Israel-Gaza updates: Israel says ground operation underway in southern Gaza
The IDF said it's carried out 10,000 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended early Friday, 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.
Cease-fire is 'matter of life or death' for 1.3 million displaced in Gaza, WHO warns
Approximately 1.3 million people are currently living in shelters in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to head of the World Health Organization, who warned Wednesday that "a sustained ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas is "a matter of life or death for civilians" in Gaza.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "overcrowding and lack of food, water, sanitation and basic hygiene, waste management and access to medication are resulting in a high number of cases of" various contagious diseases, including 111,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, 12,000 cases of scabies, 11,000 cases of lice, 75,000 cases of diarrhoea, 24,00 cases of skin rash, 2,500 cases of impetigo, 2,500 cases of chickenpox and 1,100 cases of jaundice.
"On top of all this: heightened risk of disease outbreaks," Tedros wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"Given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people could die from disease than bombings," he added. "We need a sustained ceasefire. NOW. It's a matter of life or death for civilians."
Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory governed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, is home to more than 2 million people.
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor
Israel says 161 hostages, including children, remain in Gaza
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday that 161 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip.
Of the 161 remaining hostages, 126 are male and 35 are female. Among them are 146 Israelis and 15 foreigners, including Americans. Ten of them are age 75 and older, four are 18 or 19, and four are under the age of 18, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.
So far, 86 hostages -- 66 Israelis and 20 foreigners -- have been freed since last Friday in exchange for the release of dozens of Palestinians from Israeli prisons as part of a cease-fire agreement between Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas, and Israel. Another prisoner swap is expected to take place Wednesday.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller, Joe Simonetti and Morgan Winsor
America's top hostage negotiator travels to Israel
The United States' Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, often referred to as the country's top hostage negotiator, will travel to Israel on Wednesday, according to a senior official in the U.S. Department of State.
The official said that Carstens "will support Secretary Blinken's visit to the region, meet with Israeli government counterparts and visit the families of Americans held hostage in Gaza."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday night.
It will be Carstens' first known trip to Israel since Oct. 7, when Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel and took hundreds of people hostage back to the neighboring Gaza Strip. Carsten's deputy, Steven Gillen, visited Israel shortly after the war broke out and has spent a substantial amount time in the region during the weeks that followed, largely coordinating with Israeli officials on efforts to free the hostages.
Earlier this month, Carstens met with family members of some of the hostages in Washington, D.C.
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford and Morgan Winsor
Kirby: No indication Hamas using American hostages as leverage
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said there's no indication that Hamas is trying to keep Americans as hostages in order to use them as leverage.
"There's no indication that Hamas is trying to play some sort of game here in terms of the Americans," Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
He added that the first test case of getting hostages out involved two Americans, including a teenager from the Chicago area, and that 4-year-old American-Israeli hostage Abigail Idan was released over the weekend.
In the latest exchange on Tuesday, 12 hostages -- 10 Israelis and two foreign nationals from Thailand -- were released, the Israeli government said.
Kirby reiterated that the pool of American hostages is "pretty small, and the pool of Americans that qualify right now, women and children, is smaller still."
He also noted that there are issues locating the hostages, who may be held by various groups.
The U.S. believes there are eight or nine Americans still being held in Gaza, Kirby said on Monday.
-ABC News' Selina Wang and Cheyenne Haslett
Israel says it's started 'powerful' ground operation in southern Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces has started a ground operation in southern Gaza that "will be no less powerful than" the operations in northern Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said.
"We have the capabilities to do it in the most thorough way, and just as we did it with strength and thoroughly in the north of the Gaza Strip, we are also doing it now in the south of the Gaza Strip, and we also continue to deepen the achievements in the north of the Gaza Strip," Halevi said.
The IDF said it's carried out 10,000 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since fighting began.
"The forces ‘closed circles’ and thwarted terror cells, terror infrastructure, operational apartments, tunnel shafts, weapons warehouses and more,” the IDF said in a statement.
-ABC News' Dana Savir