Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says 2 hostages rescued from Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defending the Israeli military’s continued bombardment of Gaza, targeting Hamas fighters, after President Joe Biden criticized the campaign as "over the top" given the dire conditions and high death toll in the Palestinian territory.

When asked about Biden's remark in a Sunday interview with ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Netanyahu said he appreciated the president's support thus far and laid the blame for civilian casualties on the Hamas terrorist group, which launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

"I don't know exactly what he [Biden] meant by that, but put yourself in Israel's shoes. We were attacked. Unprovoked attack, murderous attack on Oct. 7," Netanyahu said, adding, "I think we've responded in a way that goes after the terrorists and tries to minimize the civilian population in which the terrorists embed themselves and use them as human shields." The Israel Defense Forces has said it is only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.

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Netanyahu: Securing hostages' release and eliminating Hamas 'not mutually exclusive'

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl interviews Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on “This Week.”

ABCNews.com

Karl pressed Netanyahu on the number of deaths, with the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health estimating more than 28,000 killed. Netanyahu acknowledged many civilians had been killed but claimed -- without presenting evidence -- that Israel's military is currently killing more Hamas fighters than civilians.

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-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

The Israeli Defense Forces said it killed approximately 120 Hamas terrorists and destroyed 20 Hamas infrastructure sites in Shati and Tel al-Hawa in northern Gaza.

The IDF said it found a tunnel shaft near an UNRWA school which led to an underground tunnel which passes under the UNRWA's headquarters in the Gaza Strip. The tunnel was over 2,296 feet long, according to the IDF. The IDF alleged that Hamas militants used the space under the UNRWA's headquarters as an electrical supply room.

The UNWRA said it had no knowledge of the facility's underground, but the "recent media reports" merit an "independent inquiry," which the agency is unable to perform due to the ongoing war.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in Rafah early Saturday, just hours after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the southern Gaza city ahead of a ground invasion.

Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline but the announcement set off widespread panic as more than than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after being uprooted repeatedly by Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of Gaza's territory.

It's not clear where much of that population could turn to next as word of the potential invasion plans capped a week of increasingly public friction between Netanyahu and the Biden administration.

U.S. officials have said an invasion of Rafah without a plan for the civilian population would lead to disaster.

The Israel Defense Forces presented information to the family of hostage Yossi Sharabi, who died in Gaza, telling the family that Sharabi may have been killed when a building adjacent to an IDF target in Gaza collapsed, ABC News has learned. It’s also possible Sharabi may have been killed by Hamas, the IDF said.

Sharabi was confirmed dead in mid-January, but this is the first time the IDF has presented their findings on how Sharabi may have died to his family.

The IDF has determined that the buildings its forces hit was a "legitimate target," but also found "lessons" that were "learned regarding target approval processes and the required dialogue between all relevant military authorities for the approval of a target," when reviewing how Sharabi died, ABC News has learned.