Israel says it freed a hostage during Gaza ground operation

Netanyahu praises IDF and Shin Bet for rescuing hostage

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security forces for rescuing a hostage and welcomed her home.

“I congratulate the Shin Bet and the IDF for this important and exciting achievement, an achievement that expresses our commitment to the release of all the abductees. The entire nation of Israel salutes the Shin Bet and salutes the IDF,” Netanyahu said.

Only cancer hospital in Gaza targeted for the second time: Palestinian Health Ministry

The Al-Sadaqa Turkish-Palestinian Hospital was targeted for the second time, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

“The Al-Sadaqa Turkish-Palestinian Hospital, the only center for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, was targeted for the second time, causing severe damage to it, disrupting some electromechanical work systems, and putting the lives of patients and crews at risk,” said Sobhi Skaik, director general of the hospital.

Ashraf Al Qudra, spokesperson for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, confirmed the bombing live on Al Jazeera.

“The Al-Sadaqa Turkish Hospital was bombed a few minutes ago for the second time by Israeli forces. The hospital was badly damaged, and the lives of the patients and medical staff is at risk,” he said.

Al Qudra said the medical team and patients can’t evacuate the hospital because it’s the only cancer treatment center in the enclave, and asked for international protection “since Israel is still threatening to bomb hospitals in Gaza.”

Israel says it freed a hostage during Gaza ground operation

Israel said it freed a hostage during the ground operation in Gaza today, per a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service.

The hostage was identified as Private Ori Megidish.

She was medically examined and found to be in good condition. She was reunited with her family.

Ukrainian officials deny involvement in unrest in Dagestan

Ukrainian officials are denying involvement in the antisemitic unrest in Dagestan.

“The events in Makhachkala reflect the deep-rooted anti-Semitism of Russian elites and society,” Oleg Nikolenko, Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, wrote on Facebook. “Threats to exterminate the Jews are the result of the work of Russian state propaganda, which for decades cultivated among Russians feelings of hatred for other peoples. Let’s recall that not so long ago, President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov made offensive anti-Semitic statements.”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called the events in Makhachkala “the absolutely Russian story with an inevitable crisis-ridden future.”

“The events in Makhachkala are objective for today’s RF [Russian Federation]. And as always, Russians initially sparked another chaos, hoping to gain effective propaganda dividends, and then, realizing the cannibalistic nature of their actions, they begin to look for ways to justify the unequivocal display of Russian xenophobia,” Podolyak wrote on his X account.

10 U.N. aid workers killed in 72 hours in Gaza

Ten staffers with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East have been killed in the last 72 hours in Gaza, according to a report published today. This brings the total number of UNRWA staffers killed in Gaza to 63 since Oct. 7.

“Nearly 672,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) are sheltering in 149 UNRWA installations across the Gaza Strip, facing increasingly desperate conditions,” UNRWA said in the report. “The ability to provide lifesaving assistance has been further hindered by the 36-hour disruption in communications that affected the whole Gaza Strip, including humanitarian organizations, between 27 and the early hours of 29 October.”

UNRWA also reported mounting tensions among displaced communities due to the desperate situation, resulting in break-ins into UNRWA warehouses and distribution centers.

Hamas says visit by ICC prosecutor to Rafah crossing is ‘a positive step’ but ‘insufficient to protect civilians’

In a statement, Hamas said a visit by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan to the Rafah crossing is “a positive step” but “insufficient to protect civilians.”

Hamas, recognized by the United States as a terrorist organization, said it hoped Khan would enter Gaza to see the Israeli military’s crimes in the enclave and open an investigation into them. Hamas said the crimes include “genocide, transfer, starvation, and attacks on civilians, hospitals, and places of worship.”

Hamas warned against the ICC delaying a potential investigation into the Israeli military, adding that the ICC issued a ruling on Feb. 5, 2021, recognizing Palestine as a state.

“The Hamas movement affirms the resistance’s commitment to international humanitarian law, cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor, and the right of the Palestinian people to freedom, self-determination, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” the statement read.

Conflict traps 8-year-old cancer patient far from home

JERUSALEM — May Jalal and her 8-year-old son, Ali Jnaina, are used to being trapped in the Gaza Strip. But now they are stuck at a hospital in East Jerusalem after Ali was diagnosed with leukemia just last month and traveled here for treatment right before the conflict started.

Not only are they unable to return to Gaza, where Jalal’s husband and other three children are under Israeli bombardment, they also say that, because their Palestinian travel permits have expired, they cannot even leave Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital to cross the street to grab something from a convenience store.

“I feel breathless about the disease of my son, and the war on the other side with my husband and kids there,” Jalal, 30, told NBC News at the hospital, where she is forced to sleep on the couch next to her son’s bed. “My heart is cut into pieces thinking about it.”

With the war raging and without any permits, which Palestinians need to obtain to travel around Israel, the mother and son don’t know when they will be able to return home. They can call their family in Gaza, but even this has been difficult with sporadic communications blackouts and no power grid there.

Hamas releases video purporting to show three female hostages 

JERUSALEM — Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video that purports to show three female hostages captured during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Three women are seen sitting next to one another on plastic chairs before the woman in the center delivers a message critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

The woman appears to become more agitated during the video in which she calls for their release.

The identities of the women were not released and it was unclear whether she was speaking of her own volition or reading from a script.

Israeli tank pounded civilian car, eyewitness says

A civilian car was struck by an Israeli tank near Gaza City, an eyewitness told NBC News today.

Photographer Bashar Talib said he was in a nearby car on the Salah Al Deen road when the vehicle was struck. “The driver saw it at the last minute,” he said. “He was close to the tank and the bulldozer. He stopped his car to go back, but he was targeted before driving.”

Video shot by Al-Saifi and verified by NBC News shows a white car moving northwest on the road. It tries to turn around after the driver spots a tank that immediately fires at it. It is unclear whether anyone survived.

NBC News has approached the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Photo: Water for sale by the roadside in Khan Younis

Max Butterworth

Donkey-drawn carts loaded with water for sale in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday.

‘I wish we can live safely,’ says teenager rescued from rubble

JERUSALEM — With a sling round her arm and a neck support, 14-year-old Miral Najem told an NBC News crew that gas tanks in the area exploded turning the sky red when the strike hit the city of Khan Younis in Southern Gaza last week.

The teenager was buried in rubble after Thursday’s blast, before rescuers pulled her to safety and took her to a hospital where she was treated on the floor. She said Sunday that she later learned that four of her family members were killed.

“They told us to go to the south valley,” she said. “We went to my aunt’s house in Khan Younis where they bombed us there while we were baking bread and were about to eat.”

“I wish we can live safely like all children of the world,” she said.

Ukraine played ‘key role’ in Dagestan airport protests, Kremlin says

The storming of an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region by an anti-Israeli mob was the result of a “provocation” orchestrated from outside Russia, with Ukraine playing a “direct and key role,” a spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry said today.

Maria Zakharova said the speed of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statements about the attack were “direct evidence that the information sabotage undertaken by the Kyiv intelligence services is coordinated.” 

NBC News could not independently verify this claim and has reached out to Ukrainian officials for comment.

Inside the crammed corridors of Gaza City’s Al-Quds hospital, residents cover their faces as they attempt to keep the dust out. Through a broken window, more dust billows into the air in the video provided by the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said blasts had been heard near the facility.

High Gaza child death toll is ‘harrowing,’ charity says

As the child death toll rose to more 3,100 in Gaza, it surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, according to the Save the Children charity.

“The numbers are harrowing and with violence not only continuing but expanding in Gaza right now, many more children remain at grave risk.” Save the Children Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territory Jason Lee, said in a statement yesterday.

A total of 2,985 children were killed last year, 2,515 in 2021, and 2,674 in 2020, according to the U.N. Secretary-General’s annual reports.

IDF declines to comment about blasts heard near hospital

ASHDOD, Israel — An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson has declined to comment on reports about blasts near Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City where thousands of people are taking shelter.

“We can say that we’ve been asking everyone in the north to evacuate south now for three weeks,” the IDF spokesperson told NBC News when asked about the reports.

“We can’t really comment about future attacks with what will happen in the area,” they added

Earlier today a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society told NBC News by telephone that explosions had been heard less than 200 feet from the hospital.

View into Gaza from north

SDEROT, Israel — The incursion into the Gaza Strip appears to have slowed as seen from this spot on the border with Gaza today.

While Israeli jets and drones are constantly heard overhead, the number of visible tanks and troops, and the tempo of strikes, is less then the last 48 hours. 

Some booms can still be heard, but not as loud as previous days.

Gaza’s skyline is shrouded in a haze of dust and smoke despite the bright sunshine.  

Man shot dead by police in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Israeli border police shot a man dead in East Jerusalem after he stabbed a security guard and tried to grab his gun, a spokesman for the force said in a statement.

The stabbing happened at 11 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) at a gas station near the Old City.

The suspect, who lived in East Jerusalem, grabbed the guard’s gun but didn’t manage to fire any shots, the police statement said, adding that he was chased and killed by officers. They later found the knife, the statement said, adding that investigators were at the scene.

Tensions regularly flare in this divided holy city, but violence has erupted since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 and Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza.

Gaza shelling seen from southern Israel on Monday morning

Max Butterworth

Smoke rises from inside the Gaza Strip on Monday, as seen from Sderot, in southern Israel.

Shani Louk, woman abducted at music festival, found dead, family says

A woman who was taken hostage by Hamas militants at a music festival has been found dead, her family confirmed today.

“With our deepest sadness we’re informing the death of my sister,” Adi Louk wrote on Instagram about her sibling Shani Louk, 23,

Israel’s foreign ministry also said on X that Louk’s “body was found and identified.”

The German Israeli national, who was kidnapped at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, was “tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists, experienced unfathomable horrors,” the ministry wrote.

Kibbutz evacuees anxiously wait for news about relatives and friends held hostage

EILAT, Israel — At a sprawling hotel in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, residents evacuated from Kibbutz Nir Oz face another day of anxiously waiting for news about more than 70 relatives, friends and neighbors taken hostage by Hamas.

Huddling in lobby corners and sitting at outdoor tables, they can do nothing more than watch as the Israeli offensive continues to press into Gaza.

“I’m worried about my friends daughter and son, and my neighbours son, and my neighbour and his wife. I don’t know what will bring them home,” Irit Lahav said, adding that just over 100 people, or a quarter of the Nir Oz community was killed or kidnapped when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7.

Lahav, 57, said she survived by hiding in her safe room for more than 11 hours with her daughter. Militants tried to break in but failed, she said. “I don’t know if the invasion is better or negotiation is better,” she said about the hostages. “I’m lost. I don’t know. I just want them back here.”

IDF will ‘intensify’ Gaza ground operation, spokesperson says

Israel’s military will “continue and intensify” its ground operation in Gaza where its forces are making “gradual progress,” a spokesperson told a news conference today.

Adm. Daniel Hagari said that “additional forces entered the Gaza Strip,” over the last day and some of them had fought with “terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings.”

He added that an Israeli fighter jet had “attacked launchers from which rockets were fired at Israel,” from Syria.

In the West Bank, he added that an aircraft “eliminated several terrorists in the Jenin refugee camp,” who he said were “positioned against our forces.”

Loud booms sound in Ashdod after apparent Iron Dome interception

ASHDOD, Israel — Loud booms rang out just now in the southern city Ashdod as Israel’s Iron Dome appeared to make an interception overhead.

In a shelter below, one woman raced in still wearing a beauty sheet face mask that appeared to be decorated in the likeness of Mickey Mouse. She laughed about the fact that she was still wearing it, but turned quiet as the booms rang out.

The smoke from the apparent interception could still be seen hanging in the air after the alert cleared.

Relatives mourn in Rafah, southern Gaza

Max Butterworth

Palestinians grieve as they wait to collect the bodies of relatives from the Najjar Hospital, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.

IDF says it struck terrorists ‘barricaded within civilian buildings’ in Gaza

Israel’s military said on X today that it killed “multiple terrorists barricaded within civilian buildings and terrorist tunnels who attempted to attack” its forces in Gaza.

It did not say where the buildings and tunnels were in the enclave and NBC News could not independently veirfy the claim.

The post added that its “soldiers spotted armed terrorists and an anti-tank missile launching post near the Al-Azhar University and guided an IAF fighter jet to strike them.”

Crowds storm airport in search of Jewish passengers in Russian airport

Russian law enforcement agencies have taken control of an airport in a predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, arresting 60 people after hundreds swarmed the airport on Sunday when a plane from Israel arrived.

“More than 150 active participants in the riots were identified,” the ministry of internal affairs for the northern region said, adding that nine police officers had been injured.

Videos verified by NBC News showed protestors at the Makhachkala airport waving Palestinian flags and shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great,” as they broke glass doors and ran throughout the airport and the tarmac. One video showed the mob questioning an airport employee outside the plane, who said the passengers had left. Another group attempted to topple a police car.

Israel on Sunday urged Russian authorities to protect all Israeli citizens and Jews.

Strikes heard less than 200ft from Gaza hospital, health official says

ASHDOD, Israel — Blasts have rung out less than 200ft from the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City which is sheltering thousands of people, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society told NBC News by telephone this morning. 

Many women and children are among at least 14,000 people packed into the facility and a large number need medical care, said Nebal Farsakh. She added that others simply believed it would be the safest place to shelter from Israeli strikes in northern Gaza.

Farsakh said the hospital received at least two warnings calls ordering officials to evacuate the facility. “They ask people to evacuate themselves with no transportation, with no fuel, no cars. How are they going to make it?” she said, adding that the area surrounding the hospital has come under intense bombardment, she said.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News on whether warning calls were made or whether the area surrounding the hospital was being targeted.

Hostage negotiations stalled over Hamas demand for fuel deliveries to Gaza

DOHA, Qatar — Talks to free some of the hostages held by militant group Hamas stalled over Israel’s unwillingness to send fuel to Gaza, its base, and Hamas’ objection to guaranteeing it would release a large number of foreign captives, according to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations over the release of some of the estimated 230 hostages.

“Hamas has been insistent on receiving fuel,” said the former U.S. official, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to talk publicly. “The Israel and U.S. side, plus other countries, want a large batch of their citizens released.”

Read the full story here.

Threats to Cornell Jewish Living Center reported to FBI

Threats to Cornell University’s Jewish community were reported to the FBI as a possible hate crime, the university’s president said Sunday in a letter to the Cornell community.

“Earlier today, a series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence to our Jewish community” was posted on a site not connected to Cornell, university President Martha E. Pollack wrote.

The threats specifically mentioned the campus address of the Center for Jewish Living, the letter said, and Cornell Police notified the FBI of a potential hate crime.

University police were present at the living center and will continue to be on site to offer protection, Pollack said.

Catch up with NBC News’ latest coverage of the Israel-Hamas war