a new phase-in israel s ground offensive in gaza. the israeli military has plans to pull back some troops and shift to more localized operations. we ll go through that development and the escalating tensions in the red sea. also ahead, a look at the very long to-do list for congress in 2024 with several crucial items that were not addressed late last year. plus, the supreme court has a tight time line to rule on the most consequential case involving the presidency since the year 2000 decision that sent george w. bush to the white house. good morning and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, january 2, 2024. happy new year, everyone. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day, week, and yes year with us. it is going to be an extraordinarily busy year. we re so grateful that you re with us. we begin this morning overseas where the israeli military is planning to withdraw some of its troops from gaza. reservists from at least two brigades will be sent home t
can be even more forceful in that response in order to really deter them from pursuing more bad behavior, but ultimately i don t see this turning into something fuller, wider scale. this is all an effort to show their iranian mafia boss and their supporters they re causing trouble and taking advantage of destability, instability and doing something at all. but the u.s. can handle this. providing expert analysis for this morning, former spokesperson for the u.s. mission to the u.n., hagar chemali we ll speak to you again soon. before we go to break, some breaking news here. some stunning images. look at this. a plane caught fire on the runway in tokyo at one of the biggest airports in japan. video showed a large burst of fire erupt from the side of a japan airlines plane as it taxied on a runway. now, local reporting, which has not yet been confirmed by nbc news, says that all passengers onboard believed to have been nearly 400 people got out sifly.
grabbing on as it taxied and took off. four fell to their deaths or were crushed by the landing gear. it was a haunting memory of the united states humiliating withdrawal from saigon at the end of the vietnam war. president biden had promised this would never happen. the taliban is not the north vietnamese army. they re not remotely compliment in terms of capability. there is going to be no circumstance where we see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the united states from afghanistan. it is not at all comparable. reporter: the u.s. military was forced to fly in thousands of reinforcements, bringing in more troops than had been in afghanistan in years. to oversee what would become one of the largest airlifts in history.
military meals ready to eat, and they re doing the best they can. but it is still a really, really, really tough situation here. tough to say the least, clarissa ward there at the kabul airport. thanks very much. we have what s really a heartbreaking update today about one of those first chaotic flights out of kabul airport. you may remember the images of a crowd of people trying to cling to the side of the landing gear of this c-17 on monday as it taxied down the runway. later sadly we saw video that at least two bodies falling from the plane as it was up in the air. and what we have now learned is one of the people who fell to their death was zaki anwari, 17 years old, a member of afghanistan s youth soccer team. a spokesman for the sports federation told the new york times the young man came from a low income family in kabul and saw the arrival of the taliban, the takeover of the taliban as
evacuate tens of thousands of americans and afghans who helped the u.s. out of that country. tonight, the state department just reporting that all u.s. embassy personnel who were trying to get out are now out, except for a core group that will now help get those afghans who helped the u.s. out of the country. it comes amid disturbing new images tonight of the deadly chaos more than 24 hours ago, afghans clinging to that c-17. this video tonight showing a young man reporting himself sitting on the side of a u.s. military plane as it taxied on the kabul airport runway before takeoff 24 hours ago. we re also learning more tonight about this stunning image. more than 640 afghan men, women and children all packed into that single c-17 cargo plane. we showed you this last night. one defense official saying they had never seen a mission with that many people, calling it, quote, pretty unpresentation dented. tonight, the taliban holding their first news conference. our reporter, the only ameri