Israel-Gaza updates: Harris to meet with Israeli war Cabinet member on Monday

Kamala Harris will meet with Benny Gantz at the White House, an official said.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: March 3, 2024, 2:06 PM EST

More than four months 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 the warring sides 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.

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.

Mar 01, 2024, 2:25 PM EST

Biden says US to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza in coming days

President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.

Aid is air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 27, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

"We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said. "In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies."

He said the U.S. is also looking at the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver "large amounts of humanitarian assistance," in addition to expanding land deliveries.

Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip Feb. 27, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

"We're gonna insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need," Biden said.

"Innocent lives are on the line, and children's lives on the line," he said.

Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City, Mar. 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
AFP via Getty Images

Biden called Thursday's killing of over 100 civilians waiting for aid "tragic and alarming," adding that the "loss of life is heartbreaking."

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the airdrops will not be a "one and done" operation and will be the start of a "sustained effort" over the coming weeks.

"With each one, I think we'll learn more and we'll get better at them," Kirby said.

A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Rafah in the skies of the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Kirby explained that it will be "extremely difficult" to conduct airdrops in a densely populated environment like Gaza.

"The biggest risk is making sure that nobody gets hurt on the ground. And so, you got to locate out areas to drop that you know will be safe for people so that they don't become victims of the drop itself," he said.

Kirby also noted that the airdrops are "not a replacement for moving things in by ground."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

Mar 01, 2024, 11:50 AM EST

WHO sounds alarm over Gaza as 10th child starvation death recorded

The World Health Organization said Friday that at least 10 children are known to have starved to death in the Gaza Strip since the war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7.

"So, the official records yesterday or this morning said there was a 10th child officially registered in a hospital as having starved to death. A very sad threshold, similarly sad as the 30,000 deaths we reached all over Gaza," WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said during a press briefing. "And similar like those, these are official records, and as you all point out exactly, the unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher. And once we see them, once we see them registered in hospitals, once we see them registered officially, it's already further down the line."

Displaced Palestinians gather for food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images

Lindmeier said Gaza's health care system is now "more than on its knees," with Israel having cut off electricity and freshwater supply and limiting the entry of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-ruled enclave in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.

"All this leads to a desperate situation as we saw yesterday in the unfortunate, horrifying incidents, where hundreds of people got killed," he added. "While the U.N. secretary-general mentioned exactly that the investigation should show what the real causes were, that's not even right now important. The important [thing] is that people are so desperate for food, for freshwater, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves."

A Palestinian girl holds a plate of rice outside her tent at a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 27, 2024, as battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continue.
AFP via Getty Images

"This is the real drama, this is the real catastrophe here, that food and supplies are so scarce that we see these situations coming up," he continued. "And the food supplies have been cut off deliberately, let's not forget that."

Lindmeier warned that "once a famine is declared, it is too late for many people."

"We don't want to get to that situation and we need things to change before that,” he told reporters.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor

Mar 01, 2024, 6:21 AM EST

UN chief says killing of Gaza aid seekers requires independent probe

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "shocked" by Thursday's killing of more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip and that it would require an effective independent investigation.

Guterres made the comments while speaking ahead of a regional summit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines later Thursday. When asked about the U.N. Security Council's repeated failure to adopt a resolution demanding a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Guterres told reporters that the worsening geopolitical divides have "transformed the veto power into an effective instrument of paralysis of the action of the Security Council."

"I am totally convinced that we need a humanitarian cease-fire and we need the unconditional and immediate release of hostages and that we should have a Security Council able to achieve these objectives," he added.

-ABC News' Morgan Winsor

Feb 29, 2024, 4:20 PM EST

Civilian deaths in Gaza City 'very well could' complicate hostage talks, US says

U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matt Miller acknowledged that Thursday’s deadly incident in Gaza City "very well could" complicate hostage talks.

At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food in Gaza City, according to a spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

Displaced Palestinians gather for food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images

Israeli security officials told ABC News the crowd approached Israeli troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.

During a press briefing later Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari claimed soldiers did not fire at people seeking aid.

"This terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close," Miller told reporters Thursday. "We continue to believe a deal is possible and that the deal is in the interest of Israel, the Palestinian people and the broader region."

Families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza participate in the second day of a four-day march to Jerusalem, near the city of Kiryat Gat, southern Israel, Feb. 24, 2024.
Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

"When it comes to establishing facts on the ground, we are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place," Miller noted. "We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers."

He later added that no United Nations agencies were believed to have been involved, and that the U.S. had seen "conflicting reports" from Israel and local Palestinians.

"We don't have ground truth on what happened," he said, later adding that "oftentimes the early accounts in these situations have turned out to be incorrect."

Miller also expressed "the United States' deepest condolences to the families for those who died."

"Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today, but over the past nearly five months. And when you think about today's tragedy, it is especially heartbreaking to consider how many of those families affected will be burying loved ones not for the first time," he said.

People mourn as they receive the dead bodies of victims of an Israeli strike, Feb. 27, 2024, in Gaza City, Gaza.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

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