Israel-Hamas war updates and latest news on Gaza conflict

The Pentagon confirmed it was equipping Israel with two Iron Dome systems and interceptors for the defense system in order to “help further bolster their air defense capabilities and protect citizens from rocket attacks.”

“For operation security reasons I’m not going to discuss shipment timelines or delivery dates and we’ll defer to Israel to make any announcements regarding future deployment and use of these systems as part of our efforts to deter a broader conflict and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities,” Pentagon spokesman U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a daily press briefing.

Read more about the Iron Dome here.

— Amanda Macias

The U.S. State Department said Ambassador David Satterfield was in Israel coordinating with the Israeli and Egyptian governments and United Nations representatives on efforts to bring American citizens home.

State Department spokesman Matt Miller said people traveling through the Rafah crossing are having issues on the Gaza side of the passage.

“There has been no one there from Hamas to open the gates and process people and let them through and other times there have been actually armed Hamas militants standing there, not even letting people approach the gate,” Miller explained to reporters at the State Department.

Miller said that part of the Rafah crossing is “controlled by Egyptian immigration authorities and then there is a Gaza side that that has been controlled by immigration authorities from Hamas and in the middle there is a no man’s land,” Miller added.

“The Egyptian authorities are ready to process American citizens and other foreign nationals if they make it through the Gaza side of the border through the no man’s land,” he said.

— Amanda Macias

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that in the past week about 74 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza.

Kirby added that an estimated 12 trucks have reached Gaza in the past 24 hours.

Kirby said the Biden administration is working to move aid faster into the region, adding that the current cadence of humanitarian assistance was not enough.

— Amanda Macias

Cryptocurrency is helping to pay for Hamas’ resources, say U.S. senators who sought expert advice on cutting off the funding source.

Traditional money transfer channels are closed off to Hamas, which is one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned terrorist organizations, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on combatting terrorist financing.

“Anti-money laundering rules that banks, gold traders, stockbrokers all follow make it hard to finance terrorism, but terrorists have found ways around those rules,” Warren said. “One big one: crypto.”

Warren said crypto wallets linked to Hamas and “Islamic Jihad” recently discovered by the Israeli government received an estimated $134 million in the two and a half years leading up to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, though expert witnesses said the amount is likely inflated.

Warren, along with Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and 14 other lawmakers cosponsored the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act to force crypto exchange compliance with existing anti-money laundering frameworks.

— Chelsey Cox

Families of hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

The White House reiterated warnings to malign actors that the war between Israel and Hamas should not expand.

“We have sent a strong signal to everybody in the region, including Iran, that we don’t want to see an escalation of this conflict,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“We have significant national security interests at stake, let alone, the protection of our troops that are in places like Iraq and Syria and we’re going to take those responsibilities seriously. We’re going to act and we’re going to make sure we have the capabilities to do so, to defend those interests,” he said.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza will need to start winding down its operations unless fuel arrives “imminently,” it said Thursday in a post on social media

The provision of fuel, which is fast running out in the besieged enclave, has been a point of contention amid the ongoing humanitarian aid talks, with Israel blocking supplies on the grounds that Hamas would use them.

— Karen Gilchrist

EU leaders meeting Thursday for a summit in Brussels, Belgium showed support for Israel’s targeting of Hamas but repeated calls for humanitarian support for civilians in Gaza.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters that a military operation was necessary to eliminate the Palestinian militant group, but added that it needed to happen within the boundaries of international law, Reuters reported.

“Unfortunately, a military operation needs to take place to eliminate Hamas, there is no other way, otherwise Israel cannot survive in the long run,” Rutte said. “But this should be done with a minimum of damage to the civilian population.”

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo reiterated Israel’s right to self-defense in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. However, he said that could not justify a full blockage of Gaza and the humanitarian aid needed to support its residents.

“Israel has a right to take action and to prevent future attacks. But that is never an excuse for blocking a whole region, for blocking humanitarian aid. It cannot be an excuse to starve a population,” de Croo said.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also said that he would like to see a ceasefire in order to “channel all the humanitarian aid that the Palestinian population needs, urgently.”

— Karen Gilchrist

The foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Morocco condemned on Thursday the targeting of civilians and violations of international law in Gaza by Israeli forces, according to Reuters.

In a joint statement, the Arab nations reportedly said that Israel’s right to self-defense following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks did not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians’ rights.

The ministers also hit back at what they called forced displacement and collective punishment in Gaza.

— Karen Gilchrist

Kids are attending virtual pro-Palestinian protests on Roblox in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, and so far, one virtual protest area has been visited more than 275,000 times.

Videos circulating on social media and past livestreams of at least one event showed users marching on virtual brick streets lined with Palestinian flags and large signs that translate to “Solidarity for you Palestine.” CNBC confirmed the signage by visiting the virtual protest area.

More than four in ten Roblox gamers are 12 years old or younger, as of Roblox data from December 2022, and 60% of users were 16 or younger.

—Hayden Field

Clarification: Pro-Palestinian supporters have taken to Roblox to protest the Israel-Hamas war. The characterization of the protestors was unclear in an earlier version of this post.

Americans with family members in Gaza are growing increasingly concerned about their loved ones as the humanitarian crisis there continues to worsen.

“Every conversation, we just don’t know if it’s going to be the last time you talk to them,” a Houston man of Palestinian descent told NBC News. He still has many family members in Gaza and requested anonymity out of fear that his family could become targets.

The fears come as hospitals in Gaza are overcrowded, shut down or partially out of service because of damage from airstrikes and lack of fuel to supply electric generators.

Read the full story here.

— Michele Luhn

Israel needs to agree to a complete ceasefire to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Thursday in The Hague, according to Reuters.

Israeli forces have been carrying out a retaliatory offensive into the Gaza Strip, sealing off the enclave from Israel’s fuel, food, electricity and water supplies. Humanitarian aid has been coming in since the weekend through the Rafah crossing linking the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Human rights groups have warned that they require safe conditions to be able to freely distribute the resources to Palestinian civilians.

EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday for a summit widely expected to result in a call for humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

— Ruxandra Iordache

At least 7,028 Palestinians have been killed, including 2,913 children, in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said Thursday, according to Reuters.

CNBC could not independently verify the claims.

The United Nations depends on the Gaza health ministry for death toll figures. However, U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” for the death toll.

— Karen Gilchrist

The Palestinian foreign minister said that Israel is waging a “war of revenge” on Gaza intended to ensure its total destruction, Reuters reported Thursday.

“So many wars have taken place (in Gaza), this is different. This time it’s a war of revenge,” Riyad al-Maliki told reporters in The Hague.

“This war has no real objective, rather than the total destruction of every livable place in Gaza. This war is not directed by military plans, there are no norms respected. All international rules of war are violated,” he added.

The Israel Defense Forces said earlier Thursday that it had conducted an overnight raid in northern Gaza, “as part of preparations for the next stages of combat.”

It marks the latest phase of a nearly three-week Israeli bombardment in response to Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by the Hamas militant group.

— Karen Gilchrist

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Thursday that 12 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent have made it through the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza, carrying water, food, medicines and medical supplies.

In a post on social media, the PRCS said that 74 trucks had so far been received. It added that fuels had not been allowed to enter.

— Karen Gilchrist

It will take years for Israel to rehabilitate the southern communities hit by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet said Thursday, according to Reuters.

“The battle against Gazan terror will continue within the strip’s territory — going deep, anywhere and at any time required to ensure security for the communities that will be restored and will rebuild the region,” Benny Gantz, an ex-general who joined Netanyahu from the opposition in an emergency government, said.

“The [ground] maneuver will be but one stage of a long process that will include defensive, diplomatic and social aspects that will take years,” he added.

— Karen Gilchrist

The situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic and could deteriorate further with the launch of an Israeli ground operation into the area, the Kremlin said Thursday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the international community must strive to adopt a “balanced” U.N. Security Council resolution on the Middle East and broker a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to Google-translated comments reported by Russian state news agency Tass on Telegram.

The comments came after Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a U.S.-led initiative for the U.N. Security Council to call for a pause to hostilities to allow humanitarian aid deliveries, to protect civilians and to stop arming Hamas.

Reuters reported that Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the U.S. of drafting a resolution that effectively authorized an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. Moscow presented its own proposal, which called for a humanitarian cease-fire and to revoke an Israeli order for civilians in Gaza City to evacuate southward. This motion failed to get minimum support.

Moscow and Washington have been consistently at odds in matters of foreign policy, with the deterioration of their diplomatic relations worsening after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Palestinian militant group Hamas has called for worldwide protests to “stop the war of extermination on Gaza” and open the Rafah crossing that links Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

In a statement reported by NBC News, Hamas asked Arab and Muslim people, along with the “free people of the world” to “escalate the mass movement throughout the coming days and to participate actively and intensively in the coming Friday and Sunday under the slogan: ‘Open the Rafah crossing’ and ‘Stop the war of extermination on Gaza’.”

Demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people have erupted across the world since Israeli military sealed off the Gaza Strip from Israel’s fuel, water, food and fuel resources, in retaliation against the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7. The Gaza Strip is now receiving U.N.-brokered humanitarian supplies through the Rafah crossing.

Egypt has repeatedly said it has been unable to open the passageway because of ongoing Israeli bombardment. Israel, which says it does not control the crossing, says its bombardment campaign in the Gaza Strip exclusively targets Hamas members and positions.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israeli fighter jets struck over 250 positions held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday in an update on Telegram.

The targets include operational command centers, tunnels, rocket launchers and general infrastructure.

The IDF also said Israeli navy soldiers hit a Hamas surface-to-air missile launch post in the Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.

CNBC could not independently verify those reports.

The IDF has said it aims to dismantle the military capabilities of Hamas as part of Israel’s ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip.

— Ruxandra Iordache