Israel-Gaza updates: Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night, UNRWA says

Without fuel, the agency said it'll "be forced to halt our operations."

Last Updated: October 24, 2023, 3:39 PM EDT

Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.

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Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
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.

Oct 24, 2023, 11:30 AM EDT

Fuel 'most vital commodity' in Gaza, WHO says

Fuel is now the "most vital commodity" in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.

The limited aid trucks trickling into Gaza have not included any fuel, the organization said. Before Oct. 7, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza every day, including about 45 trucks bringing fuel, said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.

A woman reacts next to the rubble of a building following Israeli strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023.
Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

Without fuel, "trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Alrifai.

Alrifai said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency would be responsible for delivering the fuel to hospitals and water desalination plants and keeping it out of Hamas' hands.

The WHO said one in three hospitals in Gaza and two in three clinics are not functioning, with the health system overwhelmed by more than 16,000 injured people.

Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, said he's begging "all those in a situation to make a decision or influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe."

Marah Mahdi, a 24-year-old journalist, lost her home in Northern Gaza and is sheltering in the south.
3:36

Young journalist in Gaza describes life without power

Marah Mahdi, a 24-year-old journalist, lost her home in Northern Gaza and is sheltering in the south.
ABCNews.com

Oct 24, 2023, 11:03 AM EDT

Underground hospital prepares to treat wounded IDF soldiers

In just two weeks, the space below Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.

Rows of hospital beds and medical equipment have been set up in what was meant to be used as a parking garage.

The space below Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.
ABC News

"We have up to 130 beds here, including intensive care beds," Dr. Tamar Elram, director of the Hadassha Mount Scopus Hospital, told ABC News. "Everything that we do here is in total cooperation and agreement with the army and with police and all the other security forces."

The hospital has also been treating civilian victims, like Michal Alon, who was shot in the hand and chest by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and is now embarking on the long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally.

As a ground invasion of Gaza looms, one Israeli hospital turned its parking garage into an underground hospital.
3:10

Israeli hospital prepares for war casualties

As a ground invasion of Gaza looms, one Israeli hospital turned its parking garage into an underground hospital.
ABCNews.com

"We've already got soldiers and civilians who are turning to our ERs, two and a half weeks after the terror attack, starting to suffer from acute post-traumatic syndrome," Elram said.

Elram says one of the biggest challenges they've faced in preparing for what's to come includes manpower. Some staffers are leaving the hospital to go serve in the Israeli military.

-ABC News' Guy Davies and Ines De La Cuetara

Oct 24, 2023, 9:07 AM EDT

Hostages influencing Israeli military's operational plans, spokesperson says

Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner confirmed that hostages are influencing the plans of Israel's forces.

"Of course the presence of the hostages is at the top of our priority list," Lerner told ABC News. "It is obviously influencing our operational capabilities, operational plans."

Israeli supports show placards with the faces and names of people believed to be taken hostage and held in Gaza, during a protest in Trafalgar Square, London, Oct. 22, 2023.
Frank Augstein/AP

Lerner said that while the military has been given the “green light” to go into Gaza, they have not officially been given the command to "go" from the government.

Asked if the window for an operation into Gaza will close, Lerner responded, "There is no choice for Israel."

PHOTO: Mourners gather around the graves of Sgt. Yam Goldstein and her father, Nadav, during their funeral in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, Oct. 23, 2023.
Mourners gather around the graves of Sgt. Yam Goldstein and her father, Nadav, during their funeral in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, Oct. 23, 2023. Yam and her father were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 at their house in Kibbutz Kfar Azza near the border with the Gaza Strip. The rest of the family are believed to be held hostage in Gaza.
Ariel Schalit/AP

Learner also said Israeli forces are actively trying to assassinate Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahye Sinwar, but they haven't found him yet.

As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.

People unload humanitarian aid on a convoy of lorries entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Oct. 21, 2023.
Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images

"Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza -- they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals," he said.

-ABC News' Becky Perlow and Matt Gutman

Oct 24, 2023, 8:29 AM EDT

Parents describe watching video of Hamas taking son hostage

The father of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas at the Supernova music festival, said he has gained some "strength" from seeing a video of his son on the day of the attack.

"No parent should ever be subjected to this sight," Jon Polin said on ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg open up about their son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was severely injured when Hamas attacked a music festival.
8:08

Parents of Israeli American hostage speak out

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg open up about their son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was severely injured when Hamas attacked a music festival.
ABCNews.com

Polin and Rachel Goldberg's son was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack. He had been hiding with a group in a bomb shelter and witnesses saw him being loaded into the back of a Hamas pickup truck, his parents told ABC News earlier this month.

Goldberg-Polin's parents said on Tuesday they have since seen a video in which their son leaves the bomb shelter.

Rachel Goldberg, U.S.-Israeli mother of Hersh Goldberg Polin, which was taken hostage by Hamas militants into the Gaza Strip while attending a music festival in south Israel, holds photos of her son in their home, in Jerusalem October 17, 2023.
Ammar Awad/Reuters

"Knowing he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre and he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck and uses his weak hand, his only hand now, to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed," Polin said. "It gives me a sense of, he's got a perseverance and fortitude that we hope carries him through this."

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