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.
Total of 300 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza
Forty-five aid trucks crossed from Egypt into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Thursday as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, the Palestinian spokesman for the border crossing, Wael Abu Omar, told ABC News.
A total of 300 trucks have now crossed from Egypt into Gaza since Oct. 21.
677 foreign passport holders have crossed into Egypt: Border spokesman
At least 342 foreign passport holders crossed from Gaza into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Thursday, according to Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the border crossing.
A total of 677 foreign passport holders have crossed into Egypt from Gaza since Wednesday, he said.
Another 97 injured Palestinians have crossed into Egypt. Overall, 118 Palestinians have crossed into Egypt from Gaza, he said.
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."
70 UNRWA staff killed
Seventy employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East have been killed since Oct. 7, the highest number of U.N. aid workers to die in a conflict in such a short time, the agency said.
New Jersey woman who fled Gaza says Gazans 'deserve life'
American Maha Elbanna woke up in Gaza on Thursday unsure if she'd be able to cross the border into Egypt. She found her name on the approved list and said she had enough fuel in her car for one shot at getting to the border.
Thursday night, from her hotel in Cairo, she told ABC News that she's been in Gaza for other wars, but this time is different.
"It's brutal," she said. "The total number of people killed is too high, too fast. Too many women and children -- can't be justified."
She said the decision to leave Gaza wasn't easy.
"I'm leaving everyone I know -- my brothers, sisters, nieces, my cousins, my friends, my co-workers," she said.
But she also has four children in New Jersey. She said she’s grateful she is able to go home to have Thanksgiving with them.
She said she wants people to know that Gazans are human.
"They're beautiful. They have dreams and hopes and aspirations. We do everything like all other normal people. We eat, we breathe, we play, we dance … we do yoga. we ride our bikes. It's normal life," she said. "It's people who deserve life."
-ABC News' Maggie Rulli