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Israel-Gaza live updates: Israel 'deepening the war' in Gaza: Netanyahu

Israel "will continue to fight until the complete victory over Hamas."

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: December 24, 2023, 1:13 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.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Mar 1, 2024, 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.

Dec 19, 2023, 1:00 PM EST

Israeli president: ‘Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tuesday that “Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages.”

Herzog said to achieve this, “the responsibility lies fully with [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas.”

Portraits of Israeli hostages, held in Gaza since the October 7 attack, are displayed next to an installation outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", in Tel Aviv, Dec. 15, 2023.
Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images

“It is really important for us to reiterate -- we are not fighting the people of Gaza. They are not our enemies,” the president said. “We are fighting Hamas, they are the enemy. And in this respect, we are taking all possible humanitarian steps according to international humanitarian law.”

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, addresses the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and possibly providing aid to Israeli hostages.
3:51

Red Cross president speaks out about humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, addresses the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and possibly providing aid to Israeli hostages.
ABCNews.com

Herzog said the amount of humanitarian aid for hard-hit Gaza “can be tripled instantaneously.”

“For the last two weeks, Israel has operated new scanning equipment in [the Israeli city of] Nitzana enabling the entry of 350 trucks a day. For the last two weeks there was a failure by the United Nations predominantly, and other partners, in the inflow of trucks into Gaza -- only about 125 or 100 trucks a day,” he said. “You can triple the amount of trucks easily, if there was only an effort by the United Nations and its partners. The world has to know that you could have had tens of thousands of tons a day more going into Gaza.”

A UNRWA spokesperson disputed Herzog's claim, saying, "That’s not at all accurate."

A man sits with children by a fire outside one of the tents housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 18, 2023.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

Dec 19, 2023, 12:31 PM EST

IDF will still operate deep in Gaza during ‘next stage in the fighting’

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said Tuesday that even when Israel moves "to the next stage in the fighting, the [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers will continue to operate deep in the [Gaza] Strip until we achieve all our goals.”

An Israeli soldier takes a position soldier as smoke billows in the Gaza Strip, Dec. 19, 2023.
Israeli Defense Forces/AFP via Getty Image

“We will continue to hold territory in the [Gaza] Strip in order to provide security to the Israeli settlements,” Gantz said. “Our operational plan is still long."

People stand on the edge of a crater caused by an Israeli bombardment as they inspect the destroyed building of Palestinian journalist Adel Zorob, who was killed overnight, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 19, 2023.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

Dec 19, 2023, 12:19 PM EST

IDF says it found explosive device in Gaza medical clinic near school

The Israel Defense Forces said it found an “explosive device planted” in a medical clinic near a school in Shejaiya, Gaza.

The IDF said it also found "numerous weapons, including AK-47s, vests and cartridges."

Dec 19, 2023, 11:57 AM EST

27 killed near Gaza refugee camp: Gaza Ministry of Health

Twenty-seven people were killed and at least 10 were injured after Israeli forces targeted the block 2 area in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

Two journalists were among the injured, the Ministry of Health said.

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta

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