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, 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

Feb 29, 2024, 1:15 PM EST

Biden 'hopeful' for cease-fire but 'probably not by Monday'

After suggesting a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel could happen by Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden is now indicating it may take longer to reach a deal, without offering a new timeline.

"Probably not by Monday, but I'm hopeful," Biden told reporters on Thursday. "Hope springs eternal."

A poster depicting Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin is displayed in Re'im, southern Israel at the Gaza border, Feb. 26, 2024, at a memorial site for the Nova music festival site.
Maya Alleruzzo/AP

The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.

Biden spoke on the phone Thursday with the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt. All leaders agreed that Hamas should release the hostages "without delay" and that it would result in "an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks," according to a White House readout.

Biden also thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and plans to surge more assistance to the region.

-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez

Feb 29, 2024, 12:23 PM EST

Over 100 killed while waiting for food aid in northern Gaza

Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food aid in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured in the incident at Al-Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in the southwest of Gaza City, the health ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as dozens of the wounded were in critical or serious condition. Patients from the incident who were admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City suffered from injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, being hit by tank artillery shells and being trampled, according to the health ministry spokesperson.

When asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News on Thursday: "Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review."

Palestinians receive medical care at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Feb. 29, 2024, after Israeli soldiers allegedly opened fire on a crowd waiting for food aid.
AFP via Getty Images

Israeli security officials told ABC News on Thursday that the crowd approached IDF 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.

Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks, according to the United Nations, which continues to warn about the threat of famine for people still living there.

One of the truck drivers who delivers humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, Ahmed Ayad, told ABC News on Wednesday that crowds of people waiting for food aid on Al-Rashid Street block the vehicles from reaching their final destination, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire.

"They fire so that we can advance comfortably," Ayad said. "But people don't respond to the shooting, so they move toward us and take aid from the truck. They're waiting. Everyone is anxious and the amount [of food] arriving is not enough."

A Palestinian man receives medical care at Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Feb. 29, 2024, after Israeli soldiers allegedly opened fire on a crowd waiting for food aid.
AFP via Getty Images

U.S.President Joe Biden said Thursday that the White House is looking into the reports of Israeli forces killing civilians.

"There are two complete versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet," Biden said, adding that this will complicate the cease-fire negotiations.

The Biden administration is considering airdropping aid into Gaza, a U.S. official told ABC News.

-ABC News' Nasser Atta, Morgan Winsor and Samy Zyara

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