Israel-Gaza updates: Blinken, Abbas meet on restoring 'calm' in West Bank, State Department says
The top U.S. diplomat made an unannounced stop in the West Bank on Sunday.
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:
- Blinken meets with Iraqi prime minister
- Blinken visits West Bank, meets with Palestinian Authority leader Abbas
- Blinken in Jordan reaffirms need for 'increased, sustained' humanitarian aid for Gaza
- ABC News' Ian Pannell embeds with IDF in Gaza
- Doctors Without Borders says conflict has reached ‘new low’ after ambulance strike
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.
Last planned US charter flight to leave Tel Aviv Tuesday
The last planned U.S. charter flight out of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport is set for Tuesday, according to the State Department.
"Commercial availability remains limited out of Ben Gurion Airport," the State Department said. "Please go to Ben Gurion International Airport, Terminal 3 if you wish to depart Israel. U.S. Embassy personnel will be present to direct you and provide specific flight information. Be prepared to wait."
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said the chartered flights are ending because there's no longer enough American passengers to fill them.
"It is purely a demand issue. We had a charter flight yesterday that had five people on it," he said Monday. "We've consistently seen the demand for our charter flights go down to where we had a lot of flights going out with 50% capability. I think the number of seats that we have offered, we have had something like 25% of that actually be filled."
"We have notified everyone that the charter flight tomorrow is the last one that we are currently planning, so if they do want to leave, now's the time to do it," he continued. "But we will always conduct assessments in real time about whether there's additional demand, whether circumstances change on the ground, and if we need to make additional arrangements, we will of course be open to doing so."
Hamas making 'number of demands' for foreign nationals in Gaza: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Hamas was making "a number of demands" for opening the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza to foreign nationals, including the 500 to 600 Americans who are trapped in Gaza.
"Hamas is making a number of demands before they’ll allow people to leave Gaza. I’m not going to speak to those demands, but it's something we're continuing to try to work through," he said.
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
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.
"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
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 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.
Israeli forces 'fighting deep inside the Gaza Strip': IDF
The Israeli military is "fighting deep inside the Gaza Strip," killing "terrorists in close range combat" and "conducting coordinated strikes on terror targets from land, air and sea," the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday.
The IDF said it has "eliminated many terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure."
On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers killed terror leader Ibrahim Biari, the IDF said.
"Striking Biari caused the collapse of adjacent buildings because of the expansive infrastructure there whose purpose was to launch terror attacks against our forces," the IDF said. "During the battle, the entire infrastructure collapsed and many terrorists were killed."
"The Hamas terrorists continue to use civilian population as protective armor. This is intentional and devastatingly barbaric," the IDF continued. "Once again, today, we call on the citizens of Northern Gaza to move Southward. … We will act forcefully in the city of Gaza and in the Northern Gaza Strip. We will continue to act against any terrorist in every part of the Gaza Strip."
-ABC News' Ellie Kaufman