‘Blatant assassination’: Iraq livid with US after Baghdad drone strike. Live updates

Israel is willing to allow Oct. 7 attack mastermind Yahya Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders in Gaza flee into exile in exchange for the release of all remaining militant-held hostages and an end to Hamas rule in the enclave, NBC News reported, citing multiple Israeli officials it did not name.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed as recently as this week to continue fighting until the Hamas leadership is killed. Israel says Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, leader of the Hamas military wing, directed the rampage that killed 1,200 people in Israel border communities. Over 240 others were kidnapped and spirited away to Gaza, with more than 100 of them were released during a weeklong November cease-fire.

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken warned Wednesday that the Hamas attack did not give Israel a “license to dehumanize” Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Two sources familiar with discussions inside the Israeli government told NBC that other proposals Israelis raised with U.S. officials included replacing Hamas with hand-picked civilian leaders. The U.S. has lobbied for a revamped Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take control of Gaza.

The U.S. Qatar and Egypt have been working to broker a cease-fire and long-term peace plan since the war began. Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected a Hamas-proposed cease-fire plan that would include the release of the remaining hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and an end to a war.

Netanyahu calls Hamas plan ‘delusional’: Blinken sees ‘space’ for deal

Developments:

∎ Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein will meet with President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations and discuss the war, humanitarian assistance and a long-term, two-state solution to the conflict, the White House said in a statement.

∎ U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes against two Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea, Central Command announced Thursday. The missiles “presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.”

∎ At least 27,840 Palestinians have been killed and 67,317 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says. Israeli officials say about 10,000 of them were Hamas militants and blame civilian deaths on Hamas using them as human shields.

The U.S. drone strike that killed an Iraqi-based militant leader was a “blatant assassination” that showed no regard for international law, the Iraqi government said in a statement Thursday. The strike blew up a car in a Baghdad neighborhood late Wednesday, killing a commander of the Kataib Hezbollah militia responsible for planning and participating in attacks on American troops in the region, the U.S. military said. Major General Special Forces Yehia Rasool, spokesman for the Iraqi government, said the strike violated Iraqi sovereignty and showed disregard for the safety and lives of Iraqi civilians.

The U.S. has blamed the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq for the attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. military personnel Jan. 28. The U.S.-led military coalition consistently deviates from “the reasons and objectives” for its presence in the country, Rasool said.

“This trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict,” he said.

Israel’s reported effort to destroy Gaza buildings along the border to create a buffer zone is a war crime, United Nations rights chief Voker Turk warned Thursday. He said his office had recorded “widespread destruction and demolition” of civilian infrastructure including residential buildings, schools and universities in areas where fighting is not taking place.

The Israeli government has not formally confirmed that a buffer zone is being created, but the military has alluded to it while destroying buildings along the border. The U.S has opposed creation of a buffer zone or any permanent change in Palestinian territory.

“I stress to the Israeli authorities … the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits destruction by the occupying power of property belonging to private persons, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations,” Volker said.

The daily toll Israel’s military operations are taking on innocent civilians remains too high, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a briefing in Tel Aviv late Wednesday. Blinken said that while in Israel he raised “profound concerns about actions and rhetoric, including from government officials, that inflame tensions,” jeopardize international support and add to Israel’s security concerns. Blinken acknowledged that Israelis were “dehumanized in the most horrific way” by the October Hamas attack and that the hostages seized by the militants continue to be mistreated.

“But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others,” Blinken said. “The overwhelming majority of people in Gaza had nothing to do with the attacks of October 7th. … They’re mothers and fathers, sons and daughters (who) want to earn a decent living, send their kids to school, have a normal life. That’s who they are; that’s what they want. And we cannot, we must not lose sight of that. We cannot, we must not lose sight of our common humanity.”