Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says 3,500 'terror targets' hammered in 10 days

More than 1,000 Americans and their family members are still stranded in Gaza, more than a month after the Rafah border crossing first opened to outbound traffic, according to the State Department.

"We know of approximately 1,050 individuals (about 350 U.S. citizens, plus lawful permanent residents and family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents) who we are in touch with and who are seeking to depart Gaza," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News, adding it "remains a fluid and quickly evolving situation."

These figures come a day after State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters that the number of American citizens trying to exit the area stood at 220, and that there were 750 individuals eligible to leave Gaza who had not yet been able to depart.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy on Tuesday "targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank."

The policy includes those "committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians' access to essential services and basic necessities," Blinken said in a statement.

The State Department has already started pursuing initial action against individuals and will designate others "in the coming days," spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters Tuesday.

The department expects the policy will impact "dozens of individuals and potential their family members," he said.

During a visit to Israel last week, Blinken said he "made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities" and that Israel must "take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks."

He added that the U.S. would also continue to engage with the Palestinian Authority to stress that it needed "to do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis."

-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Tuesday that Gaza must be demilitarized and that he is not ready to accept an international force being responsible for Gaza post-war.

"Gaza must be demilitarized and the only country that can do this and ensure it lasts is Israel," Netanyahu said. "I’m not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement."

The prime minister said half of Hamas' battalions have already been "destroyed."

Netanyahu also said a tactic of sheer force made sense for bringing home the remaining hostages.

"The only way to bring home the rest of the hostages is through massive military force in Gaza and that’s what we are doing," he said.

He also criticized those calling for a short war, saying, "I say to our friends who call for a short war, the only way for the war to end quickly is by applying sheer force. So I say stand with us. Stand with Israel. Stand with civilization."

Israeli authorities say they have collated "hundreds of testimonies of rape and sex crimes" they claim was committed by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 terror attack.

A document from the Israel Defense Forces details allegations of sexual violence, with "almost all of the testimonies" coming from eyewitnesses and first responders who were present at the scene during or after atrocities, the document states. This is because "virtually all" of the victims of sexual violence were also murdered on Oct. 7, according to the document.

The IDF said the document offers "only a small part of an immense body of information of evidence of Hamas' sex crimes" and said the evidence "proves beyond all doubt that Hamas and other … terrorists used rape and sexual violence systemically against Israeli women and children," according to the IDF.

One IDF volunteer quoted in the document described seeing many young women "in bloody, shredded rags, or just in underwear."

"Our team commander saw several (female) soldiers who were shot in the crotch and intimate areas," the IDF volunteer said, according to the document.

The IDF alleges that some members of Hamas who were captured and then interrogated also gave testimony that women were sexually abused on Oct. 7.

An Israeli paramedic quoted in the document said they inspected the bodies of two teenage girls who had been murdered. One of the girls "had her pants pulled down towards her knees ... and there's the remains of semen on the lower part of her back," the document states.

A survivor of the Oct. 7 attack, Gad Liebersohn, quoted in the document said that "for two hours I'm hiding and hearing people getting kidnapped and women getting raped ... begging for their lives."

Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has denied the allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack on neighboring southern Israel.

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the head of Israel's Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, has described what she called "widespread rape evidence."

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge