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.


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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."


White House: 'It's obvious to us' that Israel is 'trying to minimize' civilian casualties in Gaza

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby would not discuss the Israeli strike that hit Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday, but he did say broadly that the U.S. believes Israel is "trying to minimize" civilian casualties in Gaza.

"It's obvious to us that they are, that they are trying to minimize,” Kirby said.

He said that assessment is based on the "daily conversation we are having with our counterparts about their goals, the strategies, and their plans."

"We’re not going to react to every event in real time, but will certainly recognize that civilians have been hurt, civilians have been killed, to the tune of many thousands, that infrastructure has been damaged by these airstrikes," Kirby said. "We’re not accepting of any single civilian death in Gaza. They’re all tragedies. And we continue to work … with the Israelis about the need to respect human life and to try to limit civilian casualties."

Following repeated warnings from President Joe Biden and his administration for Israel to follow the "rules of war," ABC News asked Kirby if a strike like this on a refugee camp would mean they violated that, but Kirby would not speculate on the explosion, saying he had no information on what occurred.

The Israeli Defense Forces has taken responsibility for the strike at the Jabaliya refugee camp, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF said the blast killed a Hamas official and claimed the official was one of the leaders of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez