Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says 3,500 'terror targets' hammered in 10 days
"Civil order is breaking down in Gaza," a UNRWA official said.
ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: December 4, 2023, 8:59 AM EST
The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
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.
Dec 04, 2023, 8:59 AM EST
6 mothers of premature babies to be evacuated from Gaza to Egypt
Six Palestinian mothers of premature babies evacuated from the Gaza Strip last month were due to leave the war-torn territory on Monday for Egypt, where their young children remain hospitalized, Palestinian authorities said.
The Palestinian border authority published a list of mothers approved to leave Gaza on Monday via the Egptian-controlled Rafah border crossing and asked them to head there.
Last month, 28 babies born prematurely in Gaza City's besieged Al-Shifa Hospital were transported to Egypt after their incubators shut down amid a collapse of medical services during Israel’s bombardment. Five of the mothers traveled with their children to Egypt, but Egyptian officials said at the time that the status and whereabouts of the other parents were not known.
-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Dec 04, 2023, 8:34 AM EST
Journalists witness one of the heaviest bombardments of Gaza since war began
Journalists on the ground in southern Israel witnessed an incredibly heavy and constant barrage of artillery fire and airstrikes in the neighboring Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon.
From their position in the southwestern Israeli city of Sderot, which overlooks Gaza, the ABC News team could feel nearby residential buildings shake when the heaviest strikes occurred. Loud bangs were also heard overhead as a barrage of militant rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel and intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.
Other journalists who have been living in Sderot since the war began almost two months ago told ABC News that the Israeli bombardment in Gaza on Monday was one of the heaviest they have heard or seen there thus far. Monday's strikes were far more intense than at the same time on Sunday and Saturday.
The heavy bombardment coincides with the Israeli military's announcement that its ground forces are now operating in all areas of Gaza and that it is "pursuing Hamas," the Palestinian militant group that rules the strip, in both the north and south.
-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge
Dec 04, 2023, 7:33 AM EST
IDF expands ground offensive to all of Gaza in 'new phase' of war
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it is expanding its ground offensive to the entire Gaza Strip amid its ongoing war against Hamas.
"We have entered a new phase in our war against Hamas," IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video statement. "We pursued them in northern Gaza. We're now pursuing Hamas in southern Gaza, too."
Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Dec. 1, 2023.
Ariel Schalit/AP
"As we expand our operation in Gaza, we remain committed to our goals: secure the release of our hostages and dismantle Hamas," he continued. "We will operate in maximum force against Hamas terrorists and infrastructures while minimizing harm to the civilians that Hamas places around them as shields."
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people, has denied Israel's claims that it deliberately shelters behind civilians by hiding its fighters, infrastructure and weapons in hospitals, schools and other areas populated by civilians.
Hagari said the IDF used the seven-day pause in hostilities with Hamas last week "to increase readiness, review intelligence and refine operational procedures."
"We are implementing lessons learned for the new phase of this war, improving the efficiency and precision of our operations on the ground," he added. "We are pursuing Hamas wherever Hamas is hiding, in the north and in the south. Every rocket launcher, weapons depot, command and control center, senior commander, underground infrastructure and any hideout where our hostages may be held."
Hagari maintained the Israel's "war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza" and that "every civilian death is a tragedy -- a tragedy that the IDF does not want and is taking extensive measures to avoid." More than 15,500 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to figures released by Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health and the Hamas government media office.
The IDF is "dropping leaflets with QR codes that opens a map guiding Gazans to safer areas," according to Hagari. However, the Israeli bombardment has disrupted telecommunications in Gaza and a majority of the population does not have access to internet or phone service.
"The map is divided into neighborhood numbers indicating where civilians in a specific area should go to avoid being in the crossfire," he said. "We call on international organizations in Gaza to assist us with this effort. It can help save lives."
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor
Dec 04, 2023, 5:59 AM EST
IDF says it struck 200 Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, including school
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that its aircraft bombed "approximately 200 Hamas terror targets" in the Gaza Strip overnight as troops continued operations on the ground.
Israeli ground troops struck "terror infrastructure" that was located inside a school in Gaza’s northeastern city of Beit Hanoun, while Israeli fighter jets struck "military infrastructure" as well as "vehicles containing missiles, mortar shells, and weapons," according to the IDF.
Israeli ground troops also directed an aircraft to bomb a "cell of terrorists" and a "weapons storage facility from which the terrorists exited," the IDF said.
Meanwhile, Israeli warships struck "a number of Hamas terror targets" overnight, including "observation posts belonging to the Hamas naval forces and terrorist infrastructure at the Gaza harbor" as well as "Hamas military compounds," according to the IDF.