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.
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.
Nov 03, 2023, 10:24 AM EDT
Blinken discusses 'humanitarian pauses' during meetings in Israel
At Friday's news conference in Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said among the goals for his meetings are upping aid deliveries to Gaza, continuing to move American nationals out of Gaza and freeing hostages.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP
He said these goals would all be "facilitated by humanitarian pauses."
"That was an important area of discussion today with Israeli leaders -- how, when and where these can be implemented, what work needs to happen, and what understandings must be reached," he said.
19:08
ABC News Live: Blinken presses Netanyahu for pause in Gaza
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding high-level meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and the Israeli war cabinet.
ABCNews.com
Blinken acknowledged these pauses would not be easy to pull off.
"A number of legitimate questions were raised in our discussions today, including how to use any period of pause to maximize the flow of humanitarian assistance, how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn't use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage," he said. "These are issues that we need to tackle urgently and we believe they can be solved."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
Nov 03, 2023, 9:40 AM EDT
Blinken recounts graphic video of Israeli dad, sons targeted at kibbutz
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel's military actions against Hamas at a Friday news conference in Israel after meeting with Israeli leaders, saying, "This right to self-defense, indeed, this obligation to self-defense, belongs to every nation. No country could, or should, tolerate the slaughter of innocents."
10:37
Blinken delivers remarks following 2nd meeting with Netanyahu since start of war
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Israel has an obligation to self-defense, as no country should tolerate the "slaughter of innocence."
ABCNews.com
Blinken said during his Friday meetings with Israeli leaders he viewed more footage from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, describing the videos as "almost beyond the human capacity to process."
In one video, he said, a father at a kibbutz grabbed his two sons, who appeared about 10 or 11 years old, and pulled them from the house into a shelter.
The family was "followed seconds later by a terrorist who throws a grenade into that small shelter," Blinken said.
When the dad came stumbling out of the shelter, he was shot, Blinken said.
The immediate family of Lili Itamari, 63, and Ram Itamari, 56, grieve during the funeral after the couple from Kibbutz Kfar Aza who were killed when Hamas militants attacked the kibbutz near the Gaza border on Oct. 7th, at Kibbutz Ruhama on Oct. 29, 2023 in Ruhama, Israel.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
The sons then ran from the shelter into the house, crying, "Where's daddy?" he said.
The terrorist then "casually opens the refrigerator and starts to eat from it," Blinken said.
"It is striking, and in some ways, shocking, that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many. But not in Israel and not in America," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, during his visit to Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
After sharing details of the terror inflicted on Israeli children during the conflict, Blinken touched on the images of young Palestinian boys and girls pulled from the rubble of buildings.
"When I see that, when I look into their eyes through the TV screen, I see my own children," he said.
Nov 03, 2023, 9:24 AM EDT
New Jersey woman who fled Gaza says Gazans 'deserve life'
American Maha Elbanna woke up in Gaza on Thursday unsure if she'd be able to cross the border into Egypt. She found her name on the approved list and said she had enough fuel in her car for one shot at getting to the border.
3:40
New Jersey woman describes harrowing escape from Gaza
Maha Elbanna talks about her journey to Egypt.
ABCNews.com
Palestinians with dual nationality register to cross to Egypt on the Gaza Strip side of the border crossing in Rafah, Nov. 2, 2023.
Hatem Ali/AP
Thursday night, from her hotel in Cairo, she told ABC News that she's been in Gaza for other wars, but this time is different.
"It's brutal," she said. "The total number of people killed is too high, too fast. Too many women and children -- can't be justified."
Palestinians look from windows at the damage caused by Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023.
Abed Khaled/AP
She said the decision to leave Gaza wasn't easy.
"I'm leaving everyone I know -- my brothers, sisters, nieces, my cousins, my friends, my co-workers," she said.
But she also has four children in New Jersey. She said she’s grateful she is able to go home to have Thanksgiving with them.
She said she wants people to know that Gazans are human.
People sit in front of a bakery that was destroyed in an Israeli strike, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Nov. 2, 2023.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
"They're beautiful. They have dreams and hopes and aspirations. We do everything like all other normal people. We eat, we breathe, we play, we dance … we do yoga. we ride our bikes. It's normal life," she said. "It's people who deserve life."
-ABC News' Maggie Rulli
Nov 03, 2023, 8:13 AM EDT
US flying unarmed drones over Gaza to help with hostage recovery
The U.S. has been flying unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drones above Gaza to assist with hostage recovery efforts, a U.S. official said.
The official would not discuss where the MQ-9 flights are originating for operational security reasons.
A woman weeps as another shouts as family and friends of hostages taken from Kfar Aza demonstrate in Tel Aviv Museum Plaza, Nov. 2, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
