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.
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 26, 2023, 3:59 PM EDT
US to send 2 Iron Dome systems to Israel
The U.S. will be sending its two Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense systems to Israel, the Pentagon said Thursday.
"We're also planning to provide the two U.S. Iron Dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to help further bolster their air defense capabilities and protect citizens from rocket attacks," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters today at his briefing.
An Israeli soldier looks out from a tank during a military drill near Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Oct. 26, 2023.
Lisi Niesner/Reuters
Ryder said he would not provide delivery timelines due to operational security and would only say that all of the air-defense systems being sent by the U.S. would be "online soon."
Ryder also told reporters that 900 U.S. troops have been deployed or will be deploying to the Middle East, making care to say they will not be going to Israel itself. This includes the THAAD air defense unit, the Patriot missile systems and an air-defense headquarters -- some of which were part of the original 2,200 placed on Prepare to Deploy Orders a few weeks ago.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez
Oct 26, 2023, 3:37 PM EDT
US making progress toward escape route for Americans in Gaza: State Dept.
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said the U.S. was continuing "close consultations with both the Israeli government and the Egyptian government as well as the United Nations" on opening the Rafah border crossing to American citizens, but that those still talks hadn't crossed the finish line yet.
"We have been making progress. I can't get into the details of that progress because they are very sensitive negotiations, but it's something that we are focused on and hope to have American citizens and other foreign nationals able to move through in the coming days," Miller said.
Palestinians wait to collect the bodies of their relatives outside the Nasser hospital, killed in Israeli air strikes, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 26, 2023.
Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
Miller said the State Department sent a message to American citizens Wednesday telling them that they were continuing "to work out a solution." And while the administration still hasn't given an estimate on how many Americans it is in contact with in Gaza, for the first time Miller said the State Department was speaking with "several hundred."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
Oct 26, 2023, 3:22 PM EDT
IDF claim to have killed terror attack co-architect
The Israel Defense Forces claim to have killed the co-architect of the Oct. 7 terror attack in an aerial strike.
IDF fighter jets struck Shadi Barud, the head of intelligence relations for Hamas, the Israeli military said in a statement Thursday. The statement did not specify when the attack occurred.
IDF accused Barud of planning the attack with Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
Oct 26, 2023, 2:31 PM EDT
There's 'significant evidence' Israel committed war crimes: Amnesty International
Paul O'Brien, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, told ABC News Live that "there is significant evidence" that Israel is "committing war crimes" in its targeting of the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is not taking the measures that it needs to take in order to protect civilians now," O'Brien told ABC News' James Longman. "Dropping leaflets into a densely populated area and forcing people to move or threatening them if they don't is a war crime."
O'Brien pointed not just to the issue of collective punishment, but also to the "indiscriminate targeting of civilians," and demanded an immediate investigation and accountability. The executive director also said that Amnesty has denounced Hamas' actions on Oct. 7 as a war crime, but that "the answer to that is not the further commission of war crimes by the state of Israel."
5:20
Amnesty International says Israel’s evacuation orders may amount to war crimes
The group says Israel’s leaflets cannot be considered an effective warning to civilians.
ABCNews.com
In a letter released Thursday, Amnesty International Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera said, in part, "Amnesty International reiterates its call on the Israeli authorities to immediately rescind the forced 'evacuation' orders and to put an end to threats designed to sow fear and panic among Gaza’s civilian population. All conditions on the distribution of humanitarian aid must be urgently lifted and aid, including fuel, must be allowed into Gaza in sufficient quantities to meet the dire needs of the civilian population."
Israel has allowed in limited resources through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and says Hamas is stockpiling fuel that could be used for humanitarian needs in the region. Israel has also asserted it has a right to defend itself in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack.
A woman mourns during a funeral for Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 26, 2023.
