Israel-Gaza updates: Gaza sees deadliest day since conflict began
At least 700 people died in Gaza on Tuesday, OCHA said.
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.
WHO calls for release of hostages, proof of life, proof of medical care
The World Health Organization said there's "an urgent need" for Hamas to "provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release" of the hostages.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he met with families of some hostages on Wednesday.
"Many of the hostages, including children, women and the elderly, have pre-existing health conditions requiring urgent and sustained care and treatment," he said in a statement. "The mental health trauma that the abducted, and the families, are facing is acute and psychosocial support is of great importance."
Israeli official: 'Definitions of defeating Hamas' must be more 'realistic'
Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, the former head of the Israel National Security Council, told ABC News the "definitions of defeating Hamas … have to be a little more measurable and realistic."
Eiland, who has been working inside Israel’s military headquarters, said there’s no way to completely destroy Hamas, but he said what Israel can do "is destroy the military capabilities and other governmental functions of Hamas."
"But even to achieve this limited goal we will have to maintain the military effort," he said.
Eiland said Israel cannot allow Hamas "the ability now or in the future to rebuild their rocket arsenal."
-ABC News' Matt Gutman
House to vote on resolution defending Israel
The House on Wednesday is debating a resolution to show support for Israel and condemn Hamas.
The resolution introduced by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul is entitled "Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists."
It's expected to pass with large bipartisan support.
-ABC News' Lauren Peller
Israeli forces said they've hit underground tunnels
Missiles fired by Israeli forces have struck underground tunnels in Gaza, targeting Hamas terrorists, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said. It's unclear what the result of the hit was.
Hamas has previously claimed to have built 500 kilometers -- more than 300 miles -- of tunnels under Gaza. The tunnel system is designed to conceal and cover Hamas militants and allow them to execute surprise attacks, according to experts.
The IDF spokesman said Israel's current attacks in Gaza are improving their situation for the next stage of the long war ahead.
Gaza hospital 'will turn into a big morgue,' doctor warns
In Gaza, where the "health system is collapsing," doctors "cannot offer much" to their hundreds of severely wounded patients, Dr. Mohammed Ghandil from Gaza's Nasser Hospital told ABC News.
"The hospital door is open, but the health care is not provided," Ghandil said.
"We are just giving some peaceful words for them to die," he said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that one-third of hospitals in Gaza and two-thirds of clinics were not functioning.
More than 17,000 people in Gaza have been wounded since Oct. 7.
"Even the medical patient [who] was not wounded, who came with heart attack, with stroke, with sepsis, we're just sending them home because there is no bed in the hospital," he said. "The hospital corridors, the hospital backyards, the hospital balcony are fully, fully packed with the severely wounded."
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"If the fuel is zero," Ghandil said, "the doctors and the nurses will go home and the hospital will turn to a big morgue."
-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian