Israel-Hamas war updates: Musk says he’d like to help with Gaza rebuild, American girl among 17 hostages freed

200 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, cooking gas and fuel enter the Gaza Strip during the humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City, Gaza on November 28, 2023.

-Ashraf Amra | Anadolu | Getty Image

In his conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Elon Musk said that he would want to play a part in Gaza’s recovery once the war is over.

Netanyahu laid out that his main priority is to neutralize Hamas, after which he will turn to rebuilding Gaza: “You first have to get rid of this poisonous regime.”

Musk agreed and offered to be involved in the post-war recovery.

“I think that makes perfect sense that those who are intent on murder must be neutralized, then the propaganda must stop … and then making Gaza prosperous,” Musk said.

“Well, I hope you’ll be involved,” Netanyahu responded.

“I’d love to help,” Musk said.

Musk, the chief executive of rocket manufacturer SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla, has used his various tech companies for geopolitical reasons in the past. The Pentagon has commissioned Musk’s Starlink satellite technology to provide internet in Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia. Musk also received federal approval to test SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy rocket, which ultimately self-destructed.

— Rebecca Picciotto

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Kibbutz Be’eri Monday.

The kibbutz was one of the sites of the deadly Oct. 7 attack by gunmen from Palestinian militant group Hamas.

-Ronen Zvulun | Reuters

Elon Musk expressed support for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza during an online live chat, saying “there’s no choice” in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressing during the chat that Hamas must be destroyed.

“The rebuttal is often made that well you know, ‘but Israel has killed civilians, you know, also in Gaza’,” Musk said. “But there is an important difference here which is that Israel tries to avoid killing civilians, doing everything it can to avoid killing civilians. And, you know, there’s not, sort of, joy expressed.”

Human rights groups and the U.N. have accused Israel of targeting hospitals, schools, residences and other civilian infrastructure. Israel denies it is targeting civilians, saying that Hamas uses the facilities as cover for its command centers and operations.

“It was troubling to see protests in almost every major city in favor of Hamas, or well, they generally characterize it as sort of a free Palestine movement,” Musk said.

“We want a good future for Palestinians,” the Tesla CEO and X owner added. “The challenge is how do you get rid of the ones who are hell bent on murdering Jewish people, minimizing civilian casualties, and ultimately stopping the sort of propaganda that is convincing people to engage in, you know, murder. At the end of the day that is really essential.”

— Natasha Turak

Palestinians carry empty gas canisters to be filled with cooking gas from a tank that entered the Palestinian enclave in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Trucks carrying aid, including fuel, food and medicine, began moving into Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt shortly after a truce began on Nov. 24. It is the biggest humanitarian convoy to enter the besieged territory since the war started on Oct. 7 between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.

-Getty Images

“It was jarring to see the scene of the massacre, or one of the scenes of the massacres,” Elon Musk said during a streamed live chat on his social media platform X, where he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the two visited a kibbutz that was attacked on Oct. 7.

Musk was also shown a film featuring footage of the attacks, and said it “was troubling in that movie, especially to see the joy experienced by the people that were killing innocent civilians, including kids and babies.”

Netanyahu then detailed more of the attacks and called Hamas a “death cult.”

“It’s one thing if, obviously, if civilians die, accidentally, but it’s another thing to revel in the joy of killing civilians … That’s evil. It’s really a manifestation of a death cult. That’s what Hamas is,” he said.

— Natasha Turak

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited military troops in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday – the third day of the ongoing humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas.

–GPO | Anadolu | Getty Images

Elon Musk, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited a kibbutz in southern Israel that had been attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

The two toured Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Musk “heard from the head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Council Yossi Keren and a representative of the IDF spokesman Liad Diamond an overview of the massacre at the kibbutz,” a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said.

The Tesla CEO and owner of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, then was taken to individual families’ homes to hear more personal experiences of the attacks.

Among those was the story of the family of the four-year-old Abigail Itamari, the statement said. Itamari’s parents were killed and she was kidnapped by Hamas and taken as a hostage to Gaza, released from captivity on Sunday.

— Natasha Turak

Giorgos Gerapetritis, Greece’s minister of foreign affairs, says there needs to be “positive momentum.”

The Burlington Police Department said it arrested a suspect in the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent.

The students were shot and wounded near the University of Vermont Saturday night, police said.

Two of the three 20-year-old men are in stable condition, while the other is facing more serious injuries, according to a police report.

“On Sunday afternoon, at approximately 1538 hours, ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] agents who were conducting a canvass at the location of the shooting encountered and detained Jason J. Eaton, 48. Detectives worked with the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, and with the Chittenden County State’s Attorney, Sarah George, to complete a search warrant for Mr. Eaton’s residence in the apartment building in front of which the shooting took place,” the police statement read.

— Matt Clinch

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed to NBC News that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today.

He will also meet President Isaac Herzog, at 3:45 p.m. local time, who will reportedly emphasize the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.

Earlier this month, Musk issued a spate of bigoted tweets that spurred a backlash online. He agreed with a tweet that said Jewish people have been pushing “dialectical hatred” against whites, and later criticized the Anti-Defamation League.

— Matt Clinch

U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday he hoped the Gaza truce would be extended to allow more captives to be freed.

According to Sky News, he said in Nantucket, Massachusetts, “That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow, so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief to those in need in Gaza.”

— Matt Clinch

Hamas said for the first time that it would seek to extend the deal by looking to release a larger number of hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying he had spoken to U.S. President Joe Biden and reiterated his offer to extend the cease-fire by an additional day for every 10 hostages Hamas releases. But he said Israel would resume its offensive “with all of our might” once the truce expires.

Read more here.

— Associated Press

Three Palestinian students were shot and wounded near the University of Vermont Saturday night, police said.

Two of the three 20-year-old men are in stable condition, while the other is facing more serious injuries, according to a report from the Burlington Police Department in Vermont.

Read the story here.

— Rebecca Picciotto

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed that 17 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were released on Sunday, including four-year-old Israeli-American Abigail Mor Edan.

The Prime Minister’s office said that 14 of the individuals were Israeli citizens, while the other three were foreign nationals.

The release on Sunday, the third day of the four-day military pause, brings the total number of freed hostages to 41. Fifty Hamas hostages are due to be freed over the four days under the terms of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. In the first two days of the cease-fire, 24 hostages were released from Gaza in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners.

Read the story here.

— Rebecca Picciotto