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:

Dec 31, 2023, 4:46 PM EST
IDF says it expects war to last all of 2024
Dec 29, 2023, 3:24 PM EST
Israel says it destroyed tunnels where Hamas general headquarters were located
Dec 29, 2023, 1:06 PM EST
Hamas leader will not travel to Cairo to discuss potential cease-fire deal
Dec 28, 2023, 3:13 PM EST
Refugee camp to be established in Khan Younis

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 26, 2023, 12:06 PM EST

Netanyahu adviser to meet with White House officials

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a key ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, according to administration officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, wears a protective vest and helmet as he receives a security briefing with commanders and soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 25, 2023.
Avi Ohayon/GPO via AP

The meeting will cover "a number of matters related to the conflict in Gaza and the return of hostages held by Hamas," according to National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.

Israeli soldiers operate in a location given as Tuffah, Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, December 26, 2023.
Israel Defense Forces/via Reuters

Dermer was the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. from 2013 to 2021. He now serves in Netanyahu's government and is considered a close adviser to the prime minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is "deepening the war" in Gaza, vowing to fight "until the end.”

3:39

Netanyahu vows Israel-Hamas war will 'continue until the end'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is "deepening the war" in Gaza, vowing to fight "until the end.”

ABCNews.com

-ABC News’ Arthur Jones, Lauren Peller and Jay O'Brien

Dec 26, 2023, 11:47 AM EST

120 aid trucks enter Gaza on Monday

On Christmas Day, 60 trucks crossed into Gaza via Egypt's Rafah border crossing, and an additional 60 trucks entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, said Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah crossing.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter the Kerem Shalom Crossing before being checked and going into Gaza, after arriving from Egypt on Dec. 22, 2023 in Kerem Shalom, Israel.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

On Christmas Eve, the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted its seventh airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the U.S. Embassy of Jordan said.

Dec 26, 2023, 11:36 AM EST

Israeli defense minister: Israel 'under attack from 7 different sectors'

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a special discussion of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Israel is "under attack from seven different sectors: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran."

"We have already reacted and acted in six of them. And I say this in the most explicit way: Anyone who acts against us is a potential target," Gallant warned. "There is no immunity for anyone."

A smoke plume erupts over Khan Yunis from Rafah in the southern Gaza strip during Israeli bombardment, Dec. 26, 2023.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

-ABC News' Dana Savir

Dec 25, 2023, 4:36 PM EST

IDF says it found Hamas infrastructure in Indonesian Hospital in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers have discovered “evidence connecting Hamas’ terrorist activities” to northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital.

The IDF said a white Toyota truck “of the same type used by Hamas” in the Oct. 7 attack was found “in the inner compound of the hospital,” “along with additional weapons.”

The IDF also said that in the hospital’s inner compound was a Toyota Corolla belonging to the family of Samer Talalka, who was one of the three Israeli hostages held in Gaza who was mistakenly killed by the IDF. Bloodstains belonging to another hostage were found in the car, the IDF said.