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.
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.
Israeli troops in Gaza City
Israeli troops are operating in Gaza City and are "encircling it from several directions," said chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Israeli forces are now also "engaged in a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip," Halevi said.
Halevi said less than half of the total strength of the Israeli Air Force is operating in the Gaza Strip.
"Most of the force is prepared and ready, with bombs on the wings and people who are ready to be scrambled at any moment to the planes, to go out and strike in other arenas as soon as required," he said.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
American who escaped Gaza: 'People are frustrated, they’re desperate'
Barbara Zind, a pediatrician from Colorado who was in Gaza working with the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, said the scene at the Gaza-Egypt border was pure chaos.
"Everyone rushed in and they were pressing the doors," she told ABC News. "They did have a list up of who was on the list to leave."
“People are frustrated. They’re desperate. People are angry. There were a couple of fist fights," she said.
Zind, one of the first five Americans to leave Gaza on Wednesday, said she has survivor's guilt.
"I just left so I might get a little emotional, but these people are just being slaughtered," she said. "These are my friends."
Zind said the bombing was constant.
She said often it was near impossible to contact people outside Gaza. At one point she was in a total communication blackout for 18 hours and unable to tell her husband and son that she was safe.
As conditions worsened, she said at one point they were down to consuming 800 calories per day, with two days left of supplies. She said one man risked his life to drive into Gaza City to get more supplies for everyone to eat for another week.
Zind has made many trips to Gaza to work with children and families there. When asked if she would go back, she said, definitely.
-ABC News' Maggie Rulli
Secretary Blinken arrives in Israel
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken descended the plane stairs and greeted newly sworn-in Ambassador Jack Lew and the former Chargé d’Affaires, now Deputy Chief of Mission Stephanie Hallett, as he arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday morning.
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Chief of State Protocol Gil Haskel and MFA North Americas Bureau Director Yaron Sideman also welcomed the secretary.
Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu, members of the Israeli War Cabinet and President Herzog this morning and will hold a press availability at 8 a.m. ET (2 p.m. local) after the meetings.