Netanyahu pushes back at international pressure as Biden warns against Rafah assault

Vice President Kamala Harris warns Israel not to attack Rafah

MUNICH — Vice President Kamala Harris warned Israel over its planned ground offensive in Rafah in an exclusive interview with NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell at the Munich Security Conference today.

“Israel has the right to defend itself. However, how it does so matters,” the Vice President said.

Harris condemned the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and “rape being used as a tool of war.” She said it is “critically important” to get a hostage deal and that the US are working on it “around the clock.”

At the same time, “too many” Palestinians have been killed, she said. Around 1.4 million people are currently trapped in the city of Rafah, many of whom have already fled attacks in northern Gaza. “I’m very concerned where they would go,” the Vice President told NBC News. “There are steps we need to take now”.

IDF operation at Nasser Hospital sees at least 100 people detained

TEL AVIV – The Israel Defense Forces’ operation at Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis today days after it was launched on Thursday.

In an update this morning, the IDF said soldiers had apprehended at least 100 people it said were “suspected of terrorist activity in the Nasser Hospital.” The IDF confirmed to NBC News that as of this afternoon, the operation continued.

On Thursday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were launching the raid on the hospital in response to “credible intelligence from a number of sources, including from released hostages, indicating that Hamas held hostages” there. He said the intelligence indicated the bodies of killed hostages may have also been in the facility.

It was not clear whether any evidence of hostages being held at Nasser Hospital had emerged as of today. In its statement today, the IDF said only that the operation continued “based on IDF intelligence indicating that Hamas terrorist activity is being carried out from within the hospital.”

Many displaced Palestinians who had taken refuge at the hospital fled on Wednesday after the IDF said it issued warnings for people to evacuate. It said medical workers and patients would not have to leave the facility, however.

Palestinian health authorities in Gaza said at least five patients died due to a lack of oxygen and power outages during the offensive. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the claim.

‘Extraordinary opportunity’ for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East, Blinken says

There is an “extraordinary opportunity” in the months ahead for Israel to be integrated into the Middle East as Arab countries are willing to normalize ties with the country, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday.

Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference, Blinken also highlighted the “urgent” imperative to proceed with a Palestinian state that would also ensure the security of Israel.

“Virtually every Arab country now genuinely wants to integrate Israel into the region to normalize relations…to provide security commitments and assurances so that Israel can feel more safe,” Blinken said during a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference.

“And there’s also, I think the imperative, that’s more urgent than ever, to proceed to a Palestinian state that also ensures the security of Israel,” he added.

The Biden administration has been working to secure a mega-deal that will see ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel normalize. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are seeking the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the deal, which was being discussed prior to the war in Gaza.

U.S. says Israel has not presented evidence of Hamas diverting U.N. aid deliveries

Israel has not presented specific evidence that Hamas is diverting U.N. aid and its recent targeted killings of Gaza police commanders safeguarding truck convoys have made it “virtually impossible” to distribute the goods safely, a top U.S. envoy said in rare public criticism of Israel.

With the departure of police escorts following Israeli strikes, criminal gangs are increasingly targeting the convoys, said David Satterfield, the Biden administration’s special Middle East envoy for humanitarian issues. He said the lawlessness as well as regular Israeli protests at crossing points by those opposed to aid going into Gaza have disrupted delivery and distribution.

“We are working with the Israeli government, the Israeli military in seeing what solutions can be found here because everyone wants to see the assistance continue,” Satterfield told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace yesterday. A solution “is going to require some form of security escorts to return.”

Satterfield said that Israeli officials have not presented “specific evidence of diversion or theft” of U.N. assistance, but that the militants have their own interests in using “other channels of assistance… to shape where and to whom assistance goes.”

IDF detain WHO aid convoy near Nasser Hospital for hours, Gaza Health Ministry says

The Israel Defense Forces detained a World Health Organization aid convoy near Nasser Hospital for more than seven hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The convoy included high-ranking international figures, the ministry said in a Telegram statement.

“The convoy consists of two trucks, one loaded with fuel and the other loaded with water and food, and has been detained for 7 hours,” the ministry said. “The Israeli occupation set up holes in front and behind the UN aid convoy to prevent it from reaching the Nasser Medical Complex.”

A spillover of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt ‘would be a disaster for the future of peace,’ says U.N. high commissioner

The U.N. aid chief warned yesterday of the possibility of a spillover of Palestinians amassed in Rafah into Egypt if Israel launches a military operation against the border town.

Around 1.5 million Palestinians are in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, along the border with Egypt. This is more than six times the city’s population before Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

“The possibility of a military operation in Rafah, with the possibility of the [border] crossing closing down, with the possibility of spillover … a sort of Egyptian nightmare … is one that is right before our eyes,” Martin Griffiths told diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva.

Griffiths added that the notion that the people of Gaza could evacuate to a safe place was an “illusion.”

“We must all hope that friends of Israel and those who care about Israel’s security give them good counsel at this moment,” Griffiths said.

99 journalists killed in 2023, 77 in war on Gaza, organization says

The majority of the 99 journalists and media workers killed in 2023 were killed in the war on Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Of the 77 journalists killed in the war, 72 were “Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza,” the organization said. Three were Lebanese and two Israeli.

“The conflict claimed the lives of more journalists in three months than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” CPJ said.

CPJ found that 78 of the deaths in 2023 were work-related. The organization is still investigating eight more deaths.

The organization expressed concerns that the Israeli military was deliberately targeting Palestinian journalists.

“Cases include that of Issam Abdallah, a Lebanese visual journalist for Reuters,” CPJ said. “Independent investigations by international news organizations and rights groups found evidence indicating that Israeli forces targeted a group of reporters — killing Abdallah and injuring six others — in southern Lebanon on October 13.”

The journalists were all wearing press insignia and covering crossfire between the IDF and Hezbollah militants “from a location where no fighting was taking place when they were hit by two Israeli shells,” CPJ said.

“CPJ, along with other organizations, is now investigating whether a dozen other journalists — and, in some cases, members of their families — killed in the Israel-Gaza war also were targeted by the Israeli military,” the organization said.

International Court of Justice rejects South Africa’s request for urgent measures to safeguard Rafah

The International Court of Justice rejected South Africa’s request for an urgent measure to safeguard Rafah, according to a statement from the court.

The ICJ said it considered South Africa’s letter asking for additional measures in Rafah dated Feb. 12.

“This perilous situation demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024, which are applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, and does not demand the indication of additional provisional measures,” the court said.

The ICJ did note that the most recent developments in Gaza, specifically the Israeli operation in Rafah, “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”

After South Africa took Israel to the ICJ, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza, the ICJ ruled last month that Israel should take all possible measures to prevent acts of genocide in the enclave.