Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it expects war to last all of 2024
The Israeli army said it destroyed a key hideout for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
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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.
Hunger spreads in Gaza, Israel fires on UN aid convoy: UN
A quarter of the population is starving because too few trucks enter with food, medicine, fuel and other supplies, according to U.N. monitors.
U.N. monitors said operations at the Israeli-run Kerem Shalom crossing halted for four days this week because of security incidents, such as a drone strike and the seizing of aid by desperate Gaza residents. They said the crossing reopened Friday, and that a total of 81 aid trucks entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border -- a fraction of the typical pre-war volume of 500 trucks a day.
The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees said Friday that Israeli soldiers fired on a U.N. aid convoy returning from a delivery in northern Gaza, an incident U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths condemned as "unlawful."
Refugee camps hit in Gaza amid fierce fighting
Palestinians reported fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing in Khan Younis in southern Gaza overnight, and strikes appear to be continuing this morning.
Israel said its forces in Gaza eliminated "dozens of terror operatives" in the past day. Planes also carried out a series of air strikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.
Residents in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, a recent hot spot of combat along with Nuseirat, also reported Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday. Israeli forces have been pounding Khan Younis in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main southern city, swaths of which they captured in early December.
Israel said Saturday its troops have advanced further in southern Gaza, while raiding Hamas sites in Khan Younis, including the headquarters of the terror group’s intelligence division in the city.
According to Israel, the intelligence HQ was responsible for all of Hamas’s intelligence activity in the Khan Younis area.
Fighting continues on the border with Lebanon
Israel said that it struck three terror cells in southern Lebanon on Saturday. The IDF also said it carried out strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure and shelled areas in southern Lebanon.
The strikes came amid Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks on northern Israel on Saturday, according to the IDF. According to Israel, 80% of the launches fired by Hezbollah toward Israel fell in Lebanon.
-ABC News' Dana Savir
Israel says it destroyed tunnels where Hamas general headquarters were located
The IDF said it has located and destroyed a hideout apartment of Yahya Sinwar -- a Hamas leader -- near Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip.
IDF soldiers examined the apartment using additional technological means and found that a strategic tunnel shaft was located on the basement floor. The soldiers inspected the tunnel shaft and reached a 715-foot tunnel with a depth of over 65 feet that was apparently used by the senior officials of Hamas’ Military and Political Wing, according to the IDF.
The IDF said that the tunnel had an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, hideout materials, prayer rooms and resting rooms. The IDF said the tunnel was built so that it would be possible to stay inside it and conduct combat for long periods of time.
-ABC News' Dana Savir
American-Israeli-Canadian hostage confirmed dead
Judy Weinstein, a 70-year-old American-Israeli-Canadian hostage, was confirmed dead on Thursday, Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a statement.
Weinstein was fatally wounded during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and her body remains held in Gaza, the kibbutz said.
Her husband, American-Israeli Gad Haggai, was also killed on Oct. 7 and his body also remains in Gaza, the kibbutz said. His death was confirmed last week.
Weinstein, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, was an English teacher who specialized in helping children with special needs, Kibbutz Nir Oz said.
"For the past few years she has also taught Mindfulness to children and teenagers who suffered from anxiety caused by the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza," the kibbutz said. "Judy was a poet, entrepreneur, and pursued many initiatives to advance peace in the region."
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he's "devastated" to learn of Weinstein's death.
"We are holding Judith and Gad’s four children, seven grandchildren, and other loved ones close to our hearts," Biden said. "I will never forget what their daughter, and the family members of other Americans held hostage in Gaza, have shared with me. They have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal. And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home."
Weinstein was the last American woman being held hostage by Hamas who had not been released, according to the Hostage Families Forum.