Israel-Gaza live updates: 3 premature babies die at Al-Shifa Hospital, doctor says

American diplomats abroad are giving stark warnings about the long-term ramifications of the war, telling their Washington counterparts in multiple diplomatic cables that their work and public opinion of the U.S. in the Arab world could be lost and denigrated for a generation, a State Department source told ABC News.

Diplomatic cables are how U.S. embassies around the world privately communicate with State Department leadership about what U.S. diplomats are seeing on the ground. While some are just regular updates, others contain candid assessments and analysis about what senior embassy staff are seeing on the ground and the potential impacts on U.S. foreign policy or the U.S. standing in the region.

Twelve kids with cancer or other blood disorders have been evacuated with their families from Gaza to Egypt or Jordan so they can continue their treatment, the World Health Organization said.

More kids with cancer are expected to be evacuated, the agency said.

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War is one of the world’s worst public health crises

About 2 billion people, which is a quarter of the world’s population, is impacted by war each year.

"I am relieved that children in vital need of cancer care have been able to leave the insecurity and uncertainty in Gaza and continue receiving life-saving treatment," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "This show of desperately needed humanitarian action should serve to motivate increased access to life-saving care to all people affected by this conflict, both inside Gaza where needs are greatest today, and beyond. I pray this initiative can inspire all parties to put health and peace first."

More than 100 workers with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, have been killed since Oct. 7, the highest number ever seen in a single conflict, the agency said.

Those killed include parents, teachers, nurses and doctors, said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA.

"Devastated. … UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning," Lazzarini wrote, again calling for a humanitarian cease-fire.

During brief remarks in New Delhi Friday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken swiftly acknowledged the Biden administration’s “appreciation” of Israel’s commitment to four-hour pauses with three-hour notice in specific areas and corridors of Gaza “that will allow people to move more safely, freely to get out of harm's way and also to access assistance.”

“At the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them," he continued. "Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them, and to maximize the assistance that gets to them.”

The secretary said they have established basic principles to guide the effort for lasting peace and security in the region: no use of Gaza as a platform for launching attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance.

Blinken reaffirmed that the administration had “long been committed” to a two-state solution, and the terror attacks of Oct. 7, he said, only redouble American commitment to the peace process.

“But now we've had the events of October 7 -- the almost, beyond the human imagination -- horror of October 7. And I think that only reinforces us in our conviction and our commitment to durable and lasting peace which again, we see through two states,” he said.

On humanitarian assistance, Blinken said that “more than plans, we have a concrete way forward,” including ensuring that there are adequate supplies of fuel for the trucks coming in and that hospitals and desalination plants “have what they need.”

“It's always a process and moving from an understanding, moving from an agreement to implementation is what we're working on right now,” he said.