Axios

The Israeli military late Friday into Saturday "expanded" its ground operation in Gaza while also ramping up its bombardment of the Strip, targeting what the IDF said were Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure.

The latest: Gaza's more than 2.2 million people remained largely cut off from the outside world amid a communications blackout in the enclave.

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman (KBS) is expected to visit Washington on Monday for talks with senior Biden administration officials, three sources with knowledge of the trip told Axios.

What it matters: The visit has long been scheduled, the sources said, but it will take place just days after Israel expanded its ground operation in Gaza — an offensive Riyadh condemned on Saturday. It also comes as the U.S. and Saudi Arabia express concerns that the fighting between Israel and Hamas could widen into a regional war.

Palestinians in Gaza are unable to communicate with family members inside and outside the Strip after most communications went down late Friday as Israel intensified its bombardment.

The big picture: While some reporters in Gaza have been able to give intermittent updates via satellite connections, the blackout makes it hard for anyone outside the Strip to gain a full picture of the toll Israel's airstrikes and incursion is having on the enclave's 2.2 million people.

The UN General Assembly on Friday approved a resolution that calls for a "durable and sustained humanitarian truce" in the Israel-Hamas war.

The big picture: The resolution is non-binding, but it carries symbolic weight, particularly as the UN Security Council remains deadlocked on taking action on the war. The U.S. joined 13 other nations in voting against Friday's resolution.

New York City has started offering migrants airplane tickets to destinations of their choosing in response to an increase of asylum seekers arriving in the city.

Why it matters: More than 130,600 people seeking refuge from humanitarian crises around the world have arrived in New York City since 2022. Mayor Eric Adams (D) has warned that the city is running out of space and resources to house them.

Hurricane Otis made landfall directly on Acapulco, Mexico, as a violent Category 5 storm on Wednesday, killing at least 27 people and causing extensive damage to the beach resort city.

The big picture: The storm and the flooding it brought with it knocked out electricity and communications for thousands of Acapulco's 780,000 residents, sheared walls from buildings, blew out windows and set off landslides that blocked the city's main highway.

U.S. forces conducted airstrikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by groups linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at President Biden's direction, the Pentagon announced late Thursday.

The big picture: The "precision self-defense strikes" were in "response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria" by Iran-backed groups that began on Oct. 17, per a Pentagon statement. A U.S. defense official told reporters late Thursday Iran was responsible for the attacks against American bases in Syria.