Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it's 'dismantled' Hamas' military framework

The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Sunday that it has "completed the dismantling of Hamas' military framework" in the northern Gaza Strip, hitting hundreds of targets and taking out key leaders of the terrorist group.

In an assessment of the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, said Israeli forces have met their goals through airstrikes, ground operations and intelligence gathering in the primary objective of eliminating Hamas.

He said the IDF's efforts in northern Gaza have included a relentless barrage of missile strikes, most of them targeting Jabaliya, the onetime stronghold of Hamas. In Jabaliya alone, Hagari said IDF airstrikes had hit 670 targets before ground forces entered the area and another 300 targets after ground troops moved in and helped direct precision airstrikes.

"In these strikes in the Jabaliya area, we eliminated the battalion commander, the deputy brigade commanders, and 11 company commanders leading the terrorists in the field," Hagari said during a news conference.

Among the Hamas commanders eliminated was Ahmad Randor, Hagari said, showing what he said was a photograph of Randor sitting with his command echelon in a bunker 40 meters, or about 131 feet, underground.

"We have completed the dismantling of Hamas' military framework in the northern Gaza Strip and will continue to deepen the achievement, strengthening the barrier and the defense components along the security fence," Hagari said.

Since the war started, IDF forces have located and destroyed 40,000 weapons across the Gaza Strip, some of which were found in schools, hospitals, mosques, and even under the beds of children, Hagari said. In Jabaliya, IDF troops also infiltrated about 5 miles of tunnels and more than 40 tunnel shafts leading to Hamas' northern headquarters and retrieved the bodies of five hostages, according to Hagari.

"Hamas no longer operates in an organized manner in this area. We have deprived it of its main terror capabilities in the region," Hagari said.

He noted that while there are still terrorists in the Jabaliya area, "they now operate without a framework and without commanders."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

While taking questions on the tarmac in Greece before heading to Jordan in his latest round of Middle East shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken wouldn't reveal diplomatic conversations on the latest flareup in northern Israel, where Hezbollah missiles struck early Saturday, but said the U.S. is "actively working" on the issue.

"One of the areas of real concern is the border between Israel and Lebanon," he said, pointing to the "tens of thousands forced from their homes in northern Israel."

"We are looking at ways diplomatically to try to defuse that challenge, that tension, so that people can return to their homes, that they can live in peace and security," Blinken said.

Blinken said the broad priorities of his trip include "preventing this conflict from spreading," to "maximize the protection for civilians, maximize humanitarian assistance, getting it to them, and also to get hostages out of Gaza," and paving the way for a postwar, "Palestinian-led" Gaza.

He also praised U.S.-Greek cooperation, pointing to the Greeks' help in Operation Prosperity Guardian to keep the Red Sea safe amid increasing Houthi attacks on commercial vessels.

"I can't think of a time when the partnership, the friendship between our countries has been stronger," he said.

-ABC News' Chris Boccia

Al Nuseirat Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was home to about 100,000 people before the war. Now, only a few hundred remain.

Umm Ahmed, a mother of three, told ABC News she has evacuated three times but has returned to Al Nuseirat Camp.

"I see people sitting and sleeping in the streets," Ahmed said. "The situation doesn’t allow movement from here to there. It is financially expensive."

Ahmed said the situation in Gaza is "very, very, very bad."

"The situation, in all honesty, is no food, no drinking, no water, not even drinkable water, poverty, hunger and diseases," she said. "Skin diseases are also difficult for children."

Abu Muhammad, another resident of the camp, told ABC News he did not sleep last night due to bombing. But he does not want to leave.

"My message to the world is that we are here, and this is our land and we will not abandon it," he said.

-ABC News' Sami Zayara

An Israeli man who was believed to be alive and held hostage by militants in the Gaza Strip has been confirmed dead, his community announced Friday.

Tamir Adar, 38, was killed during the Hamas-led assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz in southern Israel on Oct. 7 before militants took his body back to neighboring Gaza, according to a statement from the kibbutz. His grandmother, Yaffa Adar, was abducted alive and later released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Tamir was "born and raised in the kibbutz and lived there with his family," the statement from Nir Oz said. He is survived by his wife and two young children.

"Tamir was a family man, he loved people and nature," the statement added.

-ABC News' Anna Brund, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor