Israel-Hamas war live updates: Biden and Netanyahu discuss temporary pauses in fighting; Gaza City residents flee after IDF order

The International Committee of the Red Cross said two of its trucks were damaged when a convoy of its vehicles in Gaza came under fire on Tuesday.

The ICRC vehicles were hit as they were transporting vital medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities in the besieged enclave, the aid group said. A driver was lightly wounded.

“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza. Officials did not provide further details on the trucks’ location inside Gaza.

— Associated Press

The figures are staggering: 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are unable to access routine maternal health care, 180 women are giving birth there every day, and 5,500 babies have been born since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Dr. Natalia Kanem, head of the U.N. agency that promotes reproductive and sexual health, gave those figures at a U.N. press conference Tuesday, where she issued an urgent appeal for fuel for hospitals and incubators, clean water and food for pregnant and lactating women, and for a humanitarian cease-fire.

Kanem said the U.N. has no figures on the number of new mothers or newborns who’ve died since the war began. But she said, “we have seen losses of life” of newborns in hospitals who need incubators and oxygen which require fuel, adding that being in a hospital is essential for Caesarean section deliveries.

While two truckloads of health and delivery kits and medication have arrived in Gaza, “it’s a drop in the bucket” compared to the needs, said Kanem, the executive director of the U.N. Population Fund.

Pregnant women need double the amount of fluid than non-pregnant women, “and if you’re a lactating mother, it’s triple” — and “brackish water is not a solution,” she added.

— The Associated Press

The White House said President Joe Biden discussed implementing temporary pauses in fighting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to create an opportunity for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

The pause in the conflict would also give people who want to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing an opportunity to do so.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the Biden administration plans to “keep the dialogue going.”

— Amanda Macias

The White House said approximately 93 trucks have entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing in the past 24 hours.

“That brings the total to 569 trucks since Oct. 21 and, as we’ve said many times before, we know that’s not enough. It’s a trickle,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House.

Kirby added that President Joe Biden discussed accelerating the pace of humanitarian aid into Gaza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Monday.

— Amanda Macias

A person places flowers at a makeshift memorial at the site of a deadly altercation between 69-year-old Paul Kessler, who was Jewish, and a pro-Palestinian protestor on Nov. 7, 2023, in Thousand Oaks, California.

— Getty Images

A month on from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen that killed 1,400 Israelis, investors are gradually returning to the country’s financial markets, warily accepting the descent into its worst security crisis in decades.

Although a significant weakening of the dollar over the last week has helped, Israel’s shekel marked a remarkable comeback on Tuesday as it recouped the last of the 5% it lost in the days after last month’s atrocities.

The country’s stocks and bond prices have been clawing back ground too, although they and the main market gauges of risk aversion such as credit default swaps (CDS) are still flashing warning signs.

“The fact that the fighting is only in Gaza (for now) and not in the north is helping local investors to focus on the (economic) fundamentals,” said Yaniv Pagot, head of trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

— Reuters

More than 400 U.S. citizens and their family members have left Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, a State Department official confirmed to NBC News.

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department has so far heard from approximately 1,000 Americans who said they wanted to leave Gaza.

— Amanda Macias

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated calls for an immediate cease-fire as the Israel and Hamas conflict drags into its second month.

“The Secretary-General reiterates his total condemnation of the acts of terror committed by Hamas in Israel for which there can be no justification,” United Nations Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

“He will never forget the horrendous images of civilians being killed and maimed and others being dragged away into captivity. He reiterates his appeal for their immediate and unconditional release,” the statement added. 

— Amanda Macias

Displaced Gaza residents are sheltering in a schoolyard in the Deir El-Balah refugee camp.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) describes Deir El-Balah as the smallest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, noting it is comprised of eight school buildings.

— Melodie Warner

Military installations in Iraq and Syria housing U.S. troops have experienced an uptick in attacks since October 17. NBC News has tallied at least 40 attacks against bases in Iraq and Syria.

The attacks come amid concerns that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas may widen to other parts of the Middle East.

The Biden administration has previously warned malign actors of taking advantage of the onoing security crisis.

— Amanda Macias

The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict to agree to a humanitarian cease-fire, adding that history will judge their actions.

“How long will this human catastrophe last?”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media, noting that the conflict had already killed over 10,000 people, almost half of them children.

“We urge all parties to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire and work toward lasting peace. We again call for the immediate release of the hostages. History will judge us all by what we do to end this tragedy,” he said.

— Karen Gilchrist

Turkey’s parliament pulled Coca-Cola and Nestle products from its restaurants over the brands’ apparent support for Israel in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Without naming the companies in question, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly said in a statement that “the products of companies that support Israel will not be sold in restaurants, cafeterias and tea houses in the parliament campus.”

A parliamentary source told Reuters that Coca-Cola beverages and Nestle instant coffee were the only products removed from menus.

They added that the decision by Speaker Numan Kurtulmus to ban the brands was in response to a “huge public outcry” against the American brands, which are seen as an extension of U.S. government backing of Israel.

Coca-Cola and Nestle did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the move.

— Karen Gilchrist

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a new batch of drones against sensitive targets inside Israel on Monday, Reuters reported their armed forces as saying.

In a statement broadcast by Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, the Houthis said the targets of the drones were “varied and sensitive.”

The IDF did not provide any comment on Monday on the Houthi claims, and CNBC was unable to independently verify the account.

— Karen Gilchrist

Palestinian refugee children living in Lebanese camps take part in a sit-in in the capital Beirut denouncing the killing of children in Gaza, on November 7, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

— Anwar Amro | AFP | Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of residents are still in Gaza City and northern Gaza despite Israel’s warnings to move south, the enclave’s officials said Tuesday as Israel continued its ground advances into the strip.

“No aid has reached citizens in Gaza and the north for 32 days, and no supplies have reached shelter centers or residential neighborhoods,” NBC News reported Iyad Al-Bazm, a spokesperson for the Gaza interior ministry and national security, as telling a news conference in Gaza City.

— Karen Gilchrist

Indonesia’s foreign ministry said today that the purpose of the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza was to “fully” serve Palestinians in response to an accusation by the Israeli military that it has been used by Hamas to launch attacks.

“Indonesia Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by Indonesians fully for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the hospital is run by Palestinian authorities with the help of a few Indonesian volunteers.

The hospital “is currently treating patients in the amount that far exceeds its capacity,” the ministry said.

Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of the MER-C voluntary group that funded the Indonesia Hospital, also denied Israel’s accusations, saying yesterday that they were a “precondition so that they can attack the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.”

— Reuters

Israeli forces say they struck a building adjacent to the Al Quds hospital in Gaza City, describing the site in a statement as housing “terrorists.”

“The attack led to significant secondary explosions which indicate the presence of a Hamas weapons depot in a civilian area,” the IDF statement said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) wrote on a post on social media site X: “While displaced individuals was trying to obtain drinking water, the IOF shelled a house near Al-Quds Hospital, what compelled the residents to seek refuge in the hospital in a state of fear and panic, especially among the children.”

In a separate earlier statement, the PRCS accused the IDF of attacking the area near the hospital Monday night, saying that “(Israel) targeted the vicinity of Al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip with two missiles, approximately 50 meters away from the hospital gate.”

The IDF says it has repeatedly warned Gaza City residents to move south for their safety, although Israeli airstrikes also continue in the southern half of the enclave.

More than 60% of Gaza’s hospitals and medical facilities are now out of service, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

— Natasha Turak

EDITORS NOTE-Graphic Content: This post contains an image depicting death in Gaza.

At least 10,328 people have been killed and 25,956 have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attack carried out by Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to the Palestinian ministry of health in the Hamas-run enclave.

At least 155 Palestinian people have been killed in the West Bank in that same period.

In Israel, over 1,400 people were killed and more than 7,198 have been injured since the early-October start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the Israeli government.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces announced a four-hour evacuation window for residents of Gaza City, as the Israeli military continues its campaign against what it calls Hamas strongholds.

Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s spokesman for Arab media, wrote in a Google-translated post on social media site X, “I would like to inform you that although Hamas continues to undermine the ongoing humanitarian efforts on your behalf and uses you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10:00 AM and 14:00 PM. For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza.”

That four-hour window has now passed.

Residents fleeing Gaza City, which had been home to about 30% of the blockaded enclave’s 2.3 million people, were cited by Reuters as saying they passed tanks that appeared to be in position to storm the city. CNBC could not verify the report.

Israeli forces have continued bombing sites in southern Gaza despite telling residents to flee southward for their safety.

— Natasha Turak

Sixty-six people have been killed and 540 have been injured while sheltering in 50 facilities of the U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) over the past month of conflict, UNRWA said on social media.

“People sheltering under the @UN flag- seeking safety in @UNRWA schools- were killed in places that should be protected under International Humanitarian Law,” the agency said.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

Many of the UNRWA-run schools on Palestinian territories have been transformed into refugee shelters amid ongoing bombardment and heavy displacement of the population from the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military says that it only sets out to target the military positions or operations of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

— Ruxandra Iordache

More than 100 foreign nationals left Gaza and entered Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday, according to an Egyptian border official cited by CNN.

The total number of foreign passport holders evacuated from the besieged Gaza Strip for the day up to that point was 114, the official said, with an additional four wounded Palestinians allowed into Egypt for medical treatment. At least 30 more injured Palestinians are set to enter the country on Tuesday, the official added.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said earlier in the day that it would help evacuate some 7,000 foreign nationals from Gaza. When Israel launched its aerial bombardment of Gaza, there were some 600 American citizens trapped in the besieged enclave, as well as thousands more foreign nationals from roughly 60 different countries.

— Natasha Turak

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the G7 foreign minister talks due to take place in Tokyo over Nov. 7-8 are an important moment for the coalition to rally and address the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

“This is a very important moment as well for the G7 to come together in the face of this crisis and to speak, as we do, with one clear voice,” Blinken said, according to a statement. He was speaking with Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Youko, shortly after talks with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.

“We appreciate the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. in the recent situation between Israel and Palestine,” Kamikawa said. “You have our utmost support.”

Representatives for the G7 — which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., as well as the European Union — meet in Tokyo for conversations expected to touch on the growing crisis in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Blinken arrived in Japan fresh from another whirlwind tour of the Middle East seeking to de-escalate tensions.

— Ruxandra Iordache

An Israeli tank has attacked a “terrorist squad” in Lebanese territory that attempted to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israeli territory, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said on social media, according to a Google translation.

IDF forces also attacked a position of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “in order to remove a threat,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

CNBC could not independently verify the developments.

Hezbollah and the IDF have exchanged fire since the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, with the Lebanese militants citing solidarity with the Palestinian people. The IDF maintains it is limiting its offensives against Hezbollah to defensive and retaliatory strikes.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz urged the international community to be “unequivocal and proactive in their condemnation of terror and antisemitism,” following the death of Jewish-American Paul Kessler during a clash at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies.

Kessler, 69, “was in a physical altercation with counter-protestor(s)” in California, U.S., the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement, according to NBC News. He fell backwards during the conflict and died on Monday.

“The murder of Jewish-American Paul Kessler should serve as a stark warning sign to the whole world,” Gantz said on social media. “Israel stands today at the forefront of the global fight against the murderous antisemitic ideology behind the Hamas terror attacks of 7.10.”

Attacks against Jewish people and antisemitic sentiments have been on the rise globally since the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent retaliatory siege of the Gaza Strip.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk began a five-day visit to the Middle East to engage with government officials, civil society and U.N. staff on the regional human rights situation amid the Israel-Hamas war.

He is in Cairo on Tuesday to meet the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry. On Wednesday, he will visit the Rafah crossing — the single land passageway into the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel and the ground route for aid to the enclave.

“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in an emailed statement. “Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain.”

He will head to Amman, Jordan, on Thursday.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The United Arab Emirates will set up a field hospital with a 150-bed capacity in the Gaza Strip to deliver essential medical treatment to Palestinian people, the country’s state-run news agency said late Monday.

Five aircrafts carrying supplies and equipment for the medical facility departed from Abu Dhabi and will unload their cargo at the al-Arish airport in Egypt, before being transported to the Gaza Strip — likely by truck, through the Rafah crossing.

The UAE previously announced $20 million of urgent aid to the Palestinian people and an initiative to bring approximately 1,000 Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip, alongside their families, for medical treatment in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi has historically supported the cause of the Palestinian people, but notably normalized relations with Israel in 2020 through the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said in a daily Telegram update covering the events of the past day.

The IDF added that anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and intelligence materials were located on the site of the compound.

In addition to claiming it damaged other Hamas weapons and infrastructure, the IDF said it also targeted a cell of 10 operatives of the Palestinian militant group and separately located a number of Hamas agents who “barricaded themselves in a building adjacent to the al-Quds hospital, and planned to carry out an attack on the forces from there.”

CNBC could not independently confirm these reports.

The IDF, which says it is carrying out its air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip to eliminate the military capabilities of Hamas, has previously accused the group of using Palestinian people as shields and taking cover at or under civilian refuge and medical treatment sites.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Forces said they killed Wael Asefa, commander of the Deir al-Balah battalion of Palestinian militant group Hamas, who was presumed involved in the terror and abduction attack of Oct. 7.

CNBC could not independently verify the report.

The IDF has repeatedly stated the official aim of its campaign in the Gaza Strip is to fully demilitarize Hamas and to kill its commanders.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Jordan said on Monday it was leaving “all options” open in its response to what it called Israel’s failure to discriminate between military and civilian targets in its intensifying bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh did not elaborate on what steps Jordan would take, days after it recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest at Israel’s offensive in Gaza after a cross-border Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Jordan also announced last week that Israel’s ambassador, who left Amman shortly after Hamas’ attack, would not be allowed to come back, effectively declaring him persona non grata.

“All options are on the table for Jordan in our dealing with the Israeli aggression on Gaza and its repercussions,” Khasawneh, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, told state media.

— Reuters

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that there will be no cease-fire in Gaza unless Hamas agrees to release Israeli hostages.

“There would be no cease-fire, general cease-fire in Gaza, without the release of our hostages,” he said in an exclusive interview with David Muir, the anchor for ABC News “World News Tonight.”

Asked if there will be a humanitarian pause if hostages are released, Netanyahu said, “There’ll be a cease-fire for that purpose. We’re waiting for that to happen. It hasn’t happened so far.”

Hamas militants currently hold about 240 hostages whom they kidnapped and brought into the Palestinian enclave on Oct. 7. Israel has has launched an air campaign and ground offensive in a bid to remove the militants who run Gaza.

On who should govern Gaza when the war is over, the prime minister said: “Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas.” He added that Israel will have to oversee security responsibility in Gaza “for an indefinite period” in order to ensure that Hamas cannot carry out large-scale terrorism acts again.

— Joanna Tan

Activists from the Jewish Voice for Peace staged a sit-in demonstration at the Statue of Liberty. The group has been occupying high-profile New York City locations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

-Stephanie Keith | Getty Images

NBC News’ Raf Sanchez was given rare access to the expansive tunnel network underneath northern Gaza with the Israel Defense Force.

“We’re in big operation to seize as many tunnels as we can, to investigate them and obviously to terminate them,” IDF Lt. Col. Ariel Gonen told NBC News. “The tunnels are underneath hospitals, everything. We see that they’re under schools, under mosques,” he added.

Read the full story on NBC News.

— Amanda Macias