GEOFF BENNETT: And we start today's other headlines in the Middle East, where Israel is ramping up its military activity.

Today, the IDF says it struck two Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen and launched dozens of airstrikes across Gaza.

Israeli officials say it's part of a pressure campaign to get Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

As body bags line the ground, Palestinians line up to say goodbye.

These are just the first bodies recovered from an airstrike today on Jabalia.

Many more victims are still under the rubble as their loved ones try to dig them out with any tools available.

ABU OMAR AL ZANATI, Gaza Strip Resident (through translator): There is no equipment.

What are we working with?

He works with a hammer.

What should we do?

GEOFF BENNETT: For those who survive, there's nothing to do but try to escape the next strike.

FADI TAMBOURA, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): Where should I go today?

I go to West Gaza.

There's bombing in West Gaza.

I go to the south.

They're killing in Khan Yunis.

I go to Deir, there's bombing in Deir.

Where should I go?

GEOFF BENNETT: The Israeli military has unleashed a devastating barrage across Gaza this week.

More than 100 people were killed today, according to the initial death toll, after days of attacks that killed at least another 130, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel's military says they're targeting terrorist cells and Hamas military infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said IDF forces are mobilizing for a larger offensive, saying that: "There will be no way we will stop the war.

We're going to the end."

After a brief cease-fire earlier this year, the violence has escalated once again, with devastating consequences.

But it's not just the fighting that's deadly.

Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance and food supplies has created a parallel crisis, hunger.

FATEN AL-MADHOUN, Owner of Distribution Food Charity (through translator): I have been cooking for people for a year and eight months now, but there is real famine over the past three months.

GEOFF BENNETT: Experts warn that nearly half-a-million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation.

Some wait all day for food, but once these pots are empty, these children will go hungry.

UM ABED, Beit Lahiya Resident (through translator): I come here from 9:00 a.m., I swear from 9:00 a.m. and I went home yesterday without food, and today I'm going home without food.

I have a 3-year-old child who's crying all day because he wants to eat.

GEOFF BENNETT: All this unfolded as President Trump toured the Middle East this week, making stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, notably skipping Israel.

Aboard Air Force One today, the president told reporters the Palestinians, in his words, need help.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Well, we're going to see what happens.

I think a lot of good things are going to happen over the next month, and we're going to see.

We have to help also out in the Palestinians.

A lot of people are starving on Gaza, so we have to look at both sides.

GEOFF BENNETT: Satellite imagery shows how densely populated the Southern Gaza City of Rafah was in October of 2023.

By February of this year, much of Rafah had been reduced to smashed concrete.

Pictures this week show a barren wasteland.

For Gazans, there's no way to know when or if things will improve or just how much worse they still might get.

Back here at home, a transit strike in New Jersey forced some 350,000 people to make alternative plans today.

PROTESTER: What do we want?

PROTESTER: Contract.

PROTESTERS: When do we want it?

PROTESTER: Now!

GEOFF BENNETT: Union members walked off the job at midnight after contract negotiations stalled.

It's New Jersey's first mass transit strike in more than four decades.

Stations across the region went quiet as the nation's third largest rail transit system ground to a halt.

The union says it wants better pay, but state officials say meeting its demands would bankrupt New Jersey transit.

GOV.

PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): It is, frankly, a mess of their own making.

And it is a slap in the face of every commuter and worker who relies on N.J.

Transit.

The stance that we're taking to get a fair deal for our workers and not blow up N.J.

Transit's finances is exactly a central tenet in fixing N.J.

Transit.

GEOFF BENNETT: But union leadership says their members are among the lowest paid in the country and that they are not the problem.

JAMES LOUIS, National Vice President, BLET: If the little extra we are asking for is causing bankruptcy, there are bigger problems than us.

GEOFF BENNETT: The next talks are scheduled for Sunday with help from federal mediators in the hopes of reaching a deal before the Monday morning commute.

A group of conservative Republican lawmakers blocked President Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill in a pivotal vote today.

REP. JODEY ARRINGTON (R-TX): Well, the no's have it.

GEOFF BENNETT: By a vote of 16 to 21, the House Budget Committee declined to move forward the massive package of tax breaks, funding priorities and spending cuts.

The Republicans who joined Democrats in voting against the measure want more spending cuts, including cuts to Medicaid.

Earlier, President Trump had posted on social media that Republicans must unite behind the bill.

The Budget Committee will reconvene on Sunday night to try again.

President Trump says former FBI Director James Comey called for his assassination in a since-deleted Instagram post, Comey shared a picture of seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers 86 and 47; 86 is a slang term that means get rid of something.

That's according to Merriam-Webster.

Trump is, of course, the 47th president.

Comey wrote in a follow-up post that he didn't see the connection saying it -- quote -- "Never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind."

Mr. Trump fired Comey in his first administration.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service say they are investigating the post.

A federal judge says the Trump administration has failed to provide sufficient information regarding her order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.

He was deported to El Salvador in March, which government officials admitted was an administrative error.

WOMAN: Bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home!

Bring him home!

GEOFF BENNETT: Abrego Garcia's supporters rallied outside the courtroom in Maryland, the state he has called home for more than a decade.

The Trump administration argues that details about his case are protected state secrets.

At today's hearing, the judge called the case -- quote -- "an exercise in utter frustration."

The New Jersey man convicted of stabbing author Salman Rushdie was sentenced to 25 years in prison today.

Hadi Matar received the maximum sentence for the attack on a stage in 2022 that left Rushdie blind in one eye.

The jury found the 27-year-old guilty earlier this year of attempted murder and assault.

Rushdie was not present at today's sentencing, but submitted a statement to the court saying he still has nightmares about the incident.

Matar will next face a federal trial on terrorism-related charges, which is expected to focus on his motive for the attack.

There is a developing story in New Orleans tonight, where this afternoon police officials said that the 10 inmates who escaped from jail today may have had help from the inside.

The Associated Press obtained this photo showing the hole through which they escaped from a cell at the Orleans Justice Center.

Louisiana State Police also released this image showing one of the escapees being recaptured in the city's famous French Quarter.

That means, as of this afternoon, nine inmates remain at large.

Officials warn they may be armed in dangerous and have asked people to call 911 if they see them.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher as investors brushed off a report that showed consumer confidence at a three-year low.

The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 300 points on the day.

The Nasdaq rose nearly 100 points, or about half-a-percent.

The S&P 500 also ended the week on solid footing.

After the closing bell, Moody's downgraded the credit rating of the U.S., stripping it of its perfect AAA status.

In a statement, the ratings agency blamed -- quote -- "successive U.S. administrations and Congress for failing to agree on measures to trim the nation's deficits."

Moody's was the last of the three major agencies to cut the rating, which the U.S. had held for more than a century.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a personalized gene-editing treatment appears to have saved a baby born with a rare disorder; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart break down this week's political headlines; and in his new book, poet Ocean Vuong explores the idea of a chosen family and unexpected acts of kindness.