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.

Click here for updates from previous days.


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.


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Refugee camp resident on conditions in Gaza: 'Poverty, hunger and diseases'

Al Nuseirat Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was home to about 100,000 people before the war. Now, only a few hundred remain.

Umm Ahmed, a mother of three, told ABC News she has evacuated three times but has returned to Al Nuseirat Camp.

"I see people sitting and sleeping in the streets," Ahmed said. "The situation doesn’t allow movement from here to there. It is financially expensive."

Ahmed said the situation in Gaza is "very, very, very bad."

"The situation, in all honesty, is no food, no drinking, no water, not even drinkable water, poverty, hunger and diseases," she said. "Skin diseases are also difficult for children."

Abu Muhammad, another resident of the camp, told ABC News he did not sleep last night due to bombing. But he does not want to leave.

"My message to the world is that we are here, and this is our land and we will not abandon it," he said.

-ABC News' Sami Zayara


Israeli kibbutz announces death of hostage initially believed to be alive

An Israeli man who was believed to be alive and held hostage by militants in the Gaza Strip has been confirmed dead, his community announced Friday.

Tamir Adar, 38, was killed during the Hamas-led assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz in southern Israel on Oct. 7 before militants took his body back to neighboring Gaza, according to a statement from the kibbutz. His grandmother, Yaffa Adar, was abducted alive and later released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Tamir was "born and raised in the kibbutz and lived there with his family," the statement from Nir Oz said. He is survived by his wife and two young children.

"Tamir was a family man, he loved people and nature," the statement added.

-ABC News' Anna Brund, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor


Mother, uncle of US service member rescued from Gaza

The mother and uncle of an American servicemember were rescued from Gaza in an operation involving Israel and Egypt -- the first known mission of its kind to take place since the war broke out -- U.S. officials confirmed on Thursday.

Zahra Sckak and her brother-in-law, Farid (a U.S. citizen), were shepherded out of Gaza days ago, though the details of the operation were kept quiet due to security concerns surrounding the operation.

The U.S. played a "liaison role" in the case, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

"There wasn’t an operational presence by any U.S. forces or U.S. personnel there to help these family members escape, but we were glad to see them make their way safely out of Gaza and we’ll continue to work to do what we can to facilitate the departure of others," Miller told reporters Thursday.

Fadi Sckak, a brother of the U.S. servicemember, told ABC News Live last month that his mother was on the list of individuals approved to leave Gaza through the Rafah gate, but that she couldn't get to the border crossing because of the heavy fighting surrounding the area where she was sheltering.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford


3 missing Israeli citizens recognized as hostages: IDF

Three Israeli citizens previously considered missing are now recognized as hostages, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Thursday.

"This decision was made following the completion of search and investigation operations in Israel and after examining all plausible scenarios and the information we have," he said during a briefing.

That brings the total number of Israeli hostages held in Gaza to 136, including 23 believed to be dead, officials said.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller


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