Israel-Gaza updates: IDF says it has completed the 'dismantling of Hamas' military framework'
The IDF gave an assessment Sunday of the first three months of the war.
More than a month after a temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended, Israel continues 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.
Hezbollah leader warns of response for killing of top Hamas official
The head of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassam Nasrallah, said in a speech Wednesday that the killing of deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was a "serious and heinous crime that will not remain without response and punishment."
"Whoever thinks about war with us will regret it and it will be costly," al-Arouri said in Arabic.
Nasrallah said they did receive messages that the assassination of al-Arouri was "not targeting Lebanon and the southern suburbs."
The speech Wednesday was the first time the leader of the Lebanese group has spoken since Nov. 3. It followed the death Tuesday of al-Arouri in a bombing.
Israel has not claimed responsibility, but Hamas and Hezbollah have pointed the blame.
-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz and Ellie Kaufman
Israel says it dismantled tunnels under Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israeli army said in a release Wednesday it had destroyed Hamas' tunnels underneath the Al-Shifa Hospital without causing damage to the hospital complex.
Israel said the tunnels under the hospital spanned over 250 meters and "led to a number of significant terrorist centers and was used for carrying out terrorist operations." It added that humanitarian operations continued at the hospital.
Hamas, as well as doctors at the hospital, has denied that terrorists were operating from the hospital complex.
-ABC News' Jordana Miller
US denounces Israeli officials' remarks on emigration from Gaza
The U.S. State Department is denouncing recent comments from Israel’s far right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for the emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, calling the officials' statements "inflammatory and irresponsible."
"The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. "We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately."
-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford
Top Hamas leader killed in Beirut strike, official says
A top Hamas leader and at least five others were killed in a strike in Beirut on Tuesday, a Hamas official said.
The leader, identified by the official as Saleh Arouri, was second in command in Hamas and the head of Hamas in the West Bank.
Lebanese Security Services said six people were killed in the strike, which Hamas blamed on Israel.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson declined to comment on the incident, but told ABC News that Israel "is on high alert and prepared for any scenario."
"I want to be clear we are focused on the fight against Hamas," the spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, added.
IDF says it has completed the 'dismantling of Hamas' military framework'
The Israel Defense Forces claimed on Sunday that it has "completed the dismantling of Hamas' military framework" in the northern Gaza Strip, hitting hundreds of targets and taking out key leaders of the terrorist group.
In an assessment of the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson, said Israeli forces have met their goals through airstrikes, ground operations and intelligence gathering in the primary objective of eliminating Hamas.
He said the IDF's efforts in northern Gaza have included a relentless barrage of missile strikes, most of them targeting Jabaliya, the onetime stronghold of Hamas. In Jabaliya alone, Hagari said IDF airstrikes had hit 670 targets before ground forces entered the area and another 300 targets after ground troops moved in and helped direct precision airstrikes.
"In these strikes in the Jabaliya area, we eliminated the battalion commander, the deputy brigade commanders, and 11 company commanders leading the terrorists in the field," Hagari said during a news conference.
Among the Hamas commanders eliminated was Ahmad Randor, Hagari said, showing what he said was a photograph of Randor sitting with his command echelon in a bunker 40 meters, or about 131 feet, underground.
"We have completed the dismantling of Hamas' military framework in the northern Gaza Strip and will continue to deepen the achievement, strengthening the barrier and the defense components along the security fence," Hagari said.
Since the war started, IDF forces have located and destroyed 40,000 weapons across the Gaza Strip, some of which were found in schools, hospitals, mosques, and even under the beds of children, Hagari said. In Jabaliya, IDF troops also infiltrated about 5 miles of tunnels and more than 40 tunnel shafts leading to Hamas' northern headquarters and retrieved the bodies of five hostages, according to Hagari.
"Hamas no longer operates in an organized manner in this area. We have deprived it of its main terror capabilities in the region," Hagari said.
He noted that while there are still terrorists in the Jabaliya area, "they now operate without a framework and without commanders."
-ABC News' Jordana Miller