Gaza-Egypt border crossing may open; Biden warns new occupation would be a ‘big mistake’

Biden ‘shocked and sickened’ by murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois

Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are “shocked and sickened” over the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois — a killing that officials consider an anti-Muslim hate crime and linked to the war between Israel and Hamas.

“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek — a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” Biden said in a statement. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.”

The president called on people in the U.S. to “come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.”

The boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times at his home near Chicago by his landlord, Joseph Czuba, 71, investigators said. He died at a hospital. The boy’s mother 32, was stabbed more than a dozen times, authorities said. She is hospitalized and expected to survive the attack.

The sheriff’s office said a motive for the stabbing of the mother and her son was “them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”

U.S. officials are as close to Rafah border crossing as conditions permit

Abigail Williams

U.S. officials are as close to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt as security conditions permit, a senior State Department Official told a pool of reporters traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

Americans are among the thousands of foreign national Palestinians who are waiting to leave Gaza through Egypt — as all the other exits out of Gaza have been sealed — but there has been confusion Monday around when and for how long the border crossing could re-open.

Due to “acute security threats” near the crossing, the closest the State Department officials could get to Rafah is the Egyptian city of Ismailia, some 150 miles away from the border, the official said.

‘We don’t know where we are going to live. Our community is burned’

SHEFAYIM, Israel — Eilon Kotler watched his 6-year-old daughter take a short horseback ride in Shefayim, about 115 miles away from their home in Kfar Aza, where dozens of people were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. He says he hopes the positive experience will replace the memories of what unfolded just over a week ago. 

Kotler, 40, and his daughter were forced to hide as Hamas militants tore through their kibbutz, leaving dozens of people dead. When they were finally able to emerge from their hiding place 14 hours later, he said his daughter grasped his hand and told him: “Abba, don’t look.” 

Kotler said his other daughter, 9, was at another home nearby and was also safe, along with his ex-wife. He said that while his youngest daughter didn’t see the violence unfold, she can understand what happened.

Kotler said he doesn’t know if he will ever want to go back to Kfar Aza after the massacre. For now, he said he was just grateful they’re safe and for moments like this to help them “forget about our life a bit.”

“We don’t know where we are going to live. Our community is burned,” he said. “The people that survived, they lost many friends and family, so, yeah, it’s nice to come here a little bit and be with the horses.”

Iranian leader and Putin hold phone talk on the crisis

In a phone conversation today, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza must stop, according to the Russian state agency Tass, citing the Iranian state-run IRNA.

Raisi told Putin that Israel’s declared “siege” on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks could potentially turn into a large-scale military confrontation, Tass said on the messaging app Telegram.

Iran does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, and the regime has supported Hamas, along with other militant groups in the region.

Tass also reported that Putin will hold phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later today.

More than 270 Americans return to U.S. after evacuations from Israel

Dasha Burns

More than 270 Americans evacuated from Israel are back on the U.S. soil.

NBC News spoke with them as they landed in Tampa, Florida, from the first flight to return to the U.S. in an operation organized by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ninety-one of the passengers on board were children.

Palestinian Water Authority says there’s no electricity to pump water, resident says she got some water overnight

Amid confusion today over whether Israel has restarted supplying water to the Gaza Strip after it announced a complete blockade last week, Palestinian authorities said the water can’t be distributed without a steady supply of electricity, which was also cut off.

“Israel is talking about supplying water to the south with a quantity of 14,000 cubic meters per day, including part of Khan Yunis, the Bani Suhaila area, Abasan, and Khuza’a,” the Palestinian Water Authority told NBC News in a comment sent on Facebook.

“This is what Israel is talking about,” it added. “For us as a water authority, if Israel pumps water, it cannot be supplied to the population due to the interruption of the electricity required to pump it.”

But a resident in southern Gaza told NBC News she got some water overnight. Maha Elbanna, who lives in Khan Younis and is a U.S. citizen, said water was pumped into her tanks last night, but she was worried about how long what was provided would sustain her and a group of 48 others all sheltering together.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been sounding the alarm about the deteriorating water situation in Gaza, saying yesterday that rations are down to 1 liter of water per person per day to cover drinking and all other needs.

U.N. says its fuel and medical supplies in Gaza were taken

The United Nations said it has received reports that supplies were taken from its headquarters in Gaza City.

It said in a statement that “a group of people with trucks, purporting to be from the Ministry of Health of the de facto authorities (DFA) in Gaza, removed fuel and medical equipment from the Agency’s compound in Gaza City.”

United Nations Relief and Works Agency workers and staff evacuated the headquarters on Friday and have not been able to return. Cameras that normally cover the building’s entrance were not working because of blasts, the agency said.

“UNRWA’s fuel and other types of material are kept for strictly humanitarian purposes, and any use of such assets for any other purposes is strongly condemned.”

Cruise ship evacuates Americans from Israel

Matt Nighswander

Israel’s forensic scientists and the huge task to identify the dead

TEL AVIV — The sight — and smell — of just under 300 dead bodies is overpowering. Yet, staff here at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine are working harder than ever.

The center’s experts are trying to identify the bodies through DNA testing and other means — some are so badly degraded that there’s nothing left but fragments of bone. A team of anthropologists is separating them, hoping to determine who they were before the Hamas terror attack.

In one room, a team of American forensic volunteers carefully examines what looks to be the body of a woman. Outside, more than a dozen victims in black body bags are lined up to be scanned in a CT machine.

Israel only has seven forensic pathologists in the country, but it says volunteers have come in to help, including the team of four Americans.

NBC News is shown a picture of unidentified charred remains, then a CT scan of those remains. Dr. Chen Kugel, the head of the center, explains it shows two people: An adult hugging a child, the two somehow tied together.

Both were found in a fire-ravaged safe room.

Analysis: Western alliance on Israel faces stern test

The world is watching Gaza but already many U.S. allies and partners are battling to stay united while America’s foes are — as ever — poised to seize on any sign of Western division.

After the Hamas attacks on Israel, Europe suspended aid to Gaza, then reversed course. I’m told there was fury in some capitals when the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Israel on Friday and didn’t combine support with an explicit call for restraint. Finally last night, the European Union’s 27 heads of state issued a united statement, more than a week after the attacks.

In recent years, the Arab world has been building bridges with Israel through the Abraham Accords, but opinion polling suggests Arab public opinion toward Israel has barely moved. That tension will be front of mind among Arab leaders this week.

Russia and China’s message has been notably in lock-step. Over the weekend China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, told Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to the Xinhua News agency: “There is no way out through military means, and using violence for violence will only create a vicious cycle.”

This is part of a global picture that Israel, the U.S. and the West must navigate as the ground offensive gets underway.

Were they killed or abducted? For some families in Israel, the answer is neither

ASHDOD, Israel — Liel Fishbien’s last message from his sister was a warning: “Be careful and quiet. They’re in your neighborhood.” 

Fishbien, 25, hid in his grandmother’s house for hours as their Be’eri kibbutz was ambushed Oct. 7, part of a large-scale attack on Israel by terrorists from Hamas. Dozens of people in Fishbien’s small community were killed while others were taken hostage across the border to the Gaza Strip, a blockaded Palestinian enclave controlled by Hamas militants.

Fishbien believes the hostages include his sister, Tchelet Fishbien, 18, who had been hiding in a nearby home with her boyfriend. But so far she does not appear to be included in the Israeli government’s official count, for lack of clear proof that she has been taken.

“They haven’t located a video of her inside Gaza,” Fishbien said, so she is considered “among the missing and not the hostages.”

In the days since the Hamas attacks, the Israeli government has been updating official figures on the number of people killed or abducted. But people like Fishbien say they feel stuck in the space between, waiting anxiously for news about missing loved ones who have still not been categorized.

Read the full story here

Inside Israel’s ‘enormous and complex’ operation against Hamas

Israel won’t allow Rafah crossing to reopen, Egyptian foreign minister says

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said today the Israeli government had yet to take a position that would allow the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to reopen.

The Rafah crossing is the only non-Israeli-controlled point out of Gaza. It was expected to reopen today to allow the outflow of foreign national Palestinians and to allow the badly needed humanitarian aid in, but all sides have denied there were any truce conditions in place for that to happen early this morning.

“Until now, unfortunately, the Israeli government has not taken a position that would lead to the possibility of opening the crossing from the Gaza side to allow the entry of aid or the exit of citizens from other countries,” Shoukry said. “We and all the Egyptian agencies are fully prepared to bring in aid and the exit of citizens of different countries, and also to operate the crossing at its normal pace.”

Ice cream trucks used as makeshift morgues as bodies pile up

Gaza health officials are using ice cream trucks to store the bodies of those killed because there is not enough space at a hospital morgue in the central town of Deir Al-Balah.

“It’s not as you see,” local journalist Motaz Azaiza said in a video posted on Instagram yesterday as he filmed a freezer truck advertising ice cream. “It’s ice cream trucks for bodies.”

He said the trucks were being used because there was “no space” inside the hospital to store the corpses.

“They keep it cold until they can give [the bodies] to their families,” he said.

In another video shared by Azaiza, bodies wrapped in bloodied sheets could be seen inside the truck.

“The hospital morgue can only take 10 bodies, so we have brought in ice cream freezers from the ice cream factories in order to store the huge numbers of martyrs,” Dr. Yasser Ali from Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital also told Reuters.

The Gaza Health Ministry said today that 2,750 people in the enclave had been killed over the past week.

Landlord fatally stabs Palestinian American child in Illinois, police say

A 6-year-old boy was stabbed to death and his mother was critically wounded by their landlord in an alleged anti-Muslim hate crime, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday, calling it a “senseless and cowardly act of violence.”

“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.“The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek—a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America.”

Both the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and his mother, 32, were found with stab wounds in a bedroom when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene. She is expected to survive.

Their 71-year-old landlord was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of committing a hate crime.

Read the full story here.

Iran says Hamas potentially ready to strike a deal on hostages if airstrikes stop

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said today that Hamas potentially was ready to release the almost 200 hostages it is holding if Israel stops its campaign of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The militant group hasn’t acknowledged making such an offer.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani spoke at a news conference in Tehran. Iran’s theocracy is a main sponsor of Hamas in its fight against Israel, Tehran’s regional archenemy.

Hamas officials “stated that they are ready to take necessary measures to release the citizens and civilians held by resistant groups, but their point was that such measures require preparations that are impossible under daily bombardment by the Zionists against various parts of Gaza,” Kanaani said.

Hamas has said it will trade the captives for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel in the kind of lopsided exchange deals that have been reached in the past.

Iran has warned it could enter the war, as well if Israel launches a widely anticipated ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in the coming days. Already, the Lebanese Shia militia group Hezbollah, which is also sponsored by Iran, has launched missiles into Israel, though it insists that represents a “warning” for Israel rather than its full entry into the war.

“We heard from the resistance that they have no problem to continue resisting,” Kanaani said, referring to Hamas. “They said the resistance holds military capability to continue resisting in the field for a long time.”

At one Gaza border crossing, aid and a potential way out. At another, tanks.

ISRAEL/GAZA BORDER — Israeli troops are ready to attack, lined up here along the border with Gaza.

But after appearing imminent, the Israeli ground assault seems to have been delayed as diplomacy takes center stage.

That has offered hope for some of those waiting for a way out of the war zone. Thousands of Palestinians with foreign passports, including hundreds of American citizens, are gathered this morning at the Rafah border crossing into Egypt — the only potential way in and out of the Gaza Strip. They are tired and anxious after days of false starts.

If they do eventually leave, it will be as part of deal to allow food, water and other supplies from Egypt into southern Gaza for the first time since the Hamas killing spree.

NBC News anchor Lester Holt takes cover during rocket intercept in Israel

NBC News’ Lester Holt took cover as air sirens sounded while he was on his way to Ashkelon, Israel. He said he heard what sounded like a jet overhead and an impact before the sirens, giving little warning ahead of time.

Palestinians inspect homes destroyed during Israeli raids, in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Hamas warns of ‘environmental disaster’ as it says 1,000 bodies remain under rubble in Gaza

Hamas warned today that more than 1,000 bodies remain under the rubble in Gaza, which could precipitate “an environmental disaster” and “the spread of epidemics” in the enclave.

Gaza has been bombarded by Israeli airstrikes since the unprecedented violent incursion into Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 and its health system is already on the brink of collapse.

Its hospitals have struggled to accommodate the thousands of injured and the United Nations said earlier the health authorities are running out of body bags.

Southern Gaza struggles to cope as hundreds of thousands are displaced

The southern Gazan city of Khan Younis is coping with hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes in the north following fears of a ground invasion.

Despite Israel saying it had resumed water supply to parts of Gaza, Mohammed Aborjelaa, a 27-year-old content creator, told NBC News, “There is no electricity to operate the pumps.”

Khan Younis is 6 miles away from the Rafah border crossing, where hundreds of people have been lining up, hoping to cross into Egypt.

The city is rife with craters from aerial bombings, hospitals are flooded with injured victims and people have been lining up for hours to get some bread.

Many have been sleeping on stairs, often laying just over a sheet of cardboard.

“People are afraid and will do anything to survive. Israel bombs everything,” he said.

Quiet in Tel Aviv — and then a boom

TEL AVIV — Usually a bustling cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean coast, Tel Aviv remains quieter than normal more than a week after the Hamas attacks.

The calm was pierced just after noon local time (5 a.m. ET) when a loud boom shook windows in the city, as has happened on other days this week, as the country waits for a possible ground incursion into Gaza.

There was no siren from the IDF’s “Red Color” early warning system, which puts out location-specific alarms to communities targeted with rockets. That could mean the rocket was headed out to sea, in which case the country’s Iron Dome defense system would not have attempted to intercept it.

London mayor reassures security for places of worship in British capital

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said increased security measures will continue to be in place to protect places of worship in the British capital following violence in Israel and Gaza.

“The suffering and loss of innocent life in both Israel and Gaza is truly heartbreaking and my thoughts are with all those impacted,” he said in a statement today.

“It’s vital that we don’t allow events overseas to spill over onto our streets in London and I want to reassure both the Jewish community and the Muslim community that we will take a zero-tolerance approach to any Islamophobia or anti-Semitism,” Khan added.

A number of European capitals have stepped up security in light of the violence in the Middle East. Some had banned pro-Palestinian rallies this weekend, fearing an escalation of tensions on the continent.

The challenges of evacuations at the Rafah crossing

Americans wait to board cruise ship out of Israeli port

Josh Lederman

HAIFA — Here at this Israeli port, Americans who want to get out of the country are going to board a cruise ship that will take them to Cyprus where they can then take commercial flights home.

It’s unclear if everyone who’s here is going to be able to get a seat on that ship but many here tell us they had flight after flight that was canceled. But with a war going on, they don’t feel safe here and would feel much safer once they are back on U.S. soil.

Biden says occupation of Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’

As a ground operation in Gaza appeared to be imminent, Biden has cautioned Israel against occupying the enclave, but said Hamas must be eliminated entirely.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said, speaking on the CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” when asked if Washington would support Israeli occupation of Gaza.

“The extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” Biden added. “And I think that … It would be a mistake to … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again.”

Biden also emphasized that while he believes Hamas should be completely eliminated, there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.

Blinken returns to Israel after Middle East diplomacy tour

Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel today after a diplomacy tour of the Middle East to prevent the Hamas-Israel war from spilling over into the broader region.

Blinken first traveled to Israel on Thursday to pledge Washington’s solidarity and support, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials. He then embarked on a number of stops throughout the Middle East, including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“From here, we’re heading back to Israel,” Blinken said yesterday, speaking in Cairo. “I want an opportunity to share everything that I’ve heard, that I’ve learned over the last few days visiting with our other partners and to talk about the way forward with our Israeli allies and friends.”

He is due to meet with Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and opposition leader Yair Lapid, according to a U.S. official.

From trance to terror: The Supernova music festival massacre

Confirmed Israeli hostage count nears 200

TEL AVIV — Israeli officials have now identified and notified the families of 199 hostages captured during the surprise attack led by Hamas, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told a media briefing today. The Israeli military put the figure at 155 yesterday.

Israeli Security Cabinet meeting to be held tonight

TEL AVIV — Israel’s Security Cabinet will meet tonight at 8 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) at the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this morning.

The meeting comes amid mounting speculation over when an expected ground offensive by Israel into Gaza will begin.

More than 1 million displaced in Gaza, U.N. says

More than a million people, about half of Gaza’s total estimated population, have been displaced in the nine days of fighting between Hamas and Israel, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a report late yesterday.

Of those, almost 400,000 are sheltering at the U.N. facilities in the enclave, exceeding its capacity to assist “in any meaningful way,” the report said.

Americans wait in Haifa, Israel, for a ship to evacuate them to Cyprus

Gaza running out of body bags as death toll reaches 2,750 

The death toll in Gaza has reached 2,750, its Health Ministry said today, as the United Nations said the enclave, which has been bombarded and blockaded by Israel for over a week, was running out of body bags.

“The number of killed is increasing,” the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a report late yesterday. “There are not enough body bags for the dead in Gaza.”

Gazan health authorities also said almost 10,000 people were injured as humanitarian organizations have been raising the alarm that the enclave’s health system is on the brink of collapse.

Crowds gather at the Rafah crossing as it remains closed; aid convoys wait for access

A hopeful crowd gathered at the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing this morning as it remained uncertain whether or when the only non-Israeli-controlled exit out of Gaza would reopen.

Yesterday, a representative for the Palestinian Embassy said Palestinians with foreign passports would be able to cross the border into Egypt starting at 9 a.m. local time today, when humanitarian aid would also begin crossing into Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said yesterday that “Rafah will be reopened,” and Washington was putting in place a mechanism by which to get aid in with the United Nations, Egypt and Israel.

But early today, all sides denied that hostiles had been paused to allow an outflow of people across Rafah.

Meanwhile, photos distributed by Agence France-Presse today showed a convoy of trucks carrying aid supplies on its way to the Rafah crossing.

‘To evacuate could be a death sentence,’ says son of disabled parents

Dorgham Abusalim has been able to speak to his parents and two siblings in the Gaza Strip only four times since last Saturday.

“My family is on the brink of being starved,” said Abusalim, who was born in the Gaza Strip and is now a writer based in Washington. His father is paralyzed and diabetic; his mother is blind and suffers from hypertension. Both are running out of medicine.

Abusalim’s family is based in the central Gazan town of Deir Al-Balah. “To evacuate could be a death sentence,” he said.

“Many people who fled the north following Israel’s order to displace them, end up in our town. My family is now sheltering three other families. The burden is overwhelming,” he said.

Hamas denies truce for Rafah crossing

The political wing of Hamas has denied that there is any sort of truce agreement in place to allow the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to open today to allow foreign nationals to leave Gaza.

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said in a statement that “There is no truth” to what it called Western and Israeli media reports that a truce had been agreed.Earlier today, the Israeli military also denied that a cease-fire was in place.

Israel to evacuate residents from near Lebanese border

TEL AVIV — Israelis living near the northern border with Lebanon are being evacuated from the area, where Israel has been trading fire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

Residents in northern Israel who live within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the border will be taken to state-funded guesthouses, according to a plan announced by the ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority.

The evacuation, approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, will be managed by the heads of the 28 municipalities affected, the ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s military has massed tanks on Gaza’s border near Ashkelon

Israel denies cease-fire allowing Palestinians with foreign passports to cross into Egypt

ASHDOD — The Israeli government has denied reports of a cease-fire allowing Palestinians with foreign passports to cross the border from southern Gaza into Egypt today with humanitarian aid going in.

The Palestinian Embassy said that such Palestinians would be able to do so from from 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) today, but as of now it appears the crossing remains closed.

“There is currently no ceasefire and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the expulsion of foreigners,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said.

Salama Marouf, head of the Gaza media office, said: “We have not received, until this moment, any communications or confirmations from the relevant authorities on the Egyptian side about the intention to open the Rafah crossing today, and everything that is being circulated in particular is attributed to the enemy media.”

In their own words: Those impacted by the Israel-Hamas war

Catch up with the latest NBC News coverage from Israel and Gaza

Here are just some of the articles our team in the region and beyond have produced in the last 24 hours.