let's go to claudio lavanga. why was this militia leader targeted >> reporter: good morning, frances. a senior defense official named the target, told nbc news the name of the target, was a leader of an iraqi proxy group linked or backed by iran. and the official said he was targeted because he was actively involved in the planning and carrying out of attacks against american personnel the official also said that he and another member of the group were killed in the precision strike in baghdad while they were together in a vehicle, that also no civilians were harmed in the attack the iraqi government strongly condemns the strike, calling it a dangerous escalation and assault on iraq. now elsewhere p in the region, members of the u.s. national security team met at the white house on wednesday to discuss or review options on how to tackle or respond to the attacks by houthi rebels on those shipping vessels sailing through the red sea. and president biden has repeatedly called for a stronger military response, and o

let's go live now to claudio lavanga. and claudio, good morning. a somber milestone in israel and gaza. how was it commemorated? >> that's right, frances. good morning. on sunday, thousands people gathered in central tel aviv alongside the relatives of the more than 100 hostages who are still being held in gaza. they held posters with their pictures and delivered emotional speeches. and they describe what it feels like, not to have seen or heard from them for 100 days now. at the same time, still on sunday, hundreds of thousands of people also took to the streets in major cities around the world, but this time to protest against israel's assault on gaza and to call for a ceasefire. while all that was happening, hamas allegedly issued or released videos of three hostages now warn that nbc news has not been able to immediately verify those videos, but they allegedly show three hostages named as yoshi, and noah. noawh was filmed by her kidnappers put on the motorcycle taken away while her boyfriend was forced to march behind her. 100 days after that f

let's go live to claudio lavanga. what else did the israelis say >> reporter: good morning, frances. israel o faso far has neither confirmed nor doenied any involvement. yesterday april dndrea mitchelle to an aide of benjamin netanyahu. and this is what he had to say >> whoever did this strike was i have surgical and went for a hamas target, because israel is at war, whoever did this has a gripe with hamas >> reporter: well, that sounds like a veiled reference to israel, of course, but other israeli lawmakers weren't so subtle, including danny danin. he thanked, openly congratulated the israeli defense forces for the assassination on his x account, but hezbollah doesn't need any claim or responsibility or confirmation by israel. it holds israel fully responsible, and its leader, nasrallah said that following that attack that they had retaliate against any israelis targeting officials in lebanon of course he was no ordinary official he was a deputy chairman of the group as group's political bureau he was a key figure b

let's go live now to claudio lavanga. good morning, claudio. a somber milestone in israel and gaza. how was it commemorated? >> good morning, frances. well, on sunday, thoughts of people gathered in central tel aviv alongside their relatives of the more than 100 hostages still being held in gaza. they're holding posters with their pictures and delivering emotional speeches to describe what it feels like not to have seen or not have heard from their loved ones for 100 days. now at the same time on sunday, hundreds of thousands of people also took to the streets in major cities around the world, but this time to protest against israel's assault on gaza and to call for a ceasefire. while that was happening, hamas from gaza issued videos of three hostages. i must warn that nbc news has not been able to immediately verify the videos, but they allegedly show three hostages. yoshi, and noah argamani. noah is the young woman we saw filmed by her abductors being taken away on the back of a motorcycle looking very scared while her boyfriend was being forced to march behind her. 100 days later

jewish state, but benjamin netanyahu has already rejected the idea out of hand let's go live to claudio lavanga. what do we know about this proposal >> reporter: good morning, frances. according to sources familiar, the proposal includes a framework for the rebuilding of gaza following the war with the help of neighboring area countries, the establishment of a moderate government. but saudi arabia's insistence is that any plan should include a pathway to a proper palestinian state. as you mentioned, benjamin netanyahu has already rejected the idea or the plan outright by saying, and i quote, i'll clarify that in any arrangement in the future, the state of israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea this truth i say to our american friends. an israeli prime minister has to be able to say no, even to the best of friends. another israeli member who says no is isaac herzog who was in davos. he underscored the significance of normalizing relations between israel and saudi arabia but at the same time said the israelis are not ready to think about a peace process, especially when t

let's go to claudio lavanga. do we know how the rescue efforts are going? >> reporter: good morning, frances. yes, thousands of rescuers have within dispatched, including firefighters, soldiers and police officers dispatched to the most-affected areas on the western coast of japan but they have been really slowed down by severe damage that this quake has caused, the rubble from the collapsed buildings or overturned cars and also wrecked roads. so the prime minister of japan, fumio kishida said this is a race against time to save survivors, especially those who are believed to still be trapped under the rubble authorities also say the rescue effort is hindered even more by the many blazes that were caused by the quakes that were still raging on new year's day on several cities on that coast of japan. about 100,000 were evacuated to higher ground because of the tsunami alert that you mentioned. now the tsunami alert has been lifted even though authorities say at least 33,000 people are still left without power that's a problem because these days, the temperat

let's go to claudio lavanga who joins us live. what's the latest on this? >> reporter: good morning, frances. russia has officially accused ukraine of shooting down a military plane with two missiles it said were fired from the kharkiv region in ukraine. now they also say that ukraine was very well aware of the fact that on that plane there were 65 ukrainian prisoners of war that were going to take part in this prisoners exchange on the border with, between russia and ukraine, and that proved that ukraine disregards the live of its citizens, they say ukraine was aware there would be a prisoner, change but they with n were were not told how that would be carried out. military planes approaching the belgorod region are considered legitimate targets because usually they carry weapons used in the war against ukraine in the meantime, the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, accused russia of playing with the lives of ukrainian prisoners of war and called for an international investigation, while sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister called for an eme

let's go tcla claudio lavanga >> reporter: they said they were planting explosives inside some of the buildings there in order to demolish them when they were suddenly hit by rpgs which set off those explosives, leading the buildings to collapse with the soldiers inside. the military wing of hamas said they hit with their rpgs all in all, 2 1 israeli soldiers killed in one attack the prime minister of israel called it one of the most difficult days since the outbreak of the war but also pledged that israel will continue to fight and seal complete victory in the south of gaza, palestinian authorities say dozens of people were killed and thousands forced to flee after the idf was pushing deeper into khan yunis israeli forces stormed a hospital, and also engaged in heavy fighting near another hospital the palestinian red crescent said ambulances were finding it difficult to reach patients because of the continuous bombardment near the hospitals >>> the u.s. military has conducted new airstrikes on groups in iraq it was in response to a series of attacks by iran-sponsored militias two mil

an israeli crime, and hezbollah said the killings would not go unanswered let's go live now to claudio lavanga. good morning what are the israelis saying >> reporter: good morning frances. israel so far has neither confirmed nor denied any involvement or responsibility in the attack, but usually this is what happens in these cases. but yesterday andrea mitchell on msnbc spoke to the senior adviser to benjamin netanyahu and did ask him about the attack so let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> whoever did this strike was very surgical and went for a hamas target, because israel is at war, whoever did this has a gripe with hamas >> reporter: can you see that as a veiled reference to israel, of course, but other israeli lawmakers weren't so subtle, including danny danon, a far-right politician in israel and also the former israeli ambassador to the united nations. on his x account he openly congratulated the israeli defense forces for the assassination, but hezbollah doesn't need any claim or responsibility, because it holds israel fully responsible for the s assassination. and nasrallah v

let's go live to claudio lavanga. a somber milestone in israel and gaza. how was it commemorated? >> reporter: good morning, frances. on sunday thousands of people gathered in central tel aviv alongside the relatives of the more than 100 hostages still being held in gaza were holding posters with their pictures, telling everyone how difficult it is to not have seen nor heard from their loved ones for 100 days. at the same time on sunday hundreds of thousands of people also took to the streets in major cities across the world, but this time to mainly protest against israel's assault on gaza and to call for a ceasefire. while all of this was going on on sunday hamas released a video of three hostages. now nbc has not been able to verify independently those videos, but they allegedly show the images of -- and they named them -- noe the young woman we saw in a video where she was taken away on the back of a motorbike while her boyfriend was being pushed or marched behind her. now 101 days now after that october 7 attack while the war in gaza continues to rage, but there is also rising

for the latest, let's go live to claudio lavanga. what do we know about what happened? >> reporter: good morning, frances. the u.s. central command issued a statement saying that the attack happened at a logistics support military base in the north of jordan, close to the border with syria where about 350 u.s. troops are stationed doing a lot of things, giving support among things to the coalition fighting against isis. now two u.s. officials told nbc news that drone-laden attack with explosives landed near a shelter where the american soldiers were sleeping, killing three and injuring at least for now 34. now right after that attack, president biden paid tribute to the fallen soldiers. let's take a listen. >> last night in the middle east, we lost three brave souls in the attack on one of our bases. and i ask for a moment of silence for all three of those fallen soldiers. >> reporter: in a later statement, president biden blamed iran-backed militias operating in syria and iraq for that attack. and, in a separate statement at the same time, the islamic resistance of ira

kate princess of wales they have both canceled public events for the near future let's go to claudio lavanga. what do we know about both their conditions >> reporter: good morning, frances. that's right on wednesday, the royal family made two unexpected announcements within an hour of each other first, kensington palace said kate, the princess of wales, was admitted to the hospital for a planned abdominal surgery. the statement said the surgery was successful but also said that she is expected to stay there for about two weeks to allow her to recover but didn't go into much more details. but a source close to the royal family told nbc news that her condition is non-cancerous then less than an hour later, burki buckingham palace released a statement saying king charles is expected to undergo a corrective procedure to treat an enlarged prostate the statement said the condition is benign and that the king will have to postpone his public engagements for an unspecified period of time to allow him to recover, but it is widely ak flo flwidely acknowledged that enlarged prostate is common tor men f