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.

Nov 03, 2023, 12:21 PM EDT

Explosion reported at Gaza City's biggest hospital

A large explosion has been reported at Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza City's biggest hospital. An ambulance was apparently on fire following the blast.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said, "We informed the Red Cross in accordance with international law that the convoy of wounded was moving via ambulances from Al-Shifa Hospital, but the occupation targeted the convoy in more than one location: in front of the hospital door, at the Ansar roundabout, and on Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street leading to the south of the Gaza Strip."

ABC News’ Ines de la Cuetara has the latest details on a reported explosion at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
3:26

Explosion at major Gaza hospital reported

ABC News’ Ines de la Cuetara has the latest details on a reported explosion at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
ABCNews.com

People wait in tent shelters in the darkness as fuel for electricity generation runs out, outside Al-Shifa hopsital in Gaza City on Nov. 2, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Dawood Nemer/AFP via Getty Images

Nov 03, 2023, 11:44 AM EDT

Over 1,000 foreign passport holders leave Gaza in 3 days

A Rafah border crossing official said 355 foreign passport holders left Gaza and entered Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Friday, bringing the total to 1,032 foreign passport holders who've crossed into Egypt over the last three days.

Suzan Besaiso, a Palestinian holding a U.S. passport, waits for permission to leave Gaza at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 2, 2023.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

The official said 128 Palestinians, including 113 injured Palestinians, have also crossed into Egypt.

Nov 03, 2023, 11:12 AM EDT

35 Americans killed in Oct. 7 attack in Israel: Blinken

Thirty-five Americans were killed in the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a Friday news conference after meeting with Israeli leaders. The American death toll previously stood at 32.

Israeli emergency responders in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Oct, 9, 2023.
Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

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.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding high-level meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and the Israeli war cabinet.
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

Related Topics