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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.
Northern Gaza is 'hell on earth': UN
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen by the day, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office, said, "If there is a hell on earth today, its name is northern Gaza."
"People who remain there, the corners of their existence are death, deprivation, despair, displacement, and literally, darkness," Laerke said. "The entire Gaza Strip has been plunged into darkness. … What do you tell your children in such a situation? It's almost unimaginable."
Mass exodus from Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital
People are fleeing Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, sources confirmed to ABC News, in the wake of a strike on the exterior area of the hospital's outpatient clinic. One surgeon told ABC News "everyone" has fled, calling it a "nightmare."
The hospital has been treating thousands of wounded people and housing as many as 80,000 displaced residents, according to The Associated Press.
The hospital's head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, told ABC News he is among the roughly 15% to 20% of staff members still there on Friday.
Although many patients have evacuated, he said, "There is no hospital in Gaza that can accommodate this number of ICU patients -- around 100 ICU patients."
The Palestinian Red Crescent said occupation snipers fired on Gaza's Al-Quds Hospital, killing at least one and injuring at least 28.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said, "The IDF does not shoot at hospitals. If there are Hamas terrorists in the hospitals, the IDF will do what it needs to, but we are aware of the sensitivity. We tell Hamas to move the sick southward."
"Slowly we are closing in on them and taking every precaution not to harm the innocent," he said.
American diplomats send dire warnings about war's long-term impact
American diplomats abroad are giving stark warnings about the long-term ramifications of the war, telling their Washington counterparts in multiple diplomatic cables that their work and public opinion of the U.S. in the Arab world could be lost and denigrated for a generation, a State Department source told ABC News.
Diplomatic cables are how U.S. embassies around the world privately communicate with State Department leadership about what U.S. diplomats are seeing on the ground. While some are just regular updates, others contain candid assessments and analysis about what senior embassy staff are seeing on the ground and the potential impacts on U.S. foreign policy or the U.S. standing in the region.
Kids with cancer evacuated from Gaza: WHO
Twelve kids with cancer or other blood disorders have been evacuated with their families from Gaza to Egypt or Jordan so they can continue their treatment, the World Health Organization said.
More kids with cancer are expected to be evacuated, the agency said.
"I am relieved that children in vital need of cancer care have been able to leave the insecurity and uncertainty in Gaza and continue receiving life-saving treatment," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "This show of desperately needed humanitarian action should serve to motivate increased access to life-saving care to all people affected by this conflict, both inside Gaza where needs are greatest today, and beyond. I pray this initiative can inspire all parties to put health and peace first."
Mother of days-old newborn discusses struggle in Gaza
A mother of four in Gaza told ABC News she is worried about getting vaccinations for her days-old newborn and keeping her children warm and fed.
"I'm afraid for him because there is no warmth, no vaccinations, and no good health supplies," Maha al Sharbsy, 32, said of her fourth child, Mohammed, who was born on Saturday. "The child has started to show signs of jaundice, and his condition is unstable."
Al Sharbsy said she and her children evacuated northern Gaza days after the war started following "intense" bombings. Now in southern Gaza, she said her children cannot sleep "because there are no winter clothes and no food," and she doesn't have money to buy food.
"I want the children to live in peace, cleanliness, and good health conditions. At the very least, for the sake of the children," she said. "We, the adults, are not the issue; the children are what matter."
Her 9-year-old son, Riad, told ABC News he misses his room and toys and is worried for his family.
"I'm afraid of the rockets, I'm afraid of people getting injured and dying, and I'm afraid of planes bombing our homes," he said.
-ABC News' Sami Zayara and Zoe Magee