Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it expects war to last all of 2024

The Israeli army said it destroyed a key hideout for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: December 31, 2023, 4:50 PM EST

The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.

The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing.
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.

Dec 25, 2023, 8:17 AM EST

At least 68 killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza refugee camp, health ministry says

At least 68 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

PHOTO: Palestinians mourn relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023.
Palestinians mourn relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

The strike hit the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, east of Deir al-Balah. At least 12 women and seven children were among the dead, according to The Associated Press, which cited early hospital figures.

PHOTO: Displaced Palestinian children watch from inside a tent as a man mourns relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023.
Displaced Palestinian children watch from inside a tent as a man mourns relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

When asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News on Monday: "The IDF received reports of an incident in the Maghazi camp and is reviewing the incident. Despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller, Tomek Rolski and Morgan Winsor

Dec 24, 2023, 1:12 PM EST

IDF suffers heavy losses

Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday.

PHOTO: Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Staff sergeant David Bogdanovskyi, who was killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli army's ongoing ground operation in Gaza, at a cemetery in Haifa, Israel, Dec. 24, 2023.
Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Staff sergeant David Bogdanovskyi, who was killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli army's ongoing ground operation amid the conflict with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a cemetery in Haifa, Israel, Dec. 24, 2023.
Shir Torem/Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the fatalities a "very heavy price."

This weekend’s fatalities bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive began to 153, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Family and friends of Israeli soldier Lt. Yaacov Elian mourn over his grave during his funeral at Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel, Dec. 22, 2023.
Oded Balilty/AP

Dec 24, 2023, 1:03 PM EST

Israel ‘deepening the war’ in Gaza: Netanyahu

Israel is "deepening the war" in Gaza, and Israeli soldiers "will continue to fight until the complete victory over Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Sunday.

A picture taken from southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip on Dec. 22, 2023, shows an Israeli army tank rolling past debris of buildings in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles with the Hamas militant group.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

"This is the only way to return our abductees, eliminate Hamas and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel," Netanyahu said. "It will take time, but we are united -- the fighters, the people and the government."

PHOTO: A man grieves his friends at an installation on the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, in Southern Israel, Dec. 22, 2023.
A man grieves his friends at an installation on the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, in Southern Israel, Dec. 22, 2023.
Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Dec 23, 2023, 4:15 PM EST

Biden says he did not ask for cease-fire on call with Netanyahu

President Joe Biden said he did not ask for a cease-fire during a call earlier Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I had a long talk with Netanyahu today. It was a private conversation," he told reporters while leaving the White House for Christmas at Camp David.

He later said, "I did not ask for a cease-fire."

The leaders discussed Israel's military operation in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and securing the release of the remaining hostages, according to a readout of the call released by the White House. The two agreed to remain in "regular consultation," the readout stated.

Biden also did not respond to questions about a new Wall Street Journal report that in the days after the Oct. 7 attack he convinced Netanyahu against a preemptive strike on Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

ABC News has not confirmed the report.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller and Jay O'Brien

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