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 27, 2023, 1:52 PM EST

Egyptian president meets with King of Jordan, says 'international community must push' for cease-fire

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Egypt on Wednesday and said "the international community must push towards" a cease-fire.

“Both leaders affirmed their complete rejection of all attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue or to displace the Palestinians from their lands or their internal displacement, stressing that the only solution that the international community must push towards implementing is an immediate cease-fire, and the entry of relief aid in the necessary quantities and at the speed that will make a real difference in alleviating the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip,” according to a readout from the Egyptian spokesman for the Presidency Counselor Ahmed Fahmy.

“Talks also focused on regional developments, especially in the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian tragedy it faces, which resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries and the displacement of hundreds of thousands,” the readout added.

ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy provides more analysis on the situation in Gaza as the fighting there intensifies.

3:05

Tensions rise in the Middle East

ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy provides more analysis on the situation in Gaza as the fighting there intensifies.

ABCNews.com

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy

Dec 27, 2023, 1:43 PM EST

WHO delivers aid, supplies to Gaza hospitals

The World Health Organization said it delivered much-needed aid and supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza and the Palestine Red Crescent Society's Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.

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

Al-Shifa and Al-Amal hospitals are also operating as shelters for displaced residents, sheltering 50,000 people and 14,000 people respectively, according to the WHO.

Gaza has 13 partially functioning hospitals, two minimally functioning hospitals and 21 hospitals that are not functioning at all, causing the hospitals that are functioning to become overloaded with patients who need help, according to the WHO.

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

"Today I repeat my call on the international community to take urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril facing the population of Gaza and jeopardizing the ability of humanitarian workers to help people with terrible injuries, acute hunger, and at severe risk of disease," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

Tedros said a cease-fire is needed "to spare civilians from further violence and begin the long road towards reconstruction and peace."

Dec 27, 2023, 12:08 PM EST

20 killed in strike in Khan Younis

Twenty people have been killed in a strike on a building near the Red Cross Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The death toll is likely to rise, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.

A Palestinian mother reacts at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 27, 2023, after receiving news of her son's death following Israeli air strikes.
Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

-ABC News Nasser Atta

Dec 27, 2023, 11:07 AM EST

At least 241 killed in Gaza in 24 hours

At least 241 people have been killed in Gaza in a 24-hour period, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

This comes as Israeli forces expand their ground offensive to central Gaza, launching over 200 rockets in one day, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.