Marchers in Washington call for cease-fire in Gaza, say women, children and elderly are ‘paying the price’
WASHINGTON — One theme was common among Washington, D.C., protesters who spoke to NBC News today: They want a cease-fire in Gaza now and are calling on President Joe Biden to implement one.
“Nobody should be oppressed. Nobody should be killed indiscriminately,” Hind Abi Akar said. “Be just. Be fair. Cease-fire now and start talking. That’s what we want them to do.”
Nick Cream and Sara Azraq also called for an immediate cease-fire, with Azraq pleading to stop the killing of children in Gaza.
“A lot of innocent children are dying. A lot of kids are dying from starvation, injuries. They don’t even have medicine at the hospitals,” said protester Hannah Abel. “There is no reason for any of this. There should have been a cease-fire a long time ago.”
Mazen Badr said he lost 10 members of his family in the nearly 100 days since Oct. 7, including his mother, whose home in central Gaza was destroyed.
Women, children and the elderly are “paying the price” and “don’t deserve this,” he said, adding that children in Gaza should be afforded the same upbringing as kids in Washington.
Badr called on the Biden administration to “present the truth to your people.”
“Very simple thing. Cease-fire now,” said Alaa Hussein Ali, who said his brother was killed while trying to get water and that more than 100 members of his extended family have died in Gaza.
“We’re just begging President Biden and his administration. Stop the bloodshed. Their blood is in their hands,” Ali said, referring to Biden and Congress. “They all can stop this and we all know that they can stop with the other hand.”
Thousands gather in Tel Aviv for 24-hour rally marking 100 days of war
TEL AVIV — Thousands of people have crowded into “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv, with thousands more spilling out into the streets to join a 24-hour rally marking 100 days since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack — and for dozens of families, 100 days since their loved ones were taken hostage.
The words “bring them home now” echoed across the square as demonstrators called on the Israeli government and international community to do more to see the more than 100 people still held hostage in Gaza released.
“I feel awful. … We don’t see the end,” said Shuki Benjamin, whose brother, Ron Benjamin, was taken hostage on Oct. 7 while on a cycling trip near Be’eri. He had been trying to return home after hearing sirens blaring when he was kidnapped, Benjamin said.
Speaking with NBC News at the rally, Benjamin said he struggles to imagine how his brother has survived 100 days possibly sitting “in tunnels without light, without food.”
He said he also felt disappointed by the international community’s response, adding: “I expect from the world to shout out, you know, to do something. Nothing happened, so it’s very disappointing.”
Those planning to stay for the full 24-hour rally face a long night ahead, with rain beginning to fall a few hours into the event and expected to continue into the morning.
Family members blast words of support for hostages over the Israel-Gaza border
RE’IM, Israel — Armed with just a microphone and loudspeakers, they delivered a message of hope for their loved ones held hostage by Hamas for almost 100 days.
“We’re turning the entire world upside down for you,” said Meirav Gonen, whose 23-year-old daughter Romi remains in captivity, as she stood on Israel’s border with Gaza on Thursday.
“We’re here. We’re here on the fence, we’re here for you and for the rest of the abductees. We’re bringing you home. We’re doing everything, turning the whole world upside down, bringing the entire world together just to ensure that you return,” she added.
Others took the microphone and delivered their own messages, hopeful that their relatives would hear them above the din of the ongoing war.
“It’s Mom and Dad. We’re here, we’re really close to you, we’re fighting for you every single day,” one said.
Some shed tears as they spoke at the event. Most held posters with pictures of their loved ones. Others stood silently, reflecting on the fact that they have not seen or heard from their relatives after they were taken captive on Oct. 7 — 100 days ago Sunday.
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‘They don’t deserve this’: Thousands rally in U.S. in support of Gaza
Thousands of Americans are gathered in Washington, D.C., for a march in support of Gaza. The march includes a stop at the White House, where protesters are demanding a cease-fire.
A global day of protests draws thousands in London and other cities in pro-Palestinian marches
LONDON — Children joined thousands of other demonstrators making their way through central London for a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday, part of a global day of action against the longest and deadliest war between Israel and Palestinians in 75 years.
The plight of children in the Gaza Strip after nearly 100 days of the Israel-Hamas war was the focus of the latest London march, symbolized by the appearance of Little Amal, a 11.5-foot puppet originally meant to highlight the suffering of Syrian refugees.
The puppet had become a human rights emblem during a 4,970-mile journey from the Turkish-Syrian border to Manchester in July 2021.
Nearly two-thirds of the 23,843 people killed during Israel’s campaign in Gaza have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border attack on Oct. 7 in which the Islamic militant group killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage. It was the deadliest attack in Israel’s history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.
March organizers had said the Palestinian children would accompany Little Amal through the streets of central London.
“On Saturday Amal walks for those most vulnerable and for their bravery and resilience,” said Amir Nizar Zuabi, artistic director of The Walk Productions. “Amal is a child and a refugee and today in Gaza childhood is under attack, with an unfathomable number of children killed. Childhood itself is being targeted. That’s why we walk.”
London’s Metropolitan Police force said some 1,700 officers would be on duty for the march, including many from outside the capital.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said he had been briefed by police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley on plans to “ensure order and safety” during the protest.
“I back them to use their powers to manage the protest and crack down on any criminality,” Cleverly said.
A number of conditions were placed for the march, including a directive that no participant in the protest shall venture near the Israeli Embassy.
A pro-Israel rally was set to take place in London on Sunday.
The London march was one of several others being held in European cities including Paris, Rome, Milan and Dublin, where thousands also marched along the Irish capital’s main thoroughfare to protest Israel’s military operations in the Palestinian enclave.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags, held placards critical of the Irish, U.S. and Israeli governments and chanted, “Free, free Palestine.″
In Rome, hundreds of demonstrators descended on a boulevard near the famous Colosseum, with some carrying signs reading, “Stop Genocide.” One demonstrator waved the flag of South Africa, the nation whose accusations of genocide against Israel prompted the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to take up the case.
At one point during the protest, amid the din of sound effects mimicking exploding bombs, a number of demonstrators lay down in the street and pulled white sheets over themselves as if they were corpses, while others knelt beside them, their palms daubed in red paint.
Many hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Paris’ Republic Square to set off on a march calling for an immediate cease-fire, an end to the war, a lifting of the blockade on Gaza and to impose sanctions on Israel. Marching protesters waved the Palestinian flag and held aloft placards and banners reading, “From Gaza to Paris. Resistance.”
Another failed attempt to deliver fuel to Gaza City, municipality of Gaza says
There has been another failed attempt to deliver fuel to Gaza City, according to a statement on the municipality of Gaza’s X account.
“Today, another attempt to deliver fuel to Gaza City failed after 74 days of promises that were not fulfilled due to the occupation preventing it,” the municipality wrote. “We call on the Security Council UN to implement its resolution (2720) to intervene urgently to save the residents of Gaza and deliver fuel immediately to operate water wells.”
U.N. Resolution 2720 “demands immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip,” according to the U.N.
March for Gaza rally held in Washington as Israel-Hamas war nears 100 days
Thousands of protesters are gathering in Washington, D.C., for the “March for Gaza” rally, marking nearly 100 days since the Israel-Hamas war began. The rally was organized by the American Muslim Task Force from Palestine, and others calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
10,000 cancer patients left without treatment in Gaza, according to Hamas
Ten-thousand cancer patients have been left without treatment in Gaza due to the now-broken health care system, according to a statement from Hamas’ English Telegram channel.
Around 150,000 patients with chronic illnesses are also not able to receive treatment in Gaza, the group said. There are more than 1,000 cases of hepatitis C in Gaza and the numbers are increasing.
“The health sector in Gaza is in a state of complete collapse under the continued Israeli aggression,” Hamas said in a statement. “All hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza areas including Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital became out of service due to the Israeli occupation army attacks and lack of electricity.”
Container shipping rates soar amid fears of prolonged Red Sea conflict
Container shipping rates for key global trade routes have soared this week, with U.S. and U.K. airstrikes on Yemen stirring fears of a prolonged disruption to global trade in Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest routes, industry officials said on Friday.
U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines launched dozens of strikes across Yemen overnight, retaliating against Iran-backed Houthi forces for attacks on Red Sea shipping, widening regional conflict stemming from Israel’s war in Gaza.
Most container ships already were avoiding the nearby Suez Canal, a shortcut between Asia and Europe that handles 12% of global trade. Warnings from the U.S. and U.K. militaries for all ships to steer clear of the conflict zone stoked fears that rates for oil tankers and bulk carriers that ferry vital commodities could surge, raising the risk of a new round of global inflation.
Rates on the Shanghai-Europe route rose 8.1% to $3,103 per 20-foot container on Friday from a week earlier, while the rate for containers to the unaffected U.S. West Coast soared 43.2% to $3,974 per 40-foot containers week on week, leading ship broker Clarksons said on Friday.
Fencing goes up around White House in preparation for pro-Palestinian protests
Extensive fencing was erected outside the White House overnight, as the capital prepares for a March on Washington for Gaza later today, which 10,000 people are expected to attend.
Protesters are expected to assemble at Freedom Plaza at 1 p.m. and march northwest to Lafayette Square, according to the organizers.
President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Camp David this morning and will not be in the White House for protests.
Russia requests U.N. Security Council meeting over U.S.-U.K. strikes on Yemen
Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations said it has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss military strikes on Yemen by the United States and Britain.
In a statement Friday, Russia, an ally of Iran and several Middle East powers, condemned the U.S.-allied strikes on Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen as “irresponsible,” saying the attacks could provoke further destabilization in the region.
Prior to the strikes on Thursday, the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an end to attacks by the Houthis on shipping in the Red Sea, despite abstentions from both Russia and China.
Israel failed to disprove genocide case at ICJ, South Africa says
Israel has failed to disprove a “compelling” case for genocide, South Africa’s Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola said in a statement on Friday.
Standing outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Lamola said that South Africa would “stand by the facts, the law and all the evidence we have submitted” in continuing to find Israel in violation of the Genocide Convention.
Lamola said that Israel’s defense — that calls from senior political and military leaders that seemed to convey genocidal intent, including statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — were purely “rhetoric” was “astonishing.”
Israeli lawyers said in their defense yesterday that the accusations from South Africa painted a “partial and deeply flawed picture” of its actions in the Gaza Strip.
Civil defense forces recover bodies, wounded in central Gaza
Civil defense forces have recovered the bodies of at least 20 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, the Palestinian Ministry of Information has said.
Footage uploaded to Telegram by the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, the organization responsible for emergency and rescue services in the strip, showed crews combing through rubble and carrying injured children to ambulances.
NBC News was not able to independently verify this report. The strikes on Gaza City came alongside bombardments of Khan Younis in the south and the Nuseirat and al-Maghazi refugee camps, according to the Ministry of Information.
Health workers at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital warn babies at risk due to lack of fuel
TEL AVIV — Health workers at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza have warned that the lives of patients, including premature babies, are at risk after the main generator at the facility reportedly ran out of fuel.
“If the electricity doesn’t come back … these patients you see here will soon die,” Taiseer Abu Sweirih, a health worker at the facility, said in an interview published online by Sky News, which is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.
Video showed part of the facility plunged into darkness, with staff keeping ventilators running using batteries charged by solar power during the day, according to Sky News. A health worker could be seen using the light from her phone to check in on a baby in a ventilator, while patients could be seen lying on hospital beds in an intensive care unit.
In a statement released last night, the director of the hospital warned that medical services at the facility would be forced to shut down due to dwindling fuel. The statement warned that children and other patients were at risk of dying if generators stopped running. “We call on the countries of the world to intervene immediately,” it said.
NBC News was not immediately able to reach officials at the hospital on Saturday. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Hostage families walk through ‘tunnel’ in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV — Relatives of some of the dozens of people who remain held hostage by Hamas walked through a 30-meter “tunnel” set up in Tel Aviv today to highlight the conditions their loved ones have been held under in Gaza.
“The feeling when I was in the tunnel, it was a feeling that I just need to run away … and it was only five minutes and I’m just thinking of the people there,” said Ella Ben Ami, whose mother, Raz Ben Ami, was released by Hamas in November, while her father, Ohad Ben Ami, remains captive after they were kidnapped from their kibbutz, Be’eri.
As hostage families prepare to mark 100 days since their loved ones were kidnapped, Ben Ami, 23, told NBC News it was “hard to keep the hope” for “so many days.”
Ben Ami welcomed news of a deal that will allow medicine to reach Israeli hostages in Gaza, but she said she wanted to see “proof” of medicine being provided, along with evidence of the condition of those who remain held by Hamas, including her father, who is 55.
As the death toll in Gaza continued to rise to nearly 24,000, Ben Ami said that before Oct. 7, she had “always wanted peace” between Israelis and Palestinians. “I always wanted that everything will be alright,” she said. “Now, I can’t think about it.”
Houthis vow ‘strong and effective response’ to U.S. strikes
U.S. strikes on Yemen have had “no significant impact” on Houthi capabilities to continue acting against Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters.
Separately, a spokesperson also told Al Jazeera that the Houthis would have a “strong and effective” response to the U.S. strike on a military base in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa. There were “no injuries, no material nor human losses,” he said.
Yesterday’s strike by the U.S. Navy came a day after a joint action by the U.S. and the U.K. against more than 60 Houthi targets across Yemen.
Oil prices rise in U.S. after strikes against Houthis
Oil prices rose after the United States and Britain carried out military strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, as tensions in the Red Sea mount.
West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures spiked more than 4% Friday morning to hit their highest levels since Dec. 27. U.S. crude oil jumped to $75.25 a barrel while the global benchmark touched $80.75.
The benchmarks pulled back later in the session with U.S. crude settling at $72.68 a barrel and Brent settling at $78.29 a barrel.
Gaza death toll nears 24,000
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 135 Palestinians were killed in Gaza the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 23,843 on the 99th day of fighting.
Telecom and communications cut in Gaza, operator says
“We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again,” Paltel, Gaza’s main internet operator, said on X yesterday.
The near-total blackout was confirmed by NetBlocks, which monitors global internet access. Blackouts hamper aid and rescue efforts, and cut off Gazans from communicating with the outside world.
Israel controls telecommunications and electricity access to Gaza. It has not claimed direct responsibility for communications blackouts, but previous drops in access have preceded escalations in bombardment.
Terror suspects arrested in Denmark in December have ‘links to Hamas,’ prosecutor says
A Danish prosecutor said yesterday that an investigation into the arrests of three suspects in Denmark last month on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror” was linked to Hamas, according to a local media report.
The case has been shrouded in secrecy and very few details have been revealed about it until now.
”The investigation has provided information that, according to the police, the case has links to Hamas,” prosecutor Anders Larsson said during a custody hearing before an appeals court according to broadcaster TV2. “That information is no longer necessary to keep secret.”
The case coincided with the arrests of several alleged Hamas members in Germany and one in the Netherlands, as terror alerts throughout European countries remain high as a result of Israel’s war with Hamas.
Nearly 100 days since hostages taken in Hamas terror attack
Richard Engel spoke with family members of people being held hostage in Gaza. Some of the families went to the border to shout messages of support to their loved ones nearly 100 days after the Oct. 7 attack.
“Don’t give up, stay resilient, we’re coming to get you soon,” one woman yelled into a microphone.
Missile strike on Houthi radar site was ‘follow-on action’ from earlier strikes, military says
A Tomahawk missile strike against a Houthi rebel radar site inside Yemen early Saturday local time was a “follow-on action” from the strikes a day earlier, the U.S. military said.
The new strike was launched at 3:45 a.m. Saturday local time using Tomahawk missiles launched from the USS Carney, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
It “was a follow-on action on a specific military target associated with strikes taken on Jan. 12 designed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels,” it said.
U.S. carries out another strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen
The United States conducted another strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen tonight, according to two U.S. defense officials.
The strike was done by the U.S. and was carried out from a Navy ship, the officials said.
The target was a Houthi radar site, the officials said.
On Thursday, the U.S. and United Kingdom carried out strikes against Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and control much of Yemen, in retaliation for Houthi attacks against commercial and other vessels in the Red Sea, officials said.