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.

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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, 4:09 PM EDT

US making 'significant progress' on getting fuel into Gaza: State Department

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller claimed Monday that the U.S. was making "significant progress" on getting fuel into Gaza via a "reliable delivery mechanism" that would assuage Israel's fear that it could be intercepted by Hamas.

Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 29, 2023.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

"Fuel is essential to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the desalinization of water and the provision of medical care and we want to see it provided for those purposes as soon as possible," Miller said. "I should note that even as we work to provide fuel for these essential humanitarian services, Hamas continues to maintain extensive fuel reserves. Rather than provide that fuel to hospitals or aid workers or for other civilian needs, however, it continues to hoard it for the benefit of its fighters and to carry out its terrorist attacks against Israel."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

Oct 30, 2023, 12:55 PM EDT

26 more aid trucks entered Gaza Monday

Twenty-six more aid trucks entered Gaza through the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing on Monday, Egyptian state TV reported.

The Red Crescent says 24 trucks carrying food and medical supplies entered through the Rafah crossing from Egypt Sunday night.
8:57

More humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza

The Red Crescent says 24 trucks carrying food and medical supplies entered through the Rafah crossing from Egypt Sunday night.
ABCNews.com

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened by the day, with residents trapped without food, water, electricity and internet as Israeli strikes continue.

A total of 150 trucks have entered Gaza, according to State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.

"We aim to surpass that number today, tomorrow and beyond," Miller said Monday.

Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross deliver medical aid to the Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, Oct. 29, 2023.
Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Oct 30, 2023, 2:34 PM EDT

Netanyahu says no plans to resign, Israel will fight on

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will keep fighting despite international criticism, and said he has no plans to resign.

Netanyahu said Israel will not agree to a cease-fire, saying doing so would mean surrendering to Hamas.

Family mourn Albert Miles, 80, who was killed in his home in Kibbutz Beeri at his funeral in Kibbutz Revivim, in southern Israel, Oct. 30, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Palestinian relatives of the eight members of the Kurd family killed in an Israeli airstrike, wait to collect the bodies of the family for burial from the Najjar Hospital, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Oct. 30, 2023.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Netanyahu implored the international community to back Israel, framing the war as a fight for civilization itself.

He said Hamas will continue to use civilians as human shields as long as the international community keeps blaming Israel for their deaths.

The Israeli prime minister was asked about the IDF soldier who was released after being kidnapped by Hamas and discussed the ongoing ground operations in Gaza.
4:42

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks amid Israel-Hamas war

The Israeli prime minister was asked about the IDF soldier who was released after being kidnapped by Hamas and discussed the ongoing ground operations in Gaza.
ABCNews.com

-ABC News' Matt Rivers

Oct 30, 2023, 1:43 PM EDT

63 UNRWA staff members killed

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said 63 of its staff members have been killed and at least 22 staffers have been injured since Oct. 7.

Ten have been killed in the last 72 hours.

Young Palestinians walk in front of a damaged building in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 30, 2023.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

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