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.

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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 31, 2023, 1:12 PM EST

Israeli president urges world leaders to demand hostages be released

In 10 posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 10 different languages, Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a New Year's call to world leaders and people around the globe to advance the immediate return of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

"As we enter 2024, I call on the entire family of nations, on all world leaders, to demand and work for the immediate, unconditional release of our 133 hostages," he wrote Sunday.

"Their immediate release is at the core of our battle with Hamas terrorists in Gaza," he added.

According to the Israeli prime minister's office, there are 129 hostages being held by Hamas -- including at least 23 people believed to be dead whose bodies are still being held in Gaza.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres

Dec 30, 2023, 2:31 PM EST

Hunger spreads in Gaza, Israel fires on UN aid convoy: UN

A quarter of the population is starving because too few trucks enter with food, medicine, fuel and other supplies, according to U.N. monitors.

U.N. monitors said operations at the Israeli-run Kerem Shalom crossing halted for four days this week because of security incidents, such as a drone strike and the seizing of aid by desperate Gaza residents. They said the crossing reopened Friday, and that a total of 81 aid trucks entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border -- a fraction of the typical pre-war volume of 500 trucks a day.

The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees said Friday that Israeli soldiers fired on a U.N. aid convoy returning from a delivery in northern Gaza, an incident U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths condemned as "unlawful."

Dec 30, 2023, 1:44 PM EST

Refugee camps hit in Gaza amid fierce fighting

Palestinians reported fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing in Khan Younis in southern Gaza overnight, and strikes appear to be continuing this morning.

Israel said its forces in Gaza eliminated "dozens of terror operatives" in the past day. Planes also carried out a series of air strikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.

Residents in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, a recent hot spot of combat along with Nuseirat, also reported Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday. Israeli forces have been pounding Khan Younis in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main southern city, swaths of which they captured in early December.

Israel said Saturday its troops have advanced further in southern Gaza, while raiding Hamas sites in Khan Younis, including the headquarters of the terror group’s intelligence division in the city.

According to Israel, the intelligence HQ was responsible for all of Hamas’s intelligence activity in the Khan Younis area.

Dec 30, 2023, 1:22 PM EST

Fighting continues on the border with Lebanon

Israel said that it struck three terror cells in southern Lebanon on Saturday. The IDF also said it carried out strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure and shelled areas in southern Lebanon.

The strikes came amid Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks on northern Israel on Saturday, according to the IDF. According to Israel, 80% of the launches fired by Hezbollah toward Israel fell in Lebanon.

-ABC News' Dana Savir

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