bombings, Hamas says
Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip has killed 50 of the hostages abducted by Hamas during its terror attacks of Oct. 7, a representative of the Palestinian militant group told Russian news outlet Kommersant, according to a Google translation.
Captives will not be released until a ceasefire is agreed with Israel, Hamas representative Abu Hamid said, as a delegation of the group visited Moscow.
Al-Qassem, the armed wing of Hamas, also posted on its Telegram account that it estimates 50 "prisoners" have been killed in Israeli bombardment.
CNBC could not independently verify the figures, and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IDF has previously said that Hamas captured roughly 224 people, of which only four have been released to date.
Some questions have risen over the accuracy of numbers reported by Hamas and Hamas-controlled facilities, such as the death toll supplied by the Gaza Health Ministry.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Oct. 25 said he has "no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using" for the death toll reported in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, according to Reuters, without disclosing why.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Israeli military gives details of limited ground raid
Israeli ground troops, fighter jets and drones struck anti-tank missile launch sites, command and control centers and operatives of Palestinian militant group Hamas over the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said on social media.
"The troops exited the area and no injuries were reported," it said, in a likely reference to the Gaza Strip.
CNBC could not independently verify the report.
On Thursday, the IDF said they carried out an overnight raid in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, "as part of preparations for the next stages of combat."
An Israeli ground incursion has been anticipated in the past three weeks, after Israel ordered civilians in the northern Gaza City to evacuate southward of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. Human rights groups have warned against such an offensive, citing the worsening humanitarian crisis in the resource-deprived and blockaded Gaza Strip.
Israel says it only seeks to demilitarize Hamas and does not target civilians.
— Ruxandra Iordache
'An awful lot of moving parts' in truck transport of humanitarian aid to Gaza, U.S. official says
The U.S. hopes further humanitarian aid supplies will enter the Gaza Strip soon, but there is a multitude of logistical "moving parts" at play in getting truck deliveries, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.
Speaking Thursday in a MSNBC interview, he expressed hopes that more aid would be coming in by truck during the day through the Rafah Crossing — the only land passageway to the blockaded Gaza Strip that isn't controlled by Israel, leading instead to Egypt.
Since last weekend, nations and international humanitarian groups have been organizing deliveries that first arrive in Egypt, then continue through the Rafah Crossing to Palestinian civilians by truck.
"There is an inspection regime that has to be done before the trucks go in," Kirby said of the logistics, "So that Israel can understand there's no contraband in those trucks. And then, of course, Hamas needs to allow for the free movement of these vehicles inside Gaza to get to the aid organizations, to get to the people. So there's an awful lot of moving parts here."
Human rights groups have previously called for a humanitarian pause to the conflict between Israel and Hamas to allow the safe distribution of aid supplies, as the Gaza Strip slowly exhausts its water and food resources and already faces a fuel and electricity crisis.
— Ruxandra Iordache
U.S. launches strikes on two Iran-linked locations in Syria
The U.S. launched strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups.
"These narrowly tailored strikes in self-defense were intended solely to protect and defend U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said in a statement Thursday.
"They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and do not constitute a shift in our approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict," he added.
Austin said these "precision self-defense strikes" began on Oct. 17. As a result, a U.S. citizen contractor died from a cardiac incident while sheltering in place, while 21 other U.S. forces suffered minor injuries.
"The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said. "Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces."
"If attacks by Iran's proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people," the Defense Secretary said.
— Clement Tan
EU leaders urge pauses in Gaza bombing to get aid in
EU leaders called on Thursday for pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks to get humanitarian aid into Gaza after days of wrangling that highlighted divisions within the bloc over the broader Israel-Palestinian conflict.
In a declaration agreed at a summit in Brussels, the leaders of the Union's 27 nations expressed the "gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza".
They called for "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".
The summit was the leaders' first in-person meeting since the deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.
— Reuters
White House calls for supplemental funding to support Israel and Ukraine
The White House pressed for supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel and said it was unclear when funding for Israel as well as Ukraine would run out.
"It's difficult to know because it's driven by the pace of operations and the security assistance that's flowing and their expenditure," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.
"I just know that time is not on our side. The runway is getting shorter with every passing week. We need this supplemental funding," he added.
Last week, President Joe Biden requested more than $105 billion from Congress to support Ukraine, Israel, as well as other U.S. national security matters. Of the $105 billion, the package calls for $61 billion for Ukraine and an additional $14.3 billion for Israel.
— Amanda Macias
Palestinian Health Ministry releases list of more than 6,700 dead in Gaza, including over 2,500 children
Editor's note: The following post contains a photograph with graphic content.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health released a spreadsheet with the names, ages, sex and ID numbers of the total number of people killed in Gaza so far, NBC News reported.
CNBC and NBC News has not independently verified the details of the documents.
The list includes over 6,700 names, of which more than 2.500 are that of children, NBC News reported.
The list, which is in Arabic, was provided to NBC News journalists.
— Riya Bhattacharjee
CNBC's previous coverage
U.S. conducts military strikes in Syria; nine Arab countries condemn Gaza bombing
