Israel-Gaza updates: Blinken, Abbas meet on restoring 'calm' in West Bank, State Department says
The top U.S. diplomat made an unannounced stop in the West Bank on Sunday.
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:
- Blinken meets with Iraqi prime minister
- Blinken visits West Bank, meets with Palestinian Authority leader Abbas
- Blinken in Jordan reaffirms need for 'increased, sustained' humanitarian aid for Gaza
- ABC News' Ian Pannell embeds with IDF in Gaza
- Doctors Without Borders says conflict has reached ‘new low’ after ambulance strike
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.
US making 'significant progress' on getting fuel into Gaza: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller claimed Monday that the U.S. was making "significant progress" on getting fuel into Gaza via a "reliable delivery mechanism" that would assuage Israel's fear that it could be intercepted by Hamas.
"Fuel is essential to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the desalinization of water and the provision of medical care and we want to see it provided for those purposes as soon as possible," Miller said. "I should note that even as we work to provide fuel for these essential humanitarian services, Hamas continues to maintain extensive fuel reserves. Rather than provide that fuel to hospitals or aid workers or for other civilian needs, however, it continues to hoard it for the benefit of its fighters and to carry out its terrorist attacks against Israel."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford
26 more aid trucks entered Gaza Monday
Twenty-six more aid trucks entered Gaza through the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing on Monday, Egyptian state TV reported.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened by the day, with residents trapped without food, water, electricity and internet as Israeli strikes continue.
A total of 150 trucks have entered Gaza, according to State Department spokesperson Matt Miller.
"We aim to surpass that number today, tomorrow and beyond," Miller said Monday.
Netanyahu says no plans to resign, Israel will fight on
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will keep fighting despite international criticism, and said he has no plans to resign.
Netanyahu said Israel will not agree to a cease-fire, saying doing so would mean surrendering to Hamas.
Netanyahu implored the international community to back Israel, framing the war as a fight for civilization itself.
He said Hamas will continue to use civilians as human shields as long as the international community keeps blaming Israel for their deaths.
-ABC News' Matt Rivers
63 UNRWA staff members killed
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said 63 of its staff members have been killed and at least 22 staffers have been injured since Oct. 7.
Ten have been killed in the last 72 hours.
74 Americans, family members have left Gaza: White House
Seventy-four U.S. citizens and family members have crossed from Gaza into Egypt, a senior Biden administration official said, adding that the numbers are fluid and changing in real time.
President Joe Biden said at the White House Thursday, "We got out today 74 American folks, out that are dual citizens, and coming home."