Israel-Gaza updates: US ambassador to Israel demands return of hostages
The war is the deadliest conflict between the two sides in recent history.
More than a month after a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas ended, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern 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.
Genocide case against Israel begins at UN's top court
Israel is defending itself in the United Nations' top court starting Thursday against allegations that its ongoing military campaign in the neighboring Gaza Strip amounts to genocide of the Palestinian people -- a claim that Israel vehemently denies.
South Africa, which brought forward the allegations, is initially asking the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of the Israeli military offensive against Gaza's militant rulers, Hamas, as part of a landmark case that is likely to take years to resolve.
"Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts," South African attorney Adila Hassim told the panel of judges inside a packed courtroom in The Hague during Thursday's opening statements. "Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court."
South Africa insists Israel is committing genocide by design and that the country's latest war in Gaza is part of its decadeslong oppression of Palestinians. South Africa's ruling political party, the African National Congress, has a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and sees parallels with its own struggle against the apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994.
"The violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on Oct. 7, 2023," South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said. "The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called South Africa's allegations “atrocious and preposterous,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed the case as "meritless."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response Thursday called South Africa's allegations "upside-down."
"Israel is fighting against murderous terrorists who have committed terrible crimes against humanity: they slaughtered, they raped, they burned, they dismembered, they killed children, women, the elderly, young men, young women. A terrorist organization that committed the most terrible crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now there are those who come to defend it in the name of the Holocaust," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to fight the terrorists, we will continue to repel the lies, we will continue to maintain our right to defend ourselves and secure our future."
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called South Africa’s case "unfounded" and reiterated that "Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself."
"We're going to continue to supply them with the tools and capabilities they need to do that," Kirby said Thursday.
Lawyers for Israel will address the court on Friday.
-ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Edward Szekeres and Morgan Winsor
Man who lost entire family sifts through rubble in Gaza
The main highway connecting south and north Gaza, Salah al-Din Road, which Israeli forces used for a civilian corridor, has become impassable in Deir al Balah in central Gaza.
“When we came here, we were surprised -- Salah al-Din is a main road connecting the north and the south in four directions, 70 meters wide,” Gaza resident Yahya Deeb Al-Laham told ABC News. Now there’s “no infrastructure, no electricity, no roads, buildings and areas are non-existent … there is nothing here, there are no signs of life. Homes for families have completely disappeared and not a single one of them remains.”
The Israelis have recently left the area.
One of the families who followed Israeli military instructions, evacuating from northern Gaza to Deir al Balah, has been completely wiped out.
The surviving family member, Muhammad Fouad Abu Safi, returned to the site to sift through the rubble and try to find what might be left of his family.
“They left me no family member, no sister, no brother, no cousin, no child,” he told ABC News. “There were about 50 people here. Only three children, girls, came out alive … the rest here were taken out as body parts or decomposing bodies.”
“Humanity has ended, mercy has ended,” he said. “Neither from America nor from any country, there is no humanity or mercy.”
-ABC News’ Samy Zayara
Hamas official says hostages won’t return alive if Netanyahu doesn’t accept cease-fire
Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said in a statement that the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza "will not return alive to their families" unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leaders respond to Hamas’ conditions, "the first of which is a comprehensive and complete cessation of their aggression against the Gaza Strip."
Israelis in Egypt for hostage talks: Egyptian security source
A delegation from Israel is in Egypt for new discussions on swapping Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for Palestinians in prison in Israel, an Egyptian security source confirmed to ABC News.
Blinken announces UN-led mission in Gaza to pave way for displaced Palestinians to return to north
Speaking from a podium in Tel Aviv, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that he and Israeli officials had agreed on a plan to carry out a United Nations-led mission in Gaza that will pave the way for displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in the north -- a significant step toward restoring a sense of normalcy in the enclave.
"As Israel's campaign moves to a lower intensity phase in northern Gaza, and as the IDF scales down its forces there, we agreed today on a plan for the U.N. to carry out an assessment mission. It will determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely to homes in the north," he said.
"Now, this is not going to happen overnight. There are serious security, infrastructure and humanitarian challenges," Blinken cautioned, later describing traps and explosives left by Hamas as a hinderance. "But the mission will start a process that evaluates these obstacles and how they can be overcome."
Blinken stressed the U.S. focus on humanitarian issues stemming from the conflict, but he also slammed a case brought by South Africa before the U.N.’s highest legal body, the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza, declaring that it "distracts the world" from vital efforts.
"Moreover, the charge of genocide is meritless," Blinken asserted. "It's particularly galling given that those who are attacking Israel -- Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter, Iran -- continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews."
-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford