Israel-Gaza live updates: Blinken, Abbas meet on restoring 'calm' in West Bank

The top U.S. diplomat made an unannounced stop in the West Bank on Sunday.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: November 5, 2023, 5:13 PM EST

Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 1, 6:03 am

What we know about the conflict

The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.

Oct 30, 2023, 9:16 AM EDT

In Gaza, 'day and night is hell'

Younes Elhallaq, a 24-year-old student at the Islamic University of Gaza, is among about 30 family members sheltering in a four-room house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. They are running out of resources and living in fear.

A displaced Palestinian boy, who fled with his family from their house amid Israeli strikes, looks after his twin siblings as they take shelter at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 29, 2023.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

"The situation is really miserable," he told ABC News. "No electricity, no internet, no water, no food."

"They all told us to go to the south because it's going to be secure and safe or something, but no. … Everything here in Gaza is targeted," he said.

Fire rises above Gaza City during an Israeli strike, Oct. 27, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images

"Sometimes you kind of sleep for two hours, three hours, and then we hear the bombs everywhere," he said.

His sister-in-law, 22-year-old Batoul Abu Ali, added, "Our day and night is hell."

A man sits in his damaged home after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 27, 2023.
Fatima Shbair/AP

-ABC News' Camille Alcini and Zoe Magee

Oct 30, 2023, 6:02 AM EDT

Ground operations 'continued and expanded' overnight: IDF

Israel Defense Forces announced that their ground operations "continued and expanded" in Gaza overnight.

"An IAF aircraft—guided by ground forces—struck a Hamas post and the 20+ terrorist operatives in it," the IDF said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). "Soldiers spotted armed terrorists and an anti-tank missile launching post near the Al-Azhar University and guided an IAF fighter jet to strike them."

Meanwhile, the IDF said that they had eliminated "multiple terrorists barricaded within civilian buildings and terrorist tunnels" who attempted to attack the forces.

Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza over the weekend, expanding their ground war as tensions continue to rise in the Middle East.
4:06

Israel expands ground operation in Gaza

Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza over the weekend, expanding their ground war as tensions continue to rise in the Middle East.
ABCNews.com

Oct 29, 2023, 6:41 PM EDT

24 trucks bring in aid: Red Cross

The Red Cross announced Sunday night that its teams in Gaza received 24 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent through the Rafah crossing.

The trucks contained food supplies and medical necessities, the Red Cross said.

That brings the total number of aid trucks to 118, according to the Red Cross.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Oct 29, 2023, 5:52 PM EDT

IDF spokesperson says Hamas tactical commanders killed in ground operation

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday that the military ground operation has led to the death of "many terrorists," including tactical commanders.

The IDF is pursuing Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, and Hagari said they will go after him "until we get to him."

Meanwhile, rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Sunday, Hagari said, with Israeli troops returning fire. Hagari said the IDF struck "Hezbollah terror infrastructure."

In the north of the country, the IDF also attacked what Hadari said were three terrorist cells that had been shooting toward Israel's troops.

On Sunday night, local time, rockets were fired at Kiryat Shmona and the Upper Galilee, Hadari said, noting the IDF returned fire.

In his Sunday briefing, Hadari again encouraged Gaza's civilian population to move south of Wadi Gaza for "their personal safety," and where conditions will "allow access to medicines, food and water."

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

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