Israel-Gaza updates: Netanyahu says war to continue 'on all fronts'

Netanyahu said Israel will "continue the war on all fronts and in all sectors."

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: January 21, 2024, 5:07 PM EST

More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.

The conflict, now the deadliest between Israel and Hamas since Israel's founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
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.

Jan 18, 2024, 12:41 PM EST

Unclear whether medical aid has reached Israeli hostages in Gaza

It was unclear Thursday whether medical aid had reached Israeli hostages in the war-torn Gaza Strip as part of a Qatari-brokered deal between Israel and Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas.

During an interview Thursday on CNN, a spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the medicine was received by Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health but that there was not yet confirmation of it being distributed to the Israeli hostages as agreed upon. The spokesperson noted that an ongoing telecommunications blackout in Gaza has made it difficult to get information in real time.

PHOTO: This handout image from the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a fork-lift transporting boxes as military planes from Qatar containing aid for Gaza, including medicine for hostages, are unloaded at El Arish airport in Egypt, Jan. 17, 2024.
This handout image provided by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a fork-lift transporting boxes as two military planes from Qatar containing aid for Gaza, including medicine for hostages, are unloaded at El Arish airport in Egypt on Jan. 17, 2024.
MOFA QATAR/AFP via Getty Images

The medical aid, provided by Qatar and France, entered Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Qatari foreign ministry.

As part of the agreement, Hamas was expected to pick up the medicine for the Israeli hostages at designated hospitals and then distribute it among the abductees. Qatar will verify and provide proof to Israel that the medicine was in fact delivered to the hostages, according to Hamas and Qatari officials.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has helped with getting aid into Gaza and transferring some hostages out of the enclave as part of previous deals, said it has no role in the implementation of this agreement, including the delivery of the medicine.

"The ICRC initiated the conversation in its role as a neutral intermediary. The parties negotiated the agreement, including how much medicines would be delivered and by whom, with Qatar brokering the deal," the ICRC told ABC News in a statement on Thursday. "The mechanism that was agreed to does not involve the ICRC playing any part in its implementation, including the delivery of medication."

A truck carrying aid arrives in Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 18, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

"The ICRC welcomes the agreement to deliver medications to the hostages and to medical facilities for the residents of Gaza as a positive humanitarian step," the organization added.

The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that the ICRC could not be involved because the security situation in Gaza makes it almost impossible for them to deliver the medicine.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky, Jordana Miller, Cindy Smith and Morgan Winsor

Jan 17, 2024, 1:29 PM EST

Qatar says it's brokered deal to allow medicine, aid into Gaza

Qatar said Tuesday it has mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Medicine and other humanitarian aid will also be delivered to civilians "in the most affected and vulnerable areas" of the Gaza Strip as part of the deal, Qatar said.

The aid landed in Egypt Wednesday and "includes medicines provided by the State of Qatar and the French Republic, along with food items provided by Qatar Charity to be further transferred to Gaza," the Qataris said.

Jan 17, 2024, 11:38 AM EST

Gaza's telecommunications blackout surpasses 100 hours

NetBlocks, a London-based nonprofit that covers internet connectivity around the world, said Wednesday that the Gaza Strip has been "in the midst of a near-total telecoms blackout for 120 hours."

"The disruption, now entering its sixth day, is the longest sustained telecoms outage on record since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war," NetBlocks wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor

Jan 17, 2024, 11:28 AM EST

IDF can't confirm cause of death of 3 hostages found in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday informed the families of Ron Sherman, Nick Beiser and Elia Toledano that it is not possible to determine what caused their deaths, ABC News has learned.

Sherman, Beiser and Toledano were among the more than 200 people taken hostage by militants during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The IDF recovered the bodies of the three abductees from a Hamas tunnel in the city of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 14, near where Ahmed Randour, who commanded Hamas' forces in the northern part of the enclave, had been killed a month earlier.

ABC News has learned that an investigation subsequently concluded the IDF did not know there were hostages in the area at the time it attacked the tunnel where Randor was staying and that the IDF discovered the bodies while conducting scans of the tunnel afterward.

ABC News has learned that a pathological report showed no signs of trauma or gunshots on the three bodies, and it could not be ruled out or confirmed whether they were killed as a result of suffocation, poisoning or due to an attack by the IDF or Hamas. Samples were taken to conduct a further examination.

-ABC News' Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor

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