Israel’s army says it has encircled Gaza City as international condemnation continues to grow over its 28-day assault on the besieged Palestinian territory, where more than 9,200 people have been killed, including at least 3,800 children. Among the dead and injured are Palestinians sheltering at a United Nations-run school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, where at least 27 were killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday.

Unnamed Gazan: “Nowhere is safe. They even hit the school. They said, 'Flee to the schools.' They then targeted the schools. Where are the Arab leaders?”

A group of seven senior United Nations human rights experts warned Thursday, “Time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe.”

The Palestine News Agency reports journalist Mohammad Abu Hattab was killed in an Israeli strike on his home in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday along with 11 members of his family, including his wife, son and brother. Abu Hattab was a reporter for Palestine TV. His last on-air report was about deadly Israeli airstrikes in and around his neighborhood in Khan Younis. His colleague, journalist Salman Al-Bashir, burst into tears during a live broadcast upon learning of Abu Hattab’s killing. As he spoke, Al-Bashir tore off his helmet and protective vest labeled ”PRESS” and threw them to the ground.

Salman Al-Bashir: “These are just slogans that we are wearing. They don’t protect any journalist at all. These shields don’t protect us. We are victims, directly on live television. We are losing souls, one by one, with complete impunity.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 36 reporters and media workers have been killed since the conflict erupted on October 7.

Israeli forces killed at least nine more Palestinians during overnight raids in the occupied West Bank. One of the victims, Ayham al-Shafei, was just 14 years old. Separately, another 14-year-old named Hamdan Omar Hamdan died Thursday of injuries sustained earlier this week from Israeli army gunfire. Elsewhere, settlers have attacked Palestinian homes and stores in the town of Deir Sharaf west of Nablus. The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office warns vigilante-style settler attacks have killed 29 people across the West Bank this year. One hundred forty-five West Bank Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters launched simultaneous attacks on 19 Israeli positions along Israel’s border on Thursday, prompting Israel to respond with warplanes, helicopter gunships, artillery and tank fire. At least two people in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona were wounded in the exchange of fire — the largest skirmish since Hamas’s October 7 attack. The cross-border violence came as Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to make his first public remarks today on Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The House of Representatives has approved a $14.3 billion military aid package for Israel, largely along party lines. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats won’t take up the bill after House Republicans excluded funding for Ukraine’s military and proposed slashing IRS funding to pay for weapons to Israel. President Biden has asked Congress for a $106 billion emergency spending package that includes funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine. The request includes an unprecedented provision to entirely waive congressional notification of the future sale of military equipment and weapons to Israel, including stocks of ballistic missiles and artillery shells. This is Vice President Kamala Harris speaking from London Thursday after talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “We are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel to defend itself.”

The White House continues to rule out calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, a day after Biden said Israel’s military should allow for “humanitarian pauses.” On Thursday, Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin became the first member of the Senate to call for a ceasefire, during an interview on CNN.

Sen. Dick Durbin: “An effort should be made to engage in conversation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Let’s face it. This has gone on for decades. Whatever the rationale from the beginning, it has now reached an intolerable level.”

Durbin joins 12 other Democratic senators who have called for a short-term “cessation of hostilities” in Gaza.

Bahrain has recalled its ambassador from Israel in response to the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. This follows rare protests in the Persian Gulf nation demanding the reversal of a diplomatic normalization agreement between Bahrain and Israel. Latin American governments have also intensified their condemnation of Israel’s attacks, with Mexico, Peru and Argentina all speaking out this week. On Thursday Chilean President Gabriel Boric sharply criticized U.S. support for Israel’s assault after talks at the White House with President Biden.

President Gabriel Boric: “We do not accept that we are made to choose between one side or the other. We choose humanity. And both these attacks by Hamas have no justification and deserve global condemnation, and what the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is doing today also deserves our clearest condemnation. Our clearest condemnation. The right of a state to defend itself has limits. And those limits are respecting the lives of innocent civilians, especially children, and international humanitarian law.”

In Philadelphia, at least 350 people were arrested Thursday after hundreds of faith leaders and activists blocked a train terminal demanding state and local officials support a ceasefire in Gaza. Imams, rabbis, reverends, pastors, clerics and Buddhist monks led the massive crowd in traditional songs and prayers, while hundreds more rallied outside the station. The peaceful action was organized by Philadelphia’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

In North Carolina, dozens of Palestinian solidarity protesters blocked a highway in Durham Thursday during rush hour as they chanted “ceasefire now.”

Here in New York, dozens of students walked out of a class at Columbia University taught by Hillary Clinton, protesting the school’s role in targeting Palestinian solidarity activists. Wednesday’s action came after photographs of students who signed a declaration critical of Israeli’s assault on Gaza were featured on doxing trucks parked near campus last week with the words “Columbia’s leading antisemites.” The group Accuracy in Media deployed similar doxing trucks at Harvard, CUNY and UPenn.

Later in the broadcast, we’ll hear voices from a Palestinian rights protest in Boston, where at least 23 people were arrested.

In upstate New York, Cornell University canceled classes today after a student was charged this week for posting violent antisemitic comments to a campus website and threatening to “shoot up” the school’s kosher dining hall, located at the Center for Jewish Living. This comes amid a surge in antisemitic and anti-Muslim threats on college campuses since October 7.

In Arizona, more than 100 Jewish and Palestinian solidarity activists held a die-in protest blocking the main entrance of Raytheon’s office in Tucson for over an hour Wednesday. Protesters condemned what they say is Raytheon’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians for supplying missiles, bombs and weapons systems to Israel. Share prices of arms manufacturers including Raytheon have risen sharply since Israel began its assault on the Gaza Strip. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes acknowledged in a recent earnings call his company stands to profit from increased arms sales to Israel and Ukraine.

Gregory Hayes: “As we think about this next tranche, the president’s $100-plus billion request, which is more than $40 billion for Ukraine, what you’re going to see is the same things that we have been seeing, but in much higher quantities. I think, really, across the entire Raytheon portfolio, you’re going to see a benefit of this restocking, on top of what we think is going to be an increase in the DOD top line.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially withdrawn Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The U.S. has signed but never ratified the global agreement banning testing of nuclear weapons. Russia says it will not resume nuclear testing unless the U.S. does.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to condemn the United States’ embargo on Cuba for the 31st consecutive year. On Thursday, 187 countries voted in favor of lifting the decades-old sanctions; only the U.S. and Israel voted against the motion. This is Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla: “The embargo violates the right of life, the right to health and the right to education, and the well-being of all Cuban men and women. Our families feel the effects of this blockade through the fact that shops are lacking goods and there are long queues, as well as excessively high prices and low salaries.” 

Mexico’s government has announced a $3.4 billion project to rebuild Acapulco, a week after Hurricane Otis slammed into the Pacific coast city as a Category 5 storm, leaving a trail of devastation. Forty-six people have been confirmed dead, and another 58 remain missing, though some local officials believe the true toll is higher.

Meanwhile, extreme weather has killed at least 12 people across France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. Storm Ciarán brought hurricane-force winds to southern England and France’s northwestern coast before dumping record levels of rainfall on large swaths of Europe. 2023 remains on track to become Europe’s hottest year since at least 1940.

Here in New York City, the FBI raided the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, Mayor Eric Adams’s chief fundraiser. Thursday’s early-morning raid came as part of a federal corruption investigation into whether Mayor Adams’s 2021 campaign received illegal donations from Turkey. The raid prompted Adams to cancel a trip to Washington, D.C., U-turning after he was already en route. He sent an aide to attend meetings with White House officials and the mayors of Chicago and Denver over what he called the “asylum seeker crisis.”

A Manhattan jury has found the disgraced founder of the fallen cryptocurrency exchange FTX guilty of defrauding customers and lenders. Sam Bankman-Fried faces up to 110 years in prison at a hearing scheduled for March, when he’ll be sentenced for convictions ranging from wire fraud to money laundering. He faces another criminal trial in 2024 on charges he committed bank fraud and bribed Chinese officials.

In Tennessee, a former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony charges in federal court for the beating death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father. Video footage shows five police officers from the elite SCORPION unit brutally beating, tasing and pepper-spraying Nichols, who died three days later. As part of a deal for his guilty plea, Desmond Mills Jr. will cooperate with state prosecutors in their separate cases against the officers, which include second-degree murder charges.

Domestic abuse survivor Tracy McCarter is suing the city of New York and five New York City police officers for wrongful prosecution over her husband’s death. Tracy McCarter, a nurse and grandmother, was holding a knife during a violent encounter with her abusive husband, who fell and impaled himself. McCarter called 911 and unsuccessfully administered first aid. NYPD officers falsely claimed she confessed to intentional homicide, and she was sent to Rikers jail to await trial on second-degree murder charges. The charges were eventually dismissed after a public pressure campaign and intervention from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. This is Tracy McCarter speaking at a press conference Thursday.

Tracy McCarter: “I just want for them to have accountability for all of the losses that followed. I wasn’t able to work for three years. I missed the births of my grandchildren. I couldn’t go to funerals of my grandmother, my aunt. You know, I lost a lot. And only 10 days before the trial was set to start, the charges were dismissed, even though I know the prosecutor knows that they didn’t have a case.”

Click here to see our interview with Tracy McCarter.