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Israel-Gaza live updates: 3 premature babies die at Al-Shifa Hospital, doctor says
The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people.
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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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.
Over 100 UNRWA workers killed
More than 100 workers with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, have been killed since Oct. 7, the highest number ever seen in a single conflict, the agency said.
Those killed include parents, teachers, nurses and doctors, said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA.
"Devastated. … UNRWA is mourning, Palestinians mourning, Israelis mourning," Lazzarini wrote, again calling for a humanitarian cease-fire.
Blinken acknowledges 4-hour pauses, reaffirms US commitment to 2 states
During brief remarks in New Delhi Friday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken swiftly acknowledged the Biden administration’s “appreciation” of Israel’s commitment to four-hour pauses with three-hour notice in specific areas and corridors of Gaza “that will allow people to move more safely, freely to get out of harm's way and also to access assistance.”
“At the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them," he continued. "Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them, and to maximize the assistance that gets to them.”
The secretary said they have established basic principles to guide the effort for lasting peace and security in the region: no use of Gaza as a platform for launching attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance.
Blinken reaffirmed that the administration had “long been committed” to a two-state solution, and the terror attacks of Oct. 7, he said, only redouble American commitment to the peace process.
“But now we've had the events of October 7 -- the almost, beyond the human imagination -- horror of October 7. And I think that only reinforces us in our conviction and our commitment to durable and lasting peace which again, we see through two states,” he said.
On humanitarian assistance, Blinken said that “more than plans, we have a concrete way forward,” including ensuring that there are adequate supplies of fuel for the trucks coming in and that hospitals and desalination plants “have what they need.”
“It's always a process and moving from an understanding, moving from an agreement to implementation is what we're working on right now,” he said.
Any plans for pauses in fighting must be carried out in coordination with UN
Any plans for short-term pauses in the fighting in Gaza must be carried out in coordination with the United Nations, said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general.
The U.N.'s comments come after the White House said Israel agreed to daily four-hour pauses in northern Gaza to allow civilians to escape.
"How any such halt in the fighting, and how it would work for humanitarian purposes, will need to be coordinated with the United Nations, especially on the issue of timings and location," Dujarric said. "And obviously in order for this to be done safely for humanitarian purposes, it would have to be agreed with all parties to the conflict to be truly effective."
Over 800 aid trucks have reached Gaza
Another 65 aid trucks entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Thursday, a border crossing official said.
A total of 821 aid trucks have now crossed into Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsens.
'Every day is like eternity': Family of those believed to be held hostage by Hamas plead for help
Through tears and voices choked with raw emotion, people whose family members are believed to held hostage by Hamas pleaded for help during a Republican-led press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
Doris Liber told reporters that her son, Guy Iluz, called her as Hamas unleashed its terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and she hasn't heard from him since.
"I'm here because it's been 30 days. Every day is like eternity to me," Liber, who holds joint Israeli-American citizenship, said. "We don't have a list of the hostages. We don't know their condition. I don't have anything. So I need your help."
She described the last time she spoke to her son.
"We hear shots in the background," she said. "He was shot in the arm and he wasn't able to stop the bleeding and he was trying to say his last words."
“I tried to, you know, tell him, ‘Guy I love you. Don't worry, nothing's going to happen. I'm going to end the call now. I'm going to send somebody now to get you,'" she continued. "And that's what I did. I hung up and I regret that since I didn't hear from him since."
Yonatan Lulu-Shamriz said he was awoken by his pregnant wife as the sirens began to sound in their kibbutz. They grabbed their 3-year-old daughter, huddled in a safe room and listened as their neighbors were slaughtered, he said. Soon his brother, Alon, called to report he was under attack, Lulu-Shamriz said.
“We don't know what is their condition," Lulu-Shamriz said. "This is a wake-up call not only for Israel, not only for the Jewish community. This is a wake-up call for all of you -- all of you here, all of America, all of Europe. You are next. You are next. And we should do everything that we can to stop these atrocities."
House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to "take action."
"We're resolved to help," the newly minted speaker said. "House Republicans want to do that."
-ABC News' John Parkinson and Lauren Peller