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.

Click here for updates from previous days.


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.


0

Border crossings continue in Rafah for 2nd day

Hundreds of foreign nationals and dual citizens, including about 400 Americans, were eligible to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, local officials said Thursday.

Egyptian authorities published a list of some 600 names of those who would be permitted to leave though the Rafah crossing on the second day it’s been open since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

In total some 7,000 foreign nationals from about 60 countries were eligible to leave, officials said.

Lena Beseiso, a 57-year-old American from Salt Lake City, Utah, was on the list on Thursday. Beseiso had previously told ABC News she had made the trip to the border twice only to be turned away.

"Our government has the power to demand the Egyptians to open the border. Why do they delay, keeping our lives in danger?" she told ABC News last month.


IDF claims they have broken through Hamas' front line

The Israel Defense Forces released a statement claiming they broke through "the forward Hamas perimeter [in] the northern Gaza Strip."

The IDF said it killed the head of Hamas' anti-tank array in an air strike.

"The array is a deadly and capable anti-tank force and eliminating it will impact Hamas' future fighting capabilities," the IDF said in a statement.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky


'Handful of Americans' expected to leave Gaza Wednesday: White House

A "handful of Americans" are expected to leave Gaza on Wednesday and enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.

According to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, five American aid workers crossed from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday.

Kirby called the exit of Americans "a significant breakthrough."

Approximately 400 Americans, as well as 600 of their family members, have been trapped in Gaza, according to the State Department.

"We've gotten through a bottleneck," Kirby said, but the evacuations will "take some time."

He cautioned that "the situation remains very fluid" and explained the "complicated process" to identify Americans and make sure they have proper documentation and can access an available route to exit safely and efficiently.

President Joe Biden said later Wednesday afternoon, "American citizens were able to exit today as part of the first group of probably over 1,000. We’ll see more of this process going on in the coming days. We're working nonstop to get Americans out of Gaza, as soon and as safely as possible."

-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez


Blinken to travel to Israel, Jordan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel and Jordan on Friday, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller announced.

Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to get an update on their military plans.

While meeting with the Israelis, Blinken "will reiterate U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself in accordance with international humanitarian law and discuss the need to take all precautions to minimize civilian casualties, as well as our work to deliver humanitarian assistance," Miller said.

In Jordan, Blinken will "underscore the importance of protecting civilian lives and our shared commitment to facilitating the sustained delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, the resumption of essential services, and ensuring that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza," Miller said.

"He will also reaffirm the U.S. commitment to working with partners to set the conditions for a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East to include the establishment of a Palestinian state that reflects the aspirations of the Palestinian people in Gaza and in the West Bank," Miller continued. "And of course, he will discuss the ongoing work to secure the release of all hostages.”

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford


Blinken recounts graphic video of Israeli dad, sons targeted at kibbutz

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel's military actions against Hamas at a Friday news conference in Israel after meeting with Israeli leaders, saying, "This right to self-defense, indeed, this obligation to self-defense, belongs to every nation. No country could, or should, tolerate the slaughter of innocents."

Blinken said during his Friday meetings with Israeli leaders he viewed more footage from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, describing the videos as "almost beyond the human capacity to process."

In one video, he said, a father at a kibbutz grabbed his two sons, who appeared about 10 or 11 years old, and pulled them from the house into a shelter.

The family was "followed seconds later by a terrorist who throws a grenade into that small shelter," Blinken said.

When the dad came stumbling out of the shelter, he was shot, Blinken said.

The sons then ran from the shelter into the house, crying, "Where's daddy?" he said.

The terrorist then "casually opens the refrigerator and starts to eat from it," Blinken said.

"It is striking, and in some ways, shocking, that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many. But not in Israel and not in America," he said.

After sharing details of the terror inflicted on Israeli children during the conflict, Blinken touched on the images of young Palestinian boys and girls pulled from the rubble of buildings.

"When I see that, when I look into their eyes through the TV screen, I see my own children," he said.