Fighting is ongoing between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in southern Israel. Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah are openly exchanging fire at the northern border.

The Israel Defense Forces said the area of the Gaza Division has been declared a closed military zone and reiterated that entry is strictly prohibited.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip remained closed for the second day in a row on Wednesday. The crossing was shut indefinitely on Tuesday after it was hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times on Monday and Tuesday.

The State Department expects that the number of confirmed dead Americans will rise on Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said on CNN.

"We continue to work through the list of unaccounted and find that, obviously, some of those we will locate or will report in, some of them we do find, unfortunately, they're deceased, and then others we are able to confirm are taken hostage,” Miller said. “It's a moving target all the time."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

A barrage of rockets has landed on the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday morning.

Ashkelon, with a population of over 100,000 people, has essentially been a ghost town since the start of the incursion from Hamas over the weekend.

There have been no immediate reports of injuries or deaths in the aftermath of the attack.

-ABC News’ Matt Gutman

The United Nations said Wednesday that there are now more than 263,000 people internally displaced in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli airstrikes destroy buildings and homes in response to Saturday’s attack by Hamas.

That figure includes at least 137,500 people who are currently sheltering in hospitals and schools in Hamas-ruled Gaza, according to the U.N.

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti