Israel-Hamas war live updates: Palestinian data provider says internet is cut off; Israeli army forces ‘expanding their activity’ in Gaza

Israel-Hamas war live updates: Palestinian data provider says internet is cut off; Israeli army forces 'expanding their activity' in Gaza

UN adopts resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce

Workers of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) agency in the playground of an UNRWA-run school that has been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinian people.

Mahmud Hams | Afp | Getty Images

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

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the USA to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during briefing at UN Headquarters. USA will serve as President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of August. 

Lev Radin | Lightrocket | Getty Images

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’

Displaced families, who returned from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip to the north due to the dangers and difficulties they faced there under Israeli bombardment, take shelter at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 25, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Dawood Nemer | Afp | Getty Images

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.

— 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 second convoy of aid trucks cross the Rafah border from the Egyptian side on October 22, 2023 in North Sinai, Egypt.

Mahmoud Khaled | Getty Images

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

Rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

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

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff wait to greet Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Matthew Barrett ahead of a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at the Vice President’s residence in the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2023.

Olivier Douliery | Afp | Getty Images

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

In this undated image taken from video released by Israeli Defense Forces, a line of Israeli tanks are shown during an incursion into the Gaza Strip.

IDF | AP

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.

In this undated image taken from video released by Israeli Defense Forces, a line of Israeli tanks are shown during an incursion into the Gaza Strip.

IDF | AP

“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

US President Joe Biden looks on during a meeting with the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 25, 2023.

Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images

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

Secretary-General António Guterres remarks on Russian termination of the Black Sea Initiative to deliver grain and fertilizers to the world market during a Security Council stakeout at the United Nations Headquarters.

Lev Radin | Lightrocket | Getty Images

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

12 October 2023, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: The display at Frankfurt Airport shows that a flight to Tel Aviv has been canceled. In the afternoon, two Lufthansa planes with evacuees from Israel are expected here. Photo: Boris Roessler/dpa (Photo by Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

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 picture taken on January 13, 2020, during a press tour organised by the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group, shows a view inside Ain al-Asad military airbase housing US and other foreign troops in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

Ayman Henna | AFP | Getty Images

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

Israeli firefighters and rescuers stand on the roof as they access the damage to a partially destroyed building following a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Jack Guez | Afp | Getty Images

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.

People leave their vehicles to take cover during a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip along a main road in Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. 

Gil Cohen-magen | AFP | Getty Images

People leave their vehicles to take cover during a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip along a main road in Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. 

Gil Cohen-magen | AFP | Getty Images

People leave their vehicles to take cover during a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip along a main road in Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. 

Gil Cohen-magen | AFP | Getty Images

People leave their vehicles to take cover during a rocket attack from the Palestinian Gaza Strip along a main road in Tel Aviv on October 27, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. 

Gil Cohen-magen | AFP | Getty Images

People seek cover during a rocket alert while attending a demonstration calling to release the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Amir Levy | Getty Images

— 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

Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr gives a speech in Iraq’s central holy shrine city of Najaf on August 30, 2022. –

Qassem Al-kaabi | Afp | Getty Images

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. 

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (C) and his security secretary Israeli Police Deputy Commissioner Kobi Yaakovi (L) inspect M5 automatic assault rifles being handed out to volunteers of the new civilian guard unit during the unit’s inauguration ceremony in the southern city of Ashkelon on October 27, 2023. 

Menahem Kahana | Afp | Getty Images

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 on October 27, 2023.

Menahem Kahana | Afp | Getty Images

A police officers sorts M5 automatic assault rifles ahead of handing them to members of the new civilian guard unit during an inauguration ceremony.

Ilia Yefimovich | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Volunteers of the new civilian guard unit sit together after receiving 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 on October 27, 2023.

Menahem Kahana | Afp | Getty Images

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.

Internally displaced Palestinians are pictured in an United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Mahmud Hams | Afp | Getty Images

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.

A Palestinian man walks amid the rubble of buildings hit in Israeli air strikes in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

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.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) holds press conference in Jerusalem on October 27, 2023.

Mostafa Alkharouf | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

“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.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo speaks at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Britain, October 27, 2023. 

Hannah Mckay | Reuters

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.

A convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid enters the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on October 21, 2023.

Eyad Baba | AFP | Getty Images

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.

A member of the public looks at a wall displaying pictures of people still held hostage in Gaza, on October 26, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images

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.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

“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

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon July 21, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

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

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell arrives at the European Council, the EU leaders meeting at the headquarters of the European Union. Josep Borrell Fontelles of the European External Action Service does doorstep statement to the media representatives, talks about the meeting agenda and answers questions from journalists and international press. EU leaders and heads of states have on their agenda to discuss on the 2-day summit the topics of the humanitarian "pauses" in Israel’s war with Hamas, the support to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and the migration crisis situation. EUCO in Brussels, Belgium on 26 October 2023 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

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

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2023.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

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.

EDITORS NOTE-Graphic Content: A Palestinian mother hugs the dead body of her child at En-Neccar hospital after the Israeli airstrikes which continues on its 15th day in Rafah, Gaza on October 21, 2023.

Abed Rahim Khatib | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Riya Bhattacharjee

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