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.
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.
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.
Kidnapped female Israeli soldier rescued, IDF says
Pvt. Ori Megidish, a female Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, was rescued during the Israeli military's ground operations overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
She's now home with her family, the IDF said.
Editor's Note: An earlier IDF statement said a kidnapped female Israeli soldier was released, but later clarified that she was rescued.
Death of German-Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas confirmed by Israeli, German governments
The death of Shani Luk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, was confirmed by both the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the German government on Monday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social media, "The news of Shani Louk's death is terrible."
"This shows the full barbarity behind the Hamas attack - who must be held accountable." Scholz said. "This is terror, and Israel has the right to defend itself."
Blinken says minimizing harm to Palestinians 'very much on the agenda' for Israel meetings
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is en route to Israel and Jordan, said this trip he's focused on de-escalation and the plight of the Palestinians.
"We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza," Blinken said.
"When I see a Palestinian child, a boy or a girl, pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building -- that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else. So this is something we have an obligation to respond to, and we will," he said.
The secretary identified three key goals for his trip.
"First, to talk to the Israeli government about the ongoing campaign against the Hamas terrorist organization," Blinken said. "Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself, and also to take steps to try to make sure that this never happens again. … We've also said very clearly and repeatedly that how Israel does this matters. We will focus as well on steps that need to be taken to protect civilians who are in a crossfire of the Hamas’ making, and we want to look at concrete steps that can be taken to better protect them."
Blinken said his second objective is getting humanitarian aid into Gaza and getting people who want to leave out of Gaza.
Blinken said his third goal is to try to set the groundwork for a resolution to the conflict.
The secretary added that the administration is still "intensely focused" on the hostages in Gaza and "taking every possible step that we can in concert with others to secure their release."
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford