Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says 3,500 'terror targets' hammered in 10 days
"Civil order is breaking down in Gaza," a UNRWA official said.
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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Latest headlines:
- IDF claims it has struck 3,500 targets in Gaza since end of cease-fire
- Yemen says no ships bound for Israel will pass Red Sea
- Turkish president denounces UN Security Council after US vetoes ceasefire resolution
- Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place to be a child: UNICEF
- Families confirm death of hostage
- IDF confirms it failed to rescue hostages in special operation
- Society in Gaza on 'brink of full-blown collapse,' UNRWA warns
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.
US vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for cease-fire in Gaza
The United States vetoed Friday a United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of hostages.
Thirteen other members voted in favor of the resolution, while the United Kingdom abstained.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council the resolution "was divorced from reality" and "would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way" in explaining why the U.S. could not support it.
He also said the U.S. could not understand why the resolution's authors did not include language condemning "Hamas' horrific terrorist attack" against Israel on Oct. 7 and had argued an unconditional cease-fire would leave Hamas able to attack again.
The resolution, which was put forward by the United Arab Emirates, was not adopted due to the U.S. veto.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, called the outcome "disastrous."
"Millions of Palestinian lives hang in the balance, every single one of them is sacred and worth saving," he said.
Israeli U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan thanked the U.S. "for standing firmly by our side and said it was a "distorted resolution that will enable Hamas' terrorists to stay in power in Gaza."
"A ceasefire will be possible only with the return of all the hostages and the destruction of Hamas," Erdan said in a statement following the vote.
Another US military aircraft lands in Egypt with 57,000 pounds of food, water, medicine
Another U.S. military aircraft landed in Egypt on Friday with 57,000 pounds of food, water and medicine to aid people in Gaza, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.
"We're mindful of the extreme humanitarian suffering inside Gaza and we're doing everything we can to help alleviate that," he said.
Kirby also said the administration is "very grateful" that the Israelis agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing at the Israel-Gaza-Egypt border, saying it was "very much at our request" that they did so. He said it had been a point of discussion between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It's good news, but we're just at the beginning of this process," he said of the Kerem Shalom crossing opening. "The first step is to set up an inspection regime, sort of akin to what's going on down in Rafah [at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing], so that the Israelis can have a measure of satisfaction that what's getting in [to Gaza] is actually what's supposed to be getting in there."
-ABC News' Justin Ryan Gomez
IDF confirms it failed to rescue hostages in special operation
The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted a hostage rescue operation overnight in the Gaza Strip that failed to rescue any hostages.
Two IDF soldiers were severely injured in the operation while "numerous" Hamas terrorists who "took part in the abducting and holding of hostages were killed," the IDF said.
"The IDF continues to operate in a variety of operational and intelligence methods, together with security organizations, in order to release the hostages, and to collect relevant information," the IDF said.
Society in Gaza on 'brink of full-blown collapse,' UNRWA warns
"Civil order is breaking down in Gaza" and "society is on the brink of full-blown collapse," warned Thomas White, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza.
"The streets feel wild, particularly after dark," White wrote Friday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
He said some aid convoys have been looted and some U.N. vehicles were stoned.
With Gaza under "constant bombardment" and food and supplies limited, the "UNRWA’s ability to assist and protect people is reducing fast," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UNRWA, said in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly.
“In my 35 years of work in complex emergencies, I would never have expected to write such a letter, predicting the killing of my staff and the collapse of the mandate I am expected to fulfill," Lazzarini said. "I urge all member states to take immediate actions to implement an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, enforce international law including the protection of civilians, U.N. staff, U.N. premises including shelters, medical facilities and all civilian infrastructure and protect the prospects for a political solution vital to peace and stability and the rights for Palestinians, Israelis, the region and beyond."