Heavy fighting erupts around Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital

Israeli soldiers on the lookout in Gaza

Israeli soldiers scan an area in the Zeitoun district in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday.

Heavy rain making Gaza shelters ‘unliveable,’ U.N. agency says

As rain pours on Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the conditions inside its shelters were deteriorating.

« Heavy rain is falling across the Gaza Strip. The situation in shelters is unliveable. People have no options, » it said in a post on X this morning.

Nearly 884,000 people are living at shelters operated by the UNRWA across the besieged enclave, it said in a situation report yesterday.

Japan appeals for release of seized cargo ship

TOKYO — The Japanese government has condemned the seizure of a Japanese cargo ship by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and appealed for the release of the vessel and its crew members.

The Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated and Bahamian-flagged ship, was attacked in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen yesterday by several armed individuals who rappelled from a helicopter down to the deck, three U.S. officials told NBC News. The Houthis have been launching drones and missiles toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas militants and had warned they might target Israeli ships in the area.

Japanese government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said today that no Japanese nationals were on board the vessel, which its operator, NYK Line, said had a crew of 25. The Israel Defense Forces said on X that it was “not an Israeli ship.”

“While communicating with Israel, efforts are also being made to directly approach the Houthis, as well as lobbying Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, and other relevant nations to strongly urge the Houthis for the early release of the vessel and crew members,” Matsuno said. 

Fighting erupts around northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital

Heavy fighting and strikes erupted this morning around another medical facility in northern Gaza, Palestinian authorities and eyewitnesses have reported.

At least 12 people were killed at the Indonesian Hospital, the Gaza health ministry said on Telegram, saying Israeli forces have put thousands of patients and medical staff « in the circle of death. »

Bombings and gunfire were heard overnight and this morning in the vicinity of the hospital, videos geolocated by NBC News showed, with one building appearing to be on fire.

NBC News has not verified the claimed death toll and has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

An inside look at U.S. drone operations amid search for hostages

Since Oct. 7, unarmed U.S. drones have been flying above Gaza. They are using cameras to search for more than 200 hostages who were taken into the enclave by Hamas over a month ago.

Col. Nicholas Pederson told NBC News he thinks the Air Force’s work “could play a critical role if we get to that area.”

“Hunters,” as the pilots and their crews are called, operate the drones and cameras from mobile containers in the Nevada desert. The remote pilots get an exact view of what the drone camera sees, tracing targets for days to years.

The cameras “can collect data from a forest fire or pinpoint a high-value target,” streaming back to the U.S. base by satellite. The drones can also be lethal.

“We’re watching a lot of these targets. We watch them do horrendous acts against people. We focus more on the mission aspect of it and our ‘why’ and really just look at the big picture of the impact we are having,” one pilot said.

Despair in southern Gaza

A Palestinian woman reacts as people inspect the damage following strikes on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, this morning.