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.
Click here for updates from previous days.
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.
More dead than injured arriving at Gaza hospital
For the first time, more dead than injured arrived at Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital on Wednesday, according to Doctors Without Borders.
The hospital has been receiving approximately 150 to 200 injured people per day over the last week. Now, 115 arrived dead at the hospital in 24 hours, Doctors Without Borders said.
"The hospital is full, the morgue is full," Doctors Without Borders said. "We call on Israeli Forces to stop the indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. We need a cease-fire now."
Egypt intensifies efforts to reinstate truce
Egypt is intensifying efforts with all parties to reinstate the truce between Hamas and Israel as soon as possible, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt's State Information Service, said Thursday.
350 killed in Gaza in past day, health ministry says
Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Thursday that 350 people have been killed there in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since Oct. 7 to over 17,000.
-ABC News' Nasser Atta and Morgan Winsor
IDF says it's fighting Hamas throughout Gaza, from Khan Yunis to Jabalya
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday morning that its "troops killed Hamas terrorists and struck dozens of terror targets" during operations in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip over the past day.
"IDF troops engaged with a terrorist cell that exited from a tunnel shaft, killed two terrorists in combat and struck the shaft," the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli troops also "conducted a targeted raid on a military compound belonging to Hamas' Central Jabalya Battalion" during operations in Jabalya in northern Gaza, according to the IDF.
"A number of terrorists were killed as part of the activity," the IDF added. "Furthermore, the forces located a network of underground tunnels that lead out of the compound, as well as a training area and weapons storage facility in the area of the compound."
In addition to the ground operations in Gaza, Israeli warships over the past day "struck Hamas military compounds and infrastructure using precise ammunition and firing shells," according to the IDF.
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor
US believes 8 American hostages remain in Gaza, Kirby says
The United States believes eight Americans are still being held hostage by militants in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
"We think there's about eight hostages that are Americans. We know of at least one woman in that group," Kirby told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on "Good Morning America."
"We're doing everything we can to try to get them released," he continued. "We're constantly engaged with our partners in the region to try to get this humanitarian pause back in place, so that the flow of hostages can renew."
Although a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas, ended last week, the U.S. is "still flowing in humanitarian assistance" to civilians in Gaza, according to Kirby.
"And we're trying to get it up to the level that it was during the pause," he noted.
When asked about what Israel's "endgame" might be in its war against Hamas as Israeli troops expand their offensive across all of Gaza, Kirby said: "That's really something for the Israeli's to speak to."
"We obviously want to see Hamas eliminated as a threat to the Israeli people," he added. "That hasn't been achieved yet. They're going after the leadership as best they can. They believe they need to operate in the south. We've told them you know we’ll continue to support their military operations but we want to make sure that as they do that they're factoring in those innocent civilian lives as much as possible."
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor