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 8, 2023, 1:47 PM 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 08, 2023, 1:47 PM EST
IDF confirms it failed to rescue hostages in special operation
The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted a hostage rescue operation overnight in the Gaza Strip that failed to rescue any hostages.
Two IDF soldiers were severely injured in the operation while "numerous" Hamas terrorists who "took part in the abducting and holding of hostages were killed," the IDF said.
"The IDF continues to operate in a variety of operational and intelligence methods, together with security organizations, in order to release the hostages, and to collect relevant information," the IDF said.
People hold candles and signs with photos of Israeli hostages, who are being held in the Gaza Strip during a torch march as the country observes the Jewish festival Hanukkah, in Tel Aviv, Israel Dec. 7, 2023.
Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Dec 08, 2023, 12:16 PM EST
Society in Gaza on 'brink of full-blown collapse,' UNRWA warns
"Civil order is breaking down in Gaza" and "society is on the brink of full-blown collapse," warned Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza.
Palestinian citizens carry out search and rescue operations amid the destruction caused by Israeli air strikes, Dec.8, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
"The streets feel wild, particularly after dark," White wrote Friday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
He said some aid convoys have been looted and some U.N. vehicles were stoned.
With Gaza under "constant bombardment" and food and supplies limited, the "UNRWA’s ability to assist and protect people is reducing fast," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UNRWA, said in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly.
A Palestinian man carries a casualty at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 7, 2023.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
“In my 35 years of work in complex emergencies, I would never have expected to write such a letter, predicting the killing of my staff and the collapse of the mandate I am expected to fulfill," Lazzarini said. "I urge all member states to take immediate actions to implement an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, enforce international law including the protection of civilians, U.N. staff, U.N. premises including shelters, medical facilities and all civilian infrastructure and protect the prospects for a political solution vital to peace and stability and the rights for Palestinians, Israelis, the region and beyond."
Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital, December 8, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Dec 08, 2023, 5:46 AM EST
IDF says 450 targets struck in Gaza over past day amid 'extensive battles with terrorists'
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday morning that it has struck approximately 450 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day from the air, sea and ground amid "extensive battles with terrorists."
"The troops continue to operate to locate and destroy underground tunnel shafts, weapons, and additional terror infrastructure," the IDF said in a statement.
During operations in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, Israeli ground troops directed fighter jets "to kill numerous terrorists in a two-hour series of precise strikes," according to the IDF.
Overnight, Israeli warships "used precise ammunition to strike dozens of terror infrastructure sites used by the Hamas naval forces in the central and southern Gaza Strip," the IDF said.
-ABC News' Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor
Dec 08, 2023, 4:47 AM EST
Israeli kibbutz confirms death of resident initially thought to be hostage
The remains of an Israeli citizen thought to be kidnapped by the militant group Hamas were identified overnight, ABC News has learned.
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office announced Friday morning that the number of hostages currently held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip is 137, down from 138.
Be'eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel near the border with Gaza, confirmed Friday morning the death of one of its residents, Dror Kaplun, who was initially believed to be a hostage but was actually killed in the Oct. 7 terror attack. His wife, Dr. Marcel Freilich Kaplun, was also killed in the attack, according to the kibbutz.
-ABC News' Anna Brund, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
