Israel-Gaza updates: Hamas has received proposed hostage deal, Qatar says
Israel says the framework of the proposed deal has not yet been agreed upon.
More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel's founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
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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.
'Full-fledged famine' threat in Gaza continues to rise as aid declines, humanitarian groups warn
Before the war, roughly two-thirds of Gaza residents were reliant on food aid, according to the World Food Program.
Now, roughly 577,000 people in Gaza, or 26% of the population, are starving, according to Arif Husain, the chief economist for WFP.
"If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full-fledged famine within the next six months," he told ABC News.
Maryam al-Dahdough, a mother of four who is pregnant with another child, was one of the thousand people who line up daily at a soup kitchen in Rafah in southern Gaza.
She told ABC News that she has not eaten eggs, milk or anything healthy for three months and it's been worse for her other children.
"Fever, vomiting, diarrhea all day, not a single one of them is healthy," she said.
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White House says hostages, Jordan response can both be done
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was tight-lipped Wednesday about ongoing hostage negotiations, stressing that he did not want anything to jeopardize any progress.
"I will tell you that, in broad strokes, we are looking at an extended pause," he said. "How long? That's all part of the discussions, but longer than what we saw in November, which was about a week. We'd like to see a longer pause than that. Not just because that helps facilitate the movement of so many more hostages out … but so it can also give us an opportunity to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance in.”
Asked if President Joe Biden is holding off on retaliatory strikes after a drone attack killed three American service members in Jordan this weekend, to give time and safe space for the ongoing hostage negotiations, Kirby insisted that the U.S. would continue to move forward on both.
"This is hard diplomatic work that’s going into trying to get those hostages out," Kirby said. "It's hard, but that doesn't mean that you put the brakes on that. … And it doesn't mean that you don't respond to the attacks in Jordan. … We can and we will do both."
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Palestinian statehood options part of 'ongoing policy planning,' State Department says
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to outright confirm or deny a report from Axios claiming that Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered a review of options for recognizing Palestinian statehood, but Miller said the State Department has an "ongoing policy planning process" examining the matter.
"There has been no policy shift in the administration -- we have made quite clear publicly that we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state," Miller said. "That's been the policy of the United States for some time."
"We do a lot of work inside the government to think about how to bring that about," Miller said regarding Palestinian statehood recognition. "We look at any number of options. That’s part of the normal planning process. The vast majority of options never usually get implemented."
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Netanyahu meets with hostage families
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with family members of hostages still being held captive in Gaza, telling them the government is "making every effort" to bring the hostages home.
"The more public this effort gets, the more distant it gets, and the more discreet this effort is, the more likely it is to succeed," Netanyahu said. "Naturally, and for these two reasons, I am limited from sharing with you. I ask you to understand that we are truly committed in the full sense of the word."
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller