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 2, 2023, 1:16 PM EDT
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.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 01, 2024, 6:03 AM EST
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.
Nov 02, 2023, 1:16 PM EDT
70 UNRWA staff killed
Seventy employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East have been killed since Oct. 7, the highest number of U.N. aid workers to die in a conflict in such a short time, the agency said.
3:55
Humanitarian organization head: There is "overwhelming need" for resources in Gaza
ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke with Steve Sosebee, president and co-founder of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, about aid efforts, his team helping on the ground and how trauma is impacting Gazans.
Nov 02, 2023, 12:40 PM EDT
Israeli troops in Gaza City
Israeli troops are operating in Gaza City and are "encircling it from several directions," said chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Israeli army soldiers sit in the turret of a self-propelled artillery howitzer moving on a road along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Nov. 1, 2023.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli forces are now also "engaged in a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip," Halevi said.
Halevi said less than half of the total strength of the Israeli Air Force is operating in the Gaza Strip.
"Most of the force is prepared and ready, with bombs on the wings and people who are ready to be scrambled at any moment to the planes, to go out and strike in other arenas as soon as required," he said.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
Nov 02, 2023, 9:19 AM EDT
American who escaped Gaza: 'People are frustrated, they’re desperate'
Barbara Zind, a pediatrician from Colorado who was in Gaza working with the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, said the scene at the Gaza-Egypt border was pure chaos.
"Everyone rushed in and they were pressing the doors," she told ABC News. "They did have a list up of who was on the list to leave."
“People are frustrated. They’re desperate. People are angry. There were a couple of fist fights," she said.
4:34
Race to escape Gaza as fierce fighting rages
Up to 7,000 foreign nationals, including Americans, are expected to be able to escape Gaza through the Rafah border crossing after weeks of waiting.
Zind, one of the first five Americans to leave Gaza on Wednesday, said she has survivor's guilt.
"I just left so I might get a little emotional, but these people are just being slaughtered," she said. "These are my friends."
Zind said the bombing was constant.
She said often it was near impossible to contact people outside Gaza. At one point she was in a total communication blackout for 18 hours and unable to tell her husband and son that she was safe.
Ramona Okumura and Barbara Zind have crossed the border from Gaza and are now in Egypt according to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.
Palestinian Children's Relief Fund
As conditions worsened, she said at one point they were down to consuming 800 calories per day, with two days left of supplies. She said one man risked his life to drive into Gaza City to get more supplies for everyone to eat for another week.
Zind has made many trips to Gaza to work with children and families there. When asked if she would go back, she said, definitely.
-ABC News' Maggie Rulli
Nov 02, 2023, 7:13 AM EDT
Border crossings continue in Rafah for 2nd day
Hundreds of foreign nationals and dual citizens, including about 400 Americans, were eligible to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, local officials said Thursday.
Civilians leaving display their documents as dual national Palestinians and foreigners prepare to cross the Rafah border point with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Nov. 2, 2023.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
Civilians leaving Gaza display their documents as dual national Palestinians and foreigners prepare to cross the Rafah border point with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Nov. 2, 2023.
Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
Egyptian authorities published a list of some 600 names of those who would be permitted to leave though the Rafah crossing on the second day it’s been open since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
In total some 7,000 foreign nationals from about 60 countries were eligible to leave, officials said.
1:51
Biden calls for 'pause' in fighting
The president called for a cease-fire in Gaza to help recover hostages. Meanwhile, more Americans trapped in Gaza are set to leave through the border with Egypt. ABC News' Justin Finch reports.
Lena Beseiso, a 57-year-old American from Salt Lake City, Utah, was on the list on Thursday. Beseiso had previously told ABC News she had made the trip to the border twice only to be turned away.
"Our government has the power to demand the Egyptians to open the border. Why do they delay, keeping our lives in danger?" she told ABC News last month.