Israel tanks roll along the border with the Gaza Strip, Feb. 23, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
(NEW YORK) — There is “clear and convincing” evidence that Israeli hostages being held in Gaza have been subjected to sexual violence, including rape, since Hamas’ unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a new United Nations report has found, adding that sexual violence against hostages may be ongoing.
The report’s findings followed a two-and-a-half-week visit to Israel and the West Bank by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative to the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 14. Patten was supported by a technical team of analysts and sexual violence response specialists.
“We found clear and convincing information that sexual violence — including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment has been committed against captives,” Patten said Monday during a press conference about the report. “We also have reasonable grounds to believe such violence may still be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”
The U.N. report’s conclusions were made based on individual assessments, verifying sources, cross-referencing relevant information and the establishment of credible facts, Patten said.
Teams conducted confidential interviews with 34 people — including survivors, witnesses, hostages who have been released and family members of hostages held by the Hamas terrorist group. Analysts also reviewed more than 5,000 images and over 50 hours of footage, Patten said.
“I am of the strong opinion that this finding does not in any way legitimize further violence, but actually reinforces the need for an urgent cease-fire,” Patten said. “The end goal of this mandate is not a war without rape, but a world without war.”
Patten and specialists did not meet with any survivors of sexual violence of the Oct. 7 attacks, despite efforts. Calls were made for survivors to come forward, but Patten said she received information that a “handful” were receiving specialized trauma treatment and were not ready to come forward.
There are reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred across three locations during the Oct. 7 attacks, Patten said.
“We made a finding of clear and convincing information — which is higher than reasonable grounds to believe, but lower than standard of beyond the reasonable doubt — like for a criminal case,” Patten said. “In many instances, one has to rely on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony.”
The report includes a recommendation encouraging the Israeli government to sign a cooperation with her U.N. office, which would include support to survivors of sexual violence, Patten said.
“Victims take time,” Patten said. “They will come forward in their own time, on their own terms.”
Regarding a proper course of action from the secretary-general and U.N. Security Council, Patten said she hopes that her recommendation regarding a full-fledged investigation is reinforced with “competent” U.N. bodies, paired with an echo for calls for a humanitarian cease-fire.
“I think more than ever a cease-fire should be a priority,” Patten said. “That’s what can protect the hostages still in captivity. A cease-fire.”
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israel since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Since Hamas’ attack, more than 30,500 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 71,900 others have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israeli officials say 576 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 237 since the ground operations in Gaza began.
Reacting to the report, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. called for a condemnation of Hamas.
“It took the United Nations five months to finally recognize the sexual crimes committed on Oct. 7 during Hamas’ massacre,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., told ABC News in a statement. “I call on the Secretary-General and the Security Council to immediately condemn Hamas for their crimes, and apply unrelenting pressure on the terrorists to ensure that their sexual abuse ends and that the hostages are released.”
ABC News has reached out to the Israeli prime minister’s office and the IDF for comment.
(NEW YORK) — The number of children in Gaza dying from dehydration and malnutrition “will skyrocket” if there is not a cease-fire, according to UNICEF spokesman James Elder.
Elder called the deaths of children from dehydration and malnutrition, which UNICEF said it is now witnessing inside Gaza, “entirely predictable,” “man-made” and “preventable.”
He described the levels of malnutrition among young children in the south of Gaza as “unacceptable and dangerous.”
However, he said the levels of malnutrition and dehydration among children in the north of Gaza are “roughly three times higher” than in the south, because of the lower levels of humanitarian assistance that are reaching the northern parts of the strip.
UNICEF said its fear is that we will now start to see “a spiraling amount of deaths” among children, linked to malnutrition.
“Normally malnutrition is an underlying cause of death. A child will be killed by a disease. When we talk of hearing of children dying of dehydration, this is a great fear because this can lead to huge numbers of children dying very quickly,” Elder told ABC News in an interview from Geneva.
Elder said children are now dying in Gaza because they are dehydrating because doctors are unable to get food into their bodies.
He described the level of suffering a child would go through in this scenario and called it “about as dark as it can get for a population.”
The situation is “deteriorating every hour” the UNICEF spokesman said.
The fact that “world-class medical care” is “literally around the corner” but is inaccessible for these sick children is “darkly unique,” he said.
Elder believes it is not too late to avert a humanitarian catastrophe but said “we are getting close to some kind of point of no return.”
“If there was a cease-fire today, we would have an absolute humanitarian crisis at the highest scale that the UN would determine,” Elder said.
He called the humanitarian picture “as bad as it’s ever been” in Gaza.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,534 people have been killed and more than 71,000 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 Israeli officials.
(BRUSSELS) — Apple was fined nearly $2 billion on Monday by the European Union for abusing its market dominance to harm music streaming apps and its customers.
The tech giant, which offers its own music streaming service, prevented rival companies from promoting alternative and cheaper products that could be found outside of Apple’s App Store, the top EU antitrust regulator said.
“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store. They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of competition policy at the European Commission, said in a statement on Monday.
The fine, which amounts to 1.8 billion euros or $1.95 billion, marks the end of a five-year investigation initiated by Spotify, a top music streaming firm based in Sweden, the EU said.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, said Apple committed antitrust violations over 10 years in which it prevented music streaming companies using the App Store from informing customers about better-priced alternatives or linking to the products.
Instead, customers paid high prices on the App Store in part because Apple charges commission fees for companies that sell their products on the platform, the European Commission added.
In a statement on Monday, Apple disputed the ruling and vowed to appeal it.
“Apple has been a part of Europe for over 40 years, and today, we support more than 2.5 million jobs across the continent. We’ve helped markets thrive, promoting competition and innovation at every turn — and the App Store is an important part of that story,” the company said.
“So while we respect the European Commission, the facts simply don’t support this decision,” Apple added.
The Cupertino, California,-based firm has faced a series of legal fights over its App Store. The company charges a 30% fee for digital sales made by apps hosted in its App Store that reach $1 million in revenue.
In recent years, the company weathered a lawsuit from gaming company Epic over the 30% fee, alleging that the practice reflects an abuse of Apple’s monopoly power.
In September 2021, a federal judge said Apple was not acting as a monopolist, but ordered the company to allow in-app links that direct users to make purchases outside of the app that circumvent the 30% fee.
(PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti) — Haiti is under a state of emergency and nighttime curfew amid a surge of violence, after armed gangs attacked the Caribbean country’s two largest prisons and freed scores of inmates.
The Haitian government declared the 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday evening and imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. in an effort “to restore the order and to take appropriate measures in order to regain control of the situation,” according to a press release.
The government cited “the deterioration in security, particularly in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, characterized by increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs, causing massive population displacements and consisting in particular of kidnappings and assassinations of peaceful citizens, violence against women and children, ransacking and theft of public and private property.”
Hundreds — if not thousands — of inmates broke out of the National Penitentiary, Haiti’s biggest prison, in downtown Port-au-Prince on Saturday night following a massive, coordinated attack by gunmen from gangs, two senior Haitian government officials told ABC News. Of the nearly 4,000 inmates estimated to have been behind bars at the facility prior to Saturday’s assault, fewer than 100 were still inside as of Sunday according to the officials, who cautioned that the actual number of escapees remains unknown.
The Haitian government said in a statement on Sunday that those responsible for the attack were “heavily armed criminals wanting at all costs to free people in custody, particularly for kidnapping, murder and other serious offenses,” and that several inmates and prison staff were injured in the fighting.
Several bodies strewn on the ground in and around the National Penitentiary were openly visible on Sunday morning, according to multiple local journalists who spoke with ABC News, though it was unclear how they died.
A second prison containing an estimated 1,400 inmates was also overrun by armed gangs in nearby Croix des Bouquets that same night. As of Monday morning, that area was entirely under control of gangs, according to the Haitian National Police.
The mass prison break is just the latest in a horrifically violent few days in Haiti, even by the country’s own recent standards where kidnapping and murder rates have exploded.
An internal police summary shared with ABC News by a Haitian law enforcement source stated that gangs have launched a series of coordinated attacks since Feb. 29, with the objective “to immobilize the Haitian National Police and throw out the Prime Minister.” Haitian police see the coordinated effort as a way to “cause chaos, panic and spread thin [police] resources,” according to the summary.
Jimmy Chérizier, a former Haitian police officer who is now one of the most powerful gang leaders in the country, has claimed responsibility for the attacks alongside other gang leaders. Chérizier, known as Barbecue, vowed in a statement on Friday to continue fighting the state as long as necessary and urged families to keep their children at home to avoid “collateral damage.”
ABC News’ multiple requests for comment from the Haitian National Police and the Acting Haitian Prime Minister’s Office have not been answered.
Acting Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry is out of the country after going to Kenya late last week to try and secure the deployment of a Kenyan-led security force authorized by the United Nations last year.
Gunfire ripped through the Haitian capital’s downtown neighborhood housing the National Penitentiary starting late Saturday afternoon. A Haitian law enforcement source told ABC News that dozens of gang members were involved, battling in the streets and inside the prison itself with police assigned to guard the facility.
A union representing members of the Haitian National Police said officers were quickly overwhelmed, posting a plea on social media for any officer in the city with a vehicle, a weapon and ammunition to come support the fight.
The gun battle waged for hours but when it was over, it appeared there were hardly any prisoners left inside the sprawling National Penitentiary. Local journalists entered freely through the front door of the complex on Sunday to find a deserted interior littered with damage and no law enforcement presence. Three bodies were seen lying on the ground and multiple prisoners inside described scenes of intense gunfights the night before.
Among the limited number of remaining inmates are several Colombian nationals accused of participating in the July 2021 assassination of then-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
The National Penitentiary is Haiti’s largest and most notorious prison, once housing everyone from gang leaders to corrupt politicians.
Saturday’s violence unfolded in the wake of a series of gang-led attacks against Haitian government and police facilities, including a government building about 500 meters from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Gunfire erupting close to Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince forced officials to suspend operations there multiple times in recent days and has prompted the cancellation of a number of U.S. airline flights.
At least four police officers have been killed in the fighting since Wednesday, according to Haitian authorities.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged Americans on Monday to leave now.
Kareen Ulysse, director of CHF Foundation, a nonprofit that helps underfunded schools and hospitals in Haiti, told ABC News on Monday that their staff in Port-au-Prince are in “a constant state of stress” because they don’t know “if today is the day armed men from rival groups will take over the area.”
“Our staff is having a hard time making it to work despite their desire to serve their country,” Ulysse said. “We are looking to find a sponsor for bullet proof vehicles for our foundation so we can keep working as safely as possible.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
A woman writes a message during an event held by relatives of the passengers and supporters to mark the 10th year since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014. — Arif Kartono/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Government officials in Malaysia said on Sunday they’d be open to resuming the search for Malaysian Airlines MH370 after a private company approached them about potential new evidence pointing to the location of the Boeing 777.
“The Malaysian Government’s position is consistent,” officials said in a statement. “We will commission a further search operation when new information and credible evidence is ascertained.”
The flight disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Twelve crew members and 227 passengers were on board when the plane went missing.
The Malaysian Transportation Ministry on Sunday said it had been approached by Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based company, about reopening the search. It was not immediately clear what new information Ocean Infinity may have about the missing plane.
Malaysia would reopen the search “when new information and credible evidence is ascertained,” the ministry said in a statement.
“[T]he Ministry of Transport are ready to invite Ocean Infinity to Malaysia to discuss the proposal of a no-fine, no-fee proposal,” the statement said. “We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide the suitable dates, and I will meet them any time that they are ready to come to Malaysia.”
ABC News has contacted Ocean Infinity for comment.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this story.
(NEW YORK) — Professor David Dowling of Pepperdine University traveled last fall from California to Ukraine to teach some students of Taras Shevchenko National University a course in conflict and dispute resolution.
In a bomb shelter under Kyiv, as the war continued above them, 18 undergraduates learned the art of peace.
“Five minutes into class, the air raid sirens started,” Dowling said. He added, “For the first time in my teaching career, and possibly not the last, I taught my class in a bomb shelter.”
Selected on the basis of interest and English proficiency, the class was a response to the lack of mediation and negotiation in the curriculum, according to Kateryna Manetska, the program coordinator and an alumna of Taras Shevchenko.
“But now that’s more important than ever, so we decided to do anything possible to make this happen,” Manetska told ABC News.
For the students, this class was their first time back in person since the COVID-19 pandemic and the war began. The excitement, said Dowling, was palpable before he even embarked on a long journey from Los Angeles to Poland and finally to Kyiv, via what he called “the longest train ride in my life.”
Dowling arrived on Nov. 4, after two weeks of teaching the first part of the curriculum remotely. His first class, scheduled for Nov. 6, was interrupted by the sirens going off as soon as they got started.
The students calmly led their American professor to the shelter, four floors below their designated class, through a maze of stairways and hallways.
“If they were anxious, they did not display it at all,” said Dowling. “The saddest thing is that it’s such a part of their life. They all kind of gathered their bags and they were like, ‘Okay professor, you’ve got to come with us.'”
Amjad Yamin, of Save The Children, an international charity, said that Ukrainian students, especially older ones, are getting too used to the reality of war.
“They start thinking this is what normal life looks like,” he said.
Yamin added that this is particularly true for the older ones, saying, “They understand very clearly. The younger ones, you can still shelter them from some things, you can tell them it’s a game.”
Dowling left Kyiv at 6:28 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. At 8 a.m. that morning, explosions were heard in the city. Still, he hopes to return soon and continue where he left off.
Tears filled his eyes as he reunited with his students on Zoom for an interview with ABC News, months after he last saw them, as the war in Ukraine that claimed tens of thousands of lives entered its third year.
“Unfortunately in Ukraine, you have only two options: You can go abroad or you can stay and just admit the fact that you can die at any second,” said 21-year-old Aurika Solomakha. “I had experience working with professors from the USA before I met Mr. Dowling but really, no one dared to come to Kyiv during the war.”
Dowling’s trip to Kyiv meant a lot to the students, a few of them said.
“We were amazed and had an idea that there’s not so many professors who are willing to come to Ukraine and teach on-site courses for our students,” said Manetska.
For Mariia Nazarenko, 20, this course was more than that.
“People like him made us feel worth something,” Nazarenko said.
“He gave us something useful to support our education and I will never forget it for the rest of my life,” said Oleksandra Chornyi, 19. Following the class, she said scored an internship in mediation at a prestigious Ukrainian firm.
Dowling was also full of admiration and pride, saying, “These are women who are studying who are looking to make a difference in their world and in their family’s lives.”
The general mood in Ukraine, the students say, has become depressing or aggressive, as people wonder when will the war will end. Families have been shattered. Young people are alienated and lonely, they said.
But the class with Mr. Dowling gave them purpose and a practical skill that can create peace, they said. Or, at least, the hope it will.
(NEW YORK) — More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 03, 2:10 PM Netanyahu adviser says Israel helped coordinate US airdrops in Gaza
An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the US airdrops of aid in Gaza are a sign the Biden administration has lost confidence in the Israeli government’s ability or willingness to get a grip on the humanitarian crisis there.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Netanyahu advisor Ophir Falk said the U.S. airdrops on Saturday were “fully coordinated with Israel.”
Falk pushed back on any suggestion Israel was not letting enough aid into Gaza while children were starving to death, saying Israel “is enabling thousands of trucks to get into Gaza.”
Falk denied that people are dying of starvation in Gaza, despite a statement Sunday from a UNICEF official that at least 10 children have reportedly died of malnutrition recently at a northern Gaza hospital. Some doctors working in Gaza have also reported the deaths of children as a result of malnutrition.
Falk said “maybe tens of thousands” of aid trucks have gone into Gaza since the beginning of the war in October.
“No other country would do that,” Falk said.
Israel has said it is trying to prevent aid from ending up in the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization.
“We have to verify it’s not being stolen by Hamas,” Falk said, something he claimed is happening “on a daily basis.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Mar 03, 12:09 PM VP Harris to hold White House meeting with Israeli war Cabinet member: Official
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House on Monday as part of an ongoing effort to engage with a wide range of Israeli officials on the war in Gaza, a White House official has confirmed to ABC News.
During the meeting, Harris is expected to reiterate Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of threats by Hamas and the urgency of securing a hostage deal, the White House official said. Harris and Gantz are also planning to discuss the dire need to increase the aid flow into Gaza through continued U.S. airdrops and work on a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly by sea, according to the official.
While reiterating the need to reduce civilian casualties, Harris is expected to express the Biden administration’s concern for the safety of the 1.5 million people reportedly taking shelter in the city of Rafah, the official said.
In their discussion of the ongoing war, Harris and Gantz are also expected to focus on “the day after the fighting ends” and plans to eventually rebuild Gaza and the Palestinian Authority so that it may govern a unified Gaza and West Bank in creating a “hopeful political horizon for the Palestinian people,” the official said.
Harris previously met Gantz in 2022 at the Munich Security Conference. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will also meet with Gantz separately, according to the White House.
-ABC News’ Noah Minnie
Mar 03, 11:32 AM Malnutrition reportedly kills at least 10 children in northern Gaza: UNICEF
At least 10 children have reportedly died in recent days from dehydration and malnutrition while at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, a UNICEF official said Sunday.
The children died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable,” Khodr said in the statement. “The widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, a direct consequence of the impediments to access and multiple dangers facing U.N. humanitarian operations, is impacting children and mothers, hindering their ability to breastfeed their babies, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Khodr said the disparity in conditions in Gaza’s north and south “is clear evidence that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives.”
Nearly 16% of children, or one in six, under the age of 2 in the northern Gaza Strip are acutely malnourished, said Khordr, citing malnutrition screenings in January by UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Program.
Khodr said similar screenings conducted in southern Gaza found that 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished.
“Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved,” Khodr said.
Khodr’s statement came a day after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop across Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
About one-quarter of Gaza’s population — 576,000 people — are “one step away from famine” and facing a “grave situation,” Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said last week..
-ABC News Nadine Shubailat
Mar 02, 2:57 PM Food drop part of ‘sustained effort’ to get more aid into Gaza: CENTCOM
The U.S. Central Command provided more details on the food aid delivered into Gaza Saturday in a combined effort with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
The U.S. C-130s dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza, “allowing for civilian access to the critical aid,” according to a statement.
“The DoD humanitarian airdrops contributes to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza,” read the statement.
CENTCOM said this was the first aid drop into Gaza by the U.S. but plans are being made for potential “follow-on airborne aid delivery missions.”
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” the statement said.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Mar 02, 2:35 PM Ceasefire deal talks underway amid plans for future Gaza aid
Hours after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop in Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, senior administration officials asserted this would be part of a sustained effort to scale up life-saving aid into Gaza and confirmed significant progress on a six-week hostage ceasefire deal currently in the hands of Hamas.
Senior administration officials said they are exploring every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza and that the Department of Defense is currently planning additional drops. However, they say their biggest obstacle is opening more avenues to get aid into Gaza, including a martine route that would deliver assistance directly by sea.
“We’re looking at the land routes, we’re looking at the sea route, we’re looking at the air route, to really ensure that we’re exploring every opportunity to get assistance in,” officials said Saturday.
Officials confirmed this was the first U.S. airdrop conducted in Gaza since the war began and that U.S. and Jordanian C-130 aircraft were operated jointly out of Jordan to distribute aid.
Administration officials suggested the removal of police from the U.N. and other humanitarian convoys has exacerbated the lawlessness already prevalent in the region as gangs allegedly take and resell aid. Officials said the way to address this problem is by flooding the market with aid to discourage the commercialization of assistance.
Officials said a ceasefire is essential for the distribution of life-saving aid throughout Gaza. A deal is on the table and in the hands of Hamas, according to officials.
Senior administration officials told reporters there would be a six-week ceasefire as soon as today if Hamas agreed to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, which include the sick, elderly, and women.
When asked about the specifics of these progressions towards a ceasefire hostage deal, admin officials said they’d worked hard with the Israelis to develop a framework which the admin believes is now “in the zone of a compromise amongst all the positions that had been on the table,” after several meeting in Israel last week.
Admin officials hope to have this deal in place by Ramadan, confirming significant progress has been made over the last few weeks.
“The onus right now is on Hamas, their talks still underway,” a senior admin official said Saturday.
They continued, “There has been significant progress over the last few weeks. But like all things, until the deal is actually done, It’s not done. The Israelis have basically signed on to the elements of the arrangement. And right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas, and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can.”
-ABC News’ Noah Minnie
Mar 02, 10:32 AM US dropped aid into Gaza, two officials confirm
The U.S. military has conducted food drops in Gaza authorized by President Joe Biden, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the operation.
The military is reported to have used three C-130 cargo planes from U.S. Air Forces Central Command to drop 66 parachute-strapped bundles containing about 38,000 meals over Gaza around 8 a.m. ET.
The air drop was expected to be the first of many the military planned to conduct. It came just days after many Palestinians were killed after trying to pull goods from an aid convoy.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Mar 01, 3:44 PM Biden says US to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza in coming days
President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.
“We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said. “In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies.”
He said the U.S. is also looking at the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver “large amounts of humanitarian assistance,” in addition to expanding land deliveries.
“We’re gonna insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need,” Biden said.
“Innocent lives are on the line, and children’s lives on the line,” he said.
Biden called Thursday’s killing of over 100 civilians waiting for aid “tragic and alarming,” adding that the “loss of life is heartbreaking.”
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the airdrops will not be a “one and done” operation and will be the start of a “sustained effort” over the coming weeks.
“With each one, I think we’ll learn more and we’ll get better at them,” Kirby said.
Kirby explained that it will be “extremely difficult” to conduct airdrops in a densely populated environment like Gaza.
“The biggest risk is making sure that nobody gets hurt on the ground. And so, you got to locate out areas to drop that you know will be safe for people so that they don’t become victims of the drop itself,” he said.
Kirby also noted that the airdrops are “not a replacement for moving things in by ground.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 01, 11:50 AM WHO sounds alarm over Gaza as 10th child starvation death recorded
The World Health Organization said Friday that at least 10 children are known to have starved to death in the Gaza Strip since the war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7.
“So, the official records yesterday or this morning said there was a 10th child officially registered in a hospital as having starved to death. A very sad threshold, similarly sad as the 30,000 deaths we reached all over Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said during a press briefing. “And similar like those, these are official records, and as you all point out exactly, the unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher. And once we see them, once we see them registered in hospitals, once we see them registered officially, it’s already further down the line.”
Lindmeier said Gaza’s health care system is now “more than on its knees,” with Israel having cut off electricity and freshwater supply and limiting the entry of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-ruled enclave in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.
“All this leads to a desperate situation as we saw yesterday in the unfortunate, horrifying incidents, where hundreds of people got killed,” he added. “While the U.N. secretary-general mentioned exactly that the investigation should show what the real causes were, that’s not even right now important. The important [thing] is that people are so desperate for food, for freshwater, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves.”
“This is the real drama, this is the real catastrophe here, that food and supplies are so scarce that we see these situations coming up,” he continued. “And the food supplies have been cut off deliberately, let’s not forget that.”
Lindmeier warned that “once a famine is declared, it is too late for many people.”
“We don’t want to get to that situation and we need things to change before that,” he told reporters.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor
Mar 01, 6:21 AM UN chief says killing of Gaza aid seekers requires independent probe
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by Thursday’s killing of more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip and that it would require an effective independent investigation.
Guterres made the comments while speaking ahead of a regional summit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines later Thursday. When asked about the U.N. Security Council’s repeated failure to adopt a resolution demanding a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Guterres told reporters that the worsening geopolitical divides have “transformed the veto power into an effective instrument of paralysis of the action of the Security Council.”
“I am totally convinced that we need a humanitarian cease-fire and we need the unconditional and immediate release of hostages and that we should have a Security Council able to achieve these objectives,” he added.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 29, 3:20 PM Civilian deaths in Gaza City ‘very well could’ complicate hostage talks: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller acknowledged that Thursday’s deadly incident in Gaza City “very well could” complicate hostage talks.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food in Gaza City, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Israeli security officials told ABC News the crowd approached Israeli troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
During a press briefing later Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari claimed soldiers did not fire at people seeking aid.
“This terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close,” Miller said. “We continue to believe a deal is possible and that the deal is in the interest of Israel, the Palestinian people and the broader region.”
“When it comes to establishing facts on the ground, we are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place,” Miller noted. “We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers.”
He later added that no United Nations agencies were believed to have been involved, and that the U.S. had seen “conflicting reports” from Israel and local Palestinians.
“We don’t have ground truth on what happened,” he said, later adding that “oftentimes the early accounts in these situations have turned out to be incorrect.”
Miller also expressed “the United States’ deepest condolences to the families for those who died.”
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today, but over the past nearly five months. And when you think about today’s tragedy, it is especially heartbreaking to consider how many of those families affected will be burying loved ones not for the first time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 29, 1:15 PM Biden ‘hopeful’ for cease-fire but ‘probably not by Monday’
After suggesting a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel could happen by Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden is now indicating it may take longer to reach a deal, without offering a new timeline.
“Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful,” Biden told reporters on Thursday. “Hope springs eternal.”
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Biden spoke on the phone Thursday with the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt. All leaders agreed that Hamas should release the hostages “without delay” and that it would result in “an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” according to a White House readout.
Biden also thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and plans to surge more assistance to the region.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Feb 29, 12:23 PM Over 100 killed while waiting for food aid in northern Gaza
Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food aid in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured in the incident at Al-Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in the southwest of Gaza City, the health ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as dozens of the wounded were in critical or serious condition. Patients from the incident who were admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City suffered from injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, being hit by tank artillery shells and being trampled, according to the health ministry spokesperson.
When asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News on Thursday: “Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review.”
Israeli security officials told ABC News on Thursday that the crowd approached IDF troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks, according to the United Nations, which continues to warn about the threat of famine for people still living there.
One of the truck drivers who delivers humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, Ahmed Ayad, told ABC News on Wednesday that crowds of people waiting for food aid on Al-Rashid Street block the vehicles from reaching their final destination, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire.
“They fire so that we can advance comfortably,” Ayad said. “But people don’t respond to the shooting, so they move toward us and take aid from the truck. They’re waiting. Everyone is anxious and the amount [of food] arriving is not enough.”
U.S.President Joe Biden said Thursday that the White House is looking into the reports of Israeli forces killing civilians.
“There are two complete versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet,” Biden said, adding that this will complicate the cease-fire negotiations.
The Biden administration is considering airdropping aid into Gaza, a U.S. official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Morgan Winsor and Samy Zyara
Feb 29, 4:53 AM Death toll tops 30,000 in Gaza
More than 30,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the latest outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Over 70,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday morning.
Of those killed, 75% are children, women and elderly people, according to a separate statement from Hamas.
The World Health Organization, the global health arm of the United Nations, also confirmed the grim milestone with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus writing in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “a large majority” of those killed in Gaza are “women and children.”
Tedros called for a cease-fire, saying: “This horrific violence and suffering must end.”
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 3:58 PM US urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan
U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on the Israeli government to allow worshipers to access the site during the holy month of Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the occupied West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
When asked whether the United States had received assurances that Israel — a close ally — would allow such access, Miller told reporters that the Biden administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he added.
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between Hamas and Israel since the war began.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:36 PM State Department urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa during Ramadan
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on Israel to allow worshipers to access the site during Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
Asked whether the U.S. had received assurances that the Israeli government would allow such access, Miller said the administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:14 PM Israeli official says negotiations are slow
Progress toward reaching a hostage and cease-fire deal is slow, according to an Israeli political official with knowledge of the negotiations.
Gaps remain in the discussions surrounding the redeployment of Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip, residents returning to northern Gaza and how many Palestinian prisoners Israel is willing to release, the official said.
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to meet Thursday to discuss progress in the negotiations, the official said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Feb 28, 12:15 PM Hamas says it’s showing ‘flexibility’ in talks but ‘ready’ to continue fighting
Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that they are showing “flexibility” in their ongoing negotiations with Israel but are “ready” to continue fighting.
“Any flexibility we are showing in the negotiations is to protect the blood of our people and to put an end to their huge pains and sacrifices in the brutal war of extermination against it,” Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a statement. “In parallel, [we are] ready to defend our people.”
Haniyeh also called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to “march toward Al-Aqsa mosque from the first day of the holy month of Ramadan,” which is March 10.
Israel has reportedly accepted a framework agreement of a six-week cease-fire with Hamas, during which 40 Israeli hostages being held in the war-torn Gaza Strip would be released in return for several hundred Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, has not commented on the specifics in that framework.
Hamas’ main demands are that any agreement should include a path toward a more permanent end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. However, Israel is not willing to accept that, which is why the framework it has reportedly agreed to would only see Israeli troops redeployed within Gaza and not withdrawn fully from the Hamas-ruled enclave.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Will Gretsky, Tom Soufi Burridge and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:07 AM IDF says it coordinated airdrop of humanitarian aid in southern Gaza
A supply of humanitarian aid was airdropped in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Tuesday in cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the United States, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Approximately 160 packages of food, medical equipment and fuel were airdropped along Gaza’s southern coastline using American, Egyptian, Emirati, French and Jordanian planes, the IDF said. The packages were subsequently transferred to residents of southern Gaza and the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis, according to the IDF.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:04 AM Hamas, Fatah to meet in Russia for talks on potential unity government, Gaza reconstruction
Representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Russia’s capital city on Thursday to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the rebuilding of the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Fatah, the largest political party within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the dominating force behind the Palestinian Authority (PA), currently only controls the West Bank after being forced out of Gaza amid violent clashes with Hamas when the Palestinian militant group and political organization won legislative elections in 2007. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by several countries including the United States, is not part of the PLO and rejects the Fatah-controlled PA’s collaboration with Israeli authorities to maintain security in the West Bank.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 3:55 PM Biden’s optimism for deal stems from ongoing negotiations: State Department
After President Joe Biden said Monday he “hopes” to see a cease-fire reached by March 4, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that Biden’s optimism stemmed from “the broad outlines of a deal” agreed to by Israel, the U.S. and other partners last week, as well as “negotiations that are continuing through this week.”
But Miller said Hamas wields significant control over when and whether a deal is reached.
“Certainly, we’d welcome getting one by this weekend,” Miller said. “What I can say about the overall progress is that we made significant progress towards an agreement last week when we had officials from United States government engaging in the region. We continue to pursue further progress this week.”
“We are trying to push this deal over the finish line — we do think it’s possible,” Miller said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 27, 1:29 PM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Netanyahu said in a statement later on Tuesday, “Since the beginning of the war, I have been leading a political campaign whose purpose is to curb the pressures intended to end the war before its time, and on the other hand also to gain support for Israel.”
“We have significant successes in this area, because today the Howard-Harris survey is published in the United States, which shows that 82% of the American public supports Israel,” he continued. “This gives us two more strength to continue the campaign until the complete victory.”
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 9:52 AM 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 29,878 people have been killed and 70,215 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.
Feb 27, 7:13 AM UNRWA ‘needs to be dissolved,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is “intertwined with terror and needs to be dissolved.”
“Their sole goal was to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem,” the official said. “Their compliance with Hamas terrorism and incitement was exposed. Any prospect for peace depends on dissolving UNRWA.”
The Israeli official said humanitarian aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip should be provided by people “who are not associated with Hamas or UNRWA.”
ABC News has reached out to UNRWA for comment.
In a dossier released in late January, the Israeli military alleged that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
UNRWA has said it is investigating the allegations and took swift action against those accused of being involved in the attack. However, the United States and other top donors have suspended their funding to the agency, which is the biggest humanitarian aid provider in Gaza.
Feb 27, 5:54 AM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Feb 27, 5:42 AM Qatar says no breakthrough in talks between Israel, Hamas
A spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that there is no breakthrough to announce concerning a potential deal between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire and hostage release.
“Many developments have occurred. Nothing to announce today, but we feel optimistic,” the spokesperson told reporters.
The spokesperson said the talks remain “ongoing” and they cannot comment on U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that a deal is expected by next Monday.
Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 27, 5:30 AM Hamas’ demands in negotiations ‘are still delusional,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that Hamas’ demands in ongoing negotiations “are still delusional.”
“Military pressure and determined negotiation have helped free 112 hostages to date. Israel will get the remaining hostages home,” the official said. “A deal was done in November and another deal can be made once Hamas comes to reality. Hamas demands are still delusional.”
Feb 26, 6:28 PM Biden ‘hopes’ for cease-fire in Gaza by next Monday
President Biden said he “hopes” to have a cease-fire in Gaza by March 4.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” the president told reporters Monday. “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, it’s not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”
The comments came during a stop at Van Leeuwen’s ice cream shop in New York City as the president visited NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers.
Feb 26, 4:03 PM State Department says there’s been ‘progress’ in hostage talks
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday that there’s been “progress” in hostage talks over the last few days, but he said it’s unclear whether Hamas would accept the latest proposal.
“We’ve had progress with the conversations we’ve had between Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar,” Miller said.
He was then asked if they might reach a deal before Ramadan, which begins on March 10.
“I can’t make that assessment because it depends on Hamas. We believe a deal is possible and we hope Hamas will agree to one,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 26, 12:16 PM Aid to Gaza has dropped by half since January, UNRWA says
Humanitarian aid to Gaza dropped by 50% from January to February, according to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of 2 million Palestinians in desperate living conditions,” Lazzarini said on social media Monday. “Among the obstacles: lack of political will, regular closing of the crossing points & lack of security due to military operations + collapse of civil order.”
Lazzarini stressed the need for a cease-fire.
Feb 25, 7:06 PM Netanyahu’s office presents war cabinet with plan to evacuate Gazans from ‘areas of fighting’
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has presented Israel’s war cabinet with a “plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” a release from the office said early Monday local time.
“In addition, the plan for providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement added.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Feb 24, 4:34 PM Israel agrees to updated framework in cease-fire, hostage deal
Israel has agreed to an updated framework that would establish a six-week cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, an Israeli source told ABC News. The development follows talks in Paris, which includes officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
While Israel says it’s waiting to hear back from Hamas on whether it will accept the updated language from this weekend’s talks, Israel is pushing forward with plans to enter Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that operational plans and evacuation plans in Rafah are ready to be approved by his cabinet.
As part of the proposed deal, Israel has agreed to release jailed Palestinians at a higher ratio than the previous deal, which was 3 to 1. Up to 400 Palestinian prisoners could be released in this new deal.
The Israel Defense Forces will redeploy but not withdraw from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Marcus Moore
Feb 23, 1:23 PM Blinken calls Israeli settlement expansion ‘inconsistent with international law’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is signaling a possible shift back to a long-standing U.S. policy rejecting Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling it “inconsistent with international law.”
Asked at a press availability in Argentina for his response to Israel’s purported plans to build thousands of new settlement homes in the area, Blinken responded, “We’ve seen the reports, and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement.”
“It’s been long-standing U.S. policy under Republican and Democratic administration alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace. They’re also inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said. “Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens — doesn’t strengthen — Israel security.”
The Biden administration has condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank for years, but the State Department had not yet gone so far as to say they ran afoul of international law after Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, said in 2019 that the U.S. would no longer view Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as violations.
But before delivering his rebuke, Blinken made note of what he called a “horrific terrorist attack” on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank this week and said the U.S. would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 22, 2:57 PM Over 85,000 people in Gaza could die in next 6 months if war escalates, report finds
More than 85,000 people in Gaza could die over the next six months if the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found.
The epidemiologists presented findings about death tolls in three potential scenarios: if a cease-fire is reached, if the war remains as it is, and if the war escalates.
If a cease-fire is reached, more than 11,000 people will die over the next six months, the findings estimate, based on current conditions inside Gaza.
If the status quo of the war is maintained, more than 66,000 people will die during the same period, the findings show.
And in the worst-case scenario, if the war escalates, more than 85,000 people could die, the report found.
These numbers are in addition to the more than 29,000 people who have already died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Feb 22, 2:18 PM Israeli war cabinet approves sending negotiators to Paris talks
The Israeli war cabinet on Friday approved sending Israeli negotiators to hostage and cease-fire talks in Paris. The war cabinet’s decision will be brought to the Israeli security cabinet for approval later on Friday night.
Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. officials are also expected to be at Friday’s talks in Paris, according to reports.
Feb 22, 12:18 PM Israel concludes 1-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces said Thursday that its soldiers have concluded their one-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the IDF said it arrested at least 200 suspected Hamas members.
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that it helped evacuate some of the critically ill patients from the hospital.
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Hospital were still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients. The IDF denied these claims.
Feb 22, 3:35 AM One dead, several injured in shooting near Jerusalem, Israeli authorities say
At least one person was killed and several others were injured Thursday in a shooting on a main road just outside Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
Highway 1 was packed with cars when gunfire erupted Thursday morning near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Three “terrorists” armed with automatic weapons pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire at cars that were standing still in the traffic jam, according to the Israel Police.
Israeli security forces who were already on scene “neutralized” two of the suspects, police said. A third suspect who had tried to escape was later found and also “neutralized,” according to police.
Medics arrived and “ran from vehicle to vehicle” searching for victims, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene while several others were transported to area hospitals, including four people who were moderately injured with gunshot wounds, MDA said.
Feb 21, 2:59 PM Israeli Minister Gantz expresses cautious optimism about new hostage deal
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism that a new outline for a possible hostage deal could move forward.
Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said at Israel’s Defense Headquarters Wednesday that there are “attempts” to “promote a new outline” for a hostage deal, and there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”
“We will not stop looking for the way, and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Dana Savir
Feb 21, 1:02 PM 8 bodies remain in Nasser Medical Complex among living patients, Gaza Ministry of Health says
Eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza are still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said the bodies are still in the hospital because Israeli forces refuse to remove them.
The bodies “have begun to swell and show signs of decomposition, posing a danger to other patients,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Israeli authorities denied these claims and said no bodies are still inside Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces has been operating inside of Nasser Hospital for the last week. On Monday, the IDF announced its soldiers had arrested 200 suspected Hamas members at Nasser Hospital.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Camilla Alcini
Feb 21, 8:28 AM Israel considering sending delegation to Egypt for new round of talks, source says
Israel is weighing the possibility of sending a delegation back to Egypt for continued negotiations over a potential cease-fire or hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
There is some cautious optimism over the latest round of talks in Cairo, the source said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 21, 8:14 AM Israel preparing to reopen Karni border crossing to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, source says
Israel is preparing to reopen the Karni border crossing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
Israel shuttered the Karni crossing, located on the border between southwestern Israel and northeastern Gaza, when Palestinian militant group Hamas came to power in the enclave in 2007 before permanently closing the crossing in 2011.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the United Nations.
Feb 21, 7:56 AM UN food agency pauses deliveries to northern Gaza
The World Food Program, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, announced Tuesday that it is pausing deliveries of food aid to the northern Gaza Strip “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distribution.”
The decision came after a WFP convoy heading north from Gaza City was “surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint” on Sunday, the agency said. The same convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” when it tried to resume its journey north on Monday, according to the WFP.
“Several trucks were looted between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger,” the WFP said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
An analysis released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), found that 15.6% of children under the age of 2 are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, compared to 5% in southern Gaza, where most aid enters the war-torn enclave. The acute malnutrition rate across Gaza was less than 1% before the war began last October, according to the report.
Feb 20, 2:21 PM Hostages held in Gaza have received medicine, Qatar says
Qatari officials said hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received the medication that was part of a deal brokered last month.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said it has asked Qatar for evidence that the medicine was delivered.
“Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our abductees,” the office said in a statement.
Feb 20, 12:21 PM US draft resolution calls for temporary cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “an unconditional cease-fire without any obligation for Hamas to release hostages” was irresponsible.
“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share — a text that can and should be adopted by the council, so that we can have a temporary cease-fire as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released,” she said.
The U.S. has been circulating its own draft resolution on Gaza that calls for a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of all hostages, while also condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to senior administration officials familiar with the matter.
If the proposal were to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it would mark the first time the body has formally condemned Hamas’ actions.
The officials say the draft also makes clear “that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah should not proceed” and that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians, while also calling on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open.”
The senior officials signaled that American diplomats wouldn’t rush the text to a vote and that they intended on “allowing time for negotiations.”
While hostage talks have sputtered over the past couple of weeks, senior administration officials said they were making some progress.
“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one official said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 20, 11:34 AM US votes against immediate cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
The U.S. has said an immediate cease-fire could impede the negotiations looking to free hostages and agree to a pause in fighting, the AP said.
Feb 20, 11:07 AM IDF operating inside Al-Amal Hospital
Israeli forces, which already entered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, are also now operating inside the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to ABC News.
“Al-Amal Hospital is currently under multiple attacks, as Israeli forces have directly targeted the third floor of the hospital, resulting in the burning of two rooms,” and “the hospital’s water lines were targeted,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Over 8,000 patients were evacuated from the hospital earlier this month, but almost 100 patients still remain inside, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Feb 20, 7:13 AM WHO helps transfer 32 critical patients out of Gaza’s besieged Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it has helped to successfully transfer 32 critically ill patients, including two children, from besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The WHO said its staff led two “life-saving,” “high-risk” missions at the medical complex in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions.” Staff at Nasser Hospital had requested the transfer of patients after the facility became “non-functional” following an Israeli military raid on Feb. 14 after a weeklong siege, according to the WHO.
“Weak and frail patients were transferred amidst active conflict near the aid convoy,” the WHO said in a statement. “Road conditions hindered the swift movement of ambulances, placing the health of patients at further risk.”
“Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the organization added. “WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.”
The WHO estimates that 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser Hospital. As the facility’s intensive care unit was no longer functioning, the only remaining ICU patient was transferred to a different part of the complex where other patients are receiving basic care, according to the WHO.
“WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths,” the organization said. “Efforts to facilitate further patient referrals amidst the ongoing hostilities are in process.”
Prior to the missions on Sunday and Monday, the WHO said it “received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral.” At least five patients reportedly died in Nasser Hospital’s ICU before any missions or transfers were possible, according to the WHO.
Nasser Hospital is the main medical center serving southern Gaza. Ground troops from the Israel Defense Forces stormed the facility last week, looking for members of Hamas who the IDF alleges have been conducting military operations out of the hospital. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza and is at war with neighboring Israel, denies the claims.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said. “Facilities in the south are already operating well beyond maximum capacity and are barely able to receive more patients.”
Feb 20, 5:26 AM Aid groups warn of potential ‘explosion in preventable child deaths’ in Gaza
A new analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, found that 90% of children under the age of 2 in the war-torn Gaza Strip face severe food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups a day.
The same was true for 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to the report released Monday. And at least 90% of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks, the report said.
In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished, compared to more than 15% in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, the report said. Before war broke out last October between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, the acute malnutrition rate across the coastal enclave was less than 1%, according to the report.
The report also found that more than 80% of homes in Gaza lack clean and safe water, with the average household having one liter per person per day.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at UNICEF, said in a statement. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Feb 19, 12:31 PM Gaza’s health ministry accuses IDF of turning Nasser Hospital into ‘military barracks’
Israeli troops have turned Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving the southern Gaza Strip, into a “military barracks” and are “endangering the lives of patients and medical staff,” according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The health ministry said Monday that patients and medical staff inside Nasser Hospital are now without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases since Israeli ground troops raided the facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last week.
The World Health Organization, which warned on Sunday that Nasser Hospital “is not functional anymore,” said more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.
The WHO said it has evacuated 14 critical patients from the hospital to receive treatment elsewhere.
The Israel Defense Forces alleges that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has been conducting military operations out of Nasser Hospital and other medical centers in the war-torn enclave — claims which Hamas denies.
(NEW YORK) — More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 02, 2:35 PM Ceasefire deal talks underway amid plans for future Gaza aid
Hours after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop in Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, senior administration officials asserted this would be part of a sustained effort to scale up life-saving aid into Gaza and confirmed significant progress on a six-week hostage ceasefire deal currently in the hands of Hamas.
Senior administration officials said they are exploring every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza and that the Department of Defense is currently planning additional drops. However, they say their biggest obstacle is opening more avenues to get aid into Gaza, including a martine route that would deliver assistance directly by sea.
“We’re looking at the land routes, we’re looking at the sea route, we’re looking at the air route, to really ensure that we’re exploring every opportunity to get assistance in,” officials said Saturday.
Officials confirmed this was the first U.S. airdrop conducted in Gaza since the war began and that U.S. and Jordanian C-130 aircraft were operated jointly out of Jordan to distribute aid.
Administration officials suggested the removal of police from the U.N. and other humanitarian convoys has exacerbated the lawlessness already prevalent in the region as gangs allegedly take and resell aid. Officials said the way to address this problem is by flooding the market with aid to discourage the commercialization of assistance.
Officials said a ceasefire is essential for the distribution of life-saving aid throughout Gaza. A deal is on the table and in the hands of Hamas, according to officials.
Senior administration officials told reporters there would be a six-week ceasefire as soon as today if Hamas agreed to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, which include the sick, elderly, and women.
When asked about the specifics of these progressions towards a ceasefire hostage deal, admin officials said they’d worked hard with the Israelis to develop a framework which the admin believes is now “in the zone of a compromise amongst all the positions that had been on the table,” after several meeting in Israel last week.
Admin officials hope to have this deal in place by Ramadan, confirming significant progress has been made over the last few weeks.
“The onus right now is on Hamas, their talks still underway,” a senior admin official said Saturday.
They continued, “There has been significant progress over the last few weeks. But like all things, until the deal is actually done, It’s not done. The Israelis have basically signed on to the elements of the arrangement. And right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas, and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can.”
-ABC News’ Noah Minnie
Mar 02, 2:57 PM Food drop part of ‘sustained effort’ to get more aid into Gaza: CENTCOM
The U.S. Central Command provided more details on the food aid delivered into Gaza Saturday in a combined effort with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
The U.S. C-130s dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza, “allowing for civilian access to the critical aid,” according to a statement.
“The DoD humanitarian airdrops contributes to ongoing U.S. government efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza,” read the statement.
CENTCOM said this was the first aid drop into Gaza by the U.S. but plans are being made for potential “follow-on airborne aid delivery missions.”
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” the statement said.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Mar 02, 10:32 AM US dropped aid into Gaza, two officials confirm
The U.S. military has conducted food drops in Gaza authorized by President Joe Biden, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the operation.
The military is reported to have used three C-130 cargo planes from U.S. Air Forces Central Command to drop 66 parachute-strapped bundles containing about 38,000 meals over Gaza around 8 a.m. ET.
The air drop was expected to be the first of many the military planned to conduct. It came just days after many Palestinians were killed after trying to pull goods from an aid convoy.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Mar 01, 3:44 PM Biden says US to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza in coming days
President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.
“We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said. “In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies.”
He said the U.S. is also looking at the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver “large amounts of humanitarian assistance,” in addition to expanding land deliveries.
“We’re gonna insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need,” Biden said.
“Innocent lives are on the line, and children’s lives on the line,” he said.
Biden called Thursday’s killing of over 100 civilians waiting for aid “tragic and alarming,” adding that the “loss of life is heartbreaking.”
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the airdrops will not be a “one and done” operation and will be the start of a “sustained effort” over the coming weeks.
“With each one, I think we’ll learn more and we’ll get better at them,” Kirby said.
Kirby explained that it will be “extremely difficult” to conduct airdrops in a densely populated environment like Gaza.
“The biggest risk is making sure that nobody gets hurt on the ground. And so, you got to locate out areas to drop that you know will be safe for people so that they don’t become victims of the drop itself,” he said.
Kirby also noted that the airdrops are “not a replacement for moving things in by ground.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 01, 11:50 AM WHO sounds alarm over Gaza as 10th child starvation death recorded
The World Health Organization said Friday that at least 10 children are known to have starved to death in the Gaza Strip since the war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7.
“So, the official records yesterday or this morning said there was a 10th child officially registered in a hospital as having starved to death. A very sad threshold, similarly sad as the 30,000 deaths we reached all over Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said during a press briefing. “And similar like those, these are official records, and as you all point out exactly, the unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher. And once we see them, once we see them registered in hospitals, once we see them registered officially, it’s already further down the line.”
Lindmeier said Gaza’s health care system is now “more than on its knees,” with Israel having cut off electricity and freshwater supply and limiting the entry of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-ruled enclave in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.
“All this leads to a desperate situation as we saw yesterday in the unfortunate, horrifying incidents, where hundreds of people got killed,” he added. “While the U.N. secretary-general mentioned exactly that the investigation should show what the real causes were, that’s not even right now important. The important [thing] is that people are so desperate for food, for freshwater, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves.”
“This is the real drama, this is the real catastrophe here, that food and supplies are so scarce that we see these situations coming up,” he continued. “And the food supplies have been cut off deliberately, let’s not forget that.”
Lindmeier warned that “once a famine is declared, it is too late for many people.”
“We don’t want to get to that situation and we need things to change before that,” he told reporters.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor
Mar 01, 6:21 AM UN chief says killing of Gaza aid seekers requires independent probe
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by Thursday’s killing of more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip and that it would require an effective independent investigation.
Guterres made the comments while speaking ahead of a regional summit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines later Thursday. When asked about the U.N. Security Council’s repeated failure to adopt a resolution demanding a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Guterres told reporters that the worsening geopolitical divides have “transformed the veto power into an effective instrument of paralysis of the action of the Security Council.”
“I am totally convinced that we need a humanitarian cease-fire and we need the unconditional and immediate release of hostages and that we should have a Security Council able to achieve these objectives,” he added.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 29, 3:20 PM Civilian deaths in Gaza City ‘very well could’ complicate hostage talks: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller acknowledged that Thursday’s deadly incident in Gaza City “very well could” complicate hostage talks.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food in Gaza City, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Israeli security officials told ABC News the crowd approached Israeli troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
During a press briefing later Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari claimed soldiers did not fire at people seeking aid.
“This terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close,” Miller said. “We continue to believe a deal is possible and that the deal is in the interest of Israel, the Palestinian people and the broader region.”
“When it comes to establishing facts on the ground, we are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place,” Miller noted. “We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers.”
He later added that no United Nations agencies were believed to have been involved, and that the U.S. had seen “conflicting reports” from Israel and local Palestinians.
“We don’t have ground truth on what happened,” he said, later adding that “oftentimes the early accounts in these situations have turned out to be incorrect.”
Miller also expressed “the United States’ deepest condolences to the families for those who died.”
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today, but over the past nearly five months. And when you think about today’s tragedy, it is especially heartbreaking to consider how many of those families affected will be burying loved ones not for the first time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 29, 1:15 PM Biden ‘hopeful’ for cease-fire but ‘probably not by Monday’
After suggesting a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel could happen by Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden is now indicating it may take longer to reach a deal, without offering a new timeline.
“Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful,” Biden told reporters on Thursday. “Hope springs eternal.”
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Biden spoke on the phone Thursday with the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt. All leaders agreed that Hamas should release the hostages “without delay” and that it would result in “an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” according to a White House readout.
Biden also thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and plans to surge more assistance to the region.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Feb 29, 12:23 PM Over 100 killed while waiting for food aid in northern Gaza
Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food aid in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured in the incident at Al-Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in the southwest of Gaza City, the health ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as dozens of the wounded were in critical or serious condition. Patients from the incident who were admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City suffered from injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, being hit by tank artillery shells and being trampled, according to the health ministry spokesperson.
When asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News on Thursday: “Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review.”
Israeli security officials told ABC News on Thursday that the crowd approached IDF troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks, according to the United Nations, which continues to warn about the threat of famine for people still living there.
One of the truck drivers who delivers humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, Ahmed Ayad, told ABC News on Wednesday that crowds of people waiting for food aid on Al-Rashid Street block the vehicles from reaching their final destination, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire.
“They fire so that we can advance comfortably,” Ayad said. “But people don’t respond to the shooting, so they move toward us and take aid from the truck. They’re waiting. Everyone is anxious and the amount [of food] arriving is not enough.”
U.S.President Joe Biden said Thursday that the White House is looking into the reports of Israeli forces killing civilians.
“There are two complete versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet,” Biden said, adding that this will complicate the cease-fire negotiations.
The Biden administration is considering airdropping aid into Gaza, a U.S. official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Morgan Winsor and Samy Zyara
Feb 29, 4:53 AM Death toll tops 30,000 in Gaza
More than 30,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the latest outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Over 70,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday morning.
Of those killed, 75% are children, women and elderly people, according to a separate statement from Hamas.
The World Health Organization, the global health arm of the United Nations, also confirmed the grim milestone with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus writing in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “a large majority” of those killed in Gaza are “women and children.”
Tedros called for a cease-fire, saying: “This horrific violence and suffering must end.”
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 3:58 PM US urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan
U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on the Israeli government to allow worshipers to access the site during the holy month of Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the occupied West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
When asked whether the United States had received assurances that Israel — a close ally — would allow such access, Miller told reporters that the Biden administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he added.
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between Hamas and Israel since the war began.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:36 PM State Department urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa during Ramadan
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on Israel to allow worshipers to access the site during Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
Asked whether the U.S. had received assurances that the Israeli government would allow such access, Miller said the administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:14 PM Israeli official says negotiations are slow
Progress toward reaching a hostage and cease-fire deal is slow, according to an Israeli political official with knowledge of the negotiations.
Gaps remain in the discussions surrounding the redeployment of Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip, residents returning to northern Gaza and how many Palestinian prisoners Israel is willing to release, the official said.
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to meet Thursday to discuss progress in the negotiations, the official said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Feb 28, 12:15 PM Hamas says it’s showing ‘flexibility’ in talks but ‘ready’ to continue fighting
Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that they are showing “flexibility” in their ongoing negotiations with Israel but are “ready” to continue fighting.
“Any flexibility we are showing in the negotiations is to protect the blood of our people and to put an end to their huge pains and sacrifices in the brutal war of extermination against it,” Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a statement. “In parallel, [we are] ready to defend our people.”
Haniyeh also called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to “march toward Al-Aqsa mosque from the first day of the holy month of Ramadan,” which is March 10.
Israel has reportedly accepted a framework agreement of a six-week cease-fire with Hamas, during which 40 Israeli hostages being held in the war-torn Gaza Strip would be released in return for several hundred Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, has not commented on the specifics in that framework.
Hamas’ main demands are that any agreement should include a path toward a more permanent end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. However, Israel is not willing to accept that, which is why the framework it has reportedly agreed to would only see Israeli troops redeployed within Gaza and not withdrawn fully from the Hamas-ruled enclave.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Will Gretsky, Tom Soufi Burridge and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:07 AM IDF says it coordinated airdrop of humanitarian aid in southern Gaza
A supply of humanitarian aid was airdropped in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Tuesday in cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the United States, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Approximately 160 packages of food, medical equipment and fuel were airdropped along Gaza’s southern coastline using American, Egyptian, Emirati, French and Jordanian planes, the IDF said. The packages were subsequently transferred to residents of southern Gaza and the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis, according to the IDF.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:04 AM Hamas, Fatah to meet in Russia for talks on potential unity government, Gaza reconstruction
Representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Russia’s capital city on Thursday to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the rebuilding of the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Fatah, the largest political party within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the dominating force behind the Palestinian Authority (PA), currently only controls the West Bank after being forced out of Gaza amid violent clashes with Hamas when the Palestinian militant group and political organization won legislative elections in 2007. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by several countries including the United States, is not part of the PLO and rejects the Fatah-controlled PA’s collaboration with Israeli authorities to maintain security in the West Bank.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 3:55 PM Biden’s optimism for deal stems from ongoing negotiations: State Department
After President Joe Biden said Monday he “hopes” to see a cease-fire reached by March 4, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that Biden’s optimism stemmed from “the broad outlines of a deal” agreed to by Israel, the U.S. and other partners last week, as well as “negotiations that are continuing through this week.”
But Miller said Hamas wields significant control over when and whether a deal is reached.
“Certainly, we’d welcome getting one by this weekend,” Miller said. “What I can say about the overall progress is that we made significant progress towards an agreement last week when we had officials from United States government engaging in the region. We continue to pursue further progress this week.”
“We are trying to push this deal over the finish line — we do think it’s possible,” Miller said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 27, 1:29 PM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Netanyahu said in a statement later on Tuesday, “Since the beginning of the war, I have been leading a political campaign whose purpose is to curb the pressures intended to end the war before its time, and on the other hand also to gain support for Israel.”
“We have significant successes in this area, because today the Howard-Harris survey is published in the United States, which shows that 82% of the American public supports Israel,” he continued. “This gives us two more strength to continue the campaign until the complete victory.”
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 9:52 AM 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 29,878 people have been killed and 70,215 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.
Feb 27, 7:13 AM UNRWA ‘needs to be dissolved,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is “intertwined with terror and needs to be dissolved.”
“Their sole goal was to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem,” the official said. “Their compliance with Hamas terrorism and incitement was exposed. Any prospect for peace depends on dissolving UNRWA.”
The Israeli official said humanitarian aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip should be provided by people “who are not associated with Hamas or UNRWA.”
ABC News has reached out to UNRWA for comment.
In a dossier released in late January, the Israeli military alleged that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
UNRWA has said it is investigating the allegations and took swift action against those accused of being involved in the attack. However, the United States and other top donors have suspended their funding to the agency, which is the biggest humanitarian aid provider in Gaza.
Feb 27, 5:54 AM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Feb 27, 5:42 AM Qatar says no breakthrough in talks between Israel, Hamas
A spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that there is no breakthrough to announce concerning a potential deal between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire and hostage release.
“Many developments have occurred. Nothing to announce today, but we feel optimistic,” the spokesperson told reporters.
The spokesperson said the talks remain “ongoing” and they cannot comment on U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that a deal is expected by next Monday.
Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 27, 5:30 AM Hamas’ demands in negotiations ‘are still delusional,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that Hamas’ demands in ongoing negotiations “are still delusional.”
“Military pressure and determined negotiation have helped free 112 hostages to date. Israel will get the remaining hostages home,” the official said. “A deal was done in November and another deal can be made once Hamas comes to reality. Hamas demands are still delusional.”
Feb 26, 6:28 PM Biden ‘hopes’ for cease-fire in Gaza by next Monday
President Biden said he “hopes” to have a cease-fire in Gaza by March 4.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” the president told reporters Monday. “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, it’s not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”
The comments came during a stop at Van Leeuwen’s ice cream shop in New York City as the president visited NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers.
Feb 26, 4:03 PM State Department says there’s been ‘progress’ in hostage talks
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday that there’s been “progress” in hostage talks over the last few days, but he said it’s unclear whether Hamas would accept the latest proposal.
“We’ve had progress with the conversations we’ve had between Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar,” Miller said.
He was then asked if they might reach a deal before Ramadan, which begins on March 10.
“I can’t make that assessment because it depends on Hamas. We believe a deal is possible and we hope Hamas will agree to one,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 26, 12:16 PM Aid to Gaza has dropped by half since January, UNRWA says
Humanitarian aid to Gaza dropped by 50% from January to February, according to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of 2 million Palestinians in desperate living conditions,” Lazzarini said on social media Monday. “Among the obstacles: lack of political will, regular closing of the crossing points & lack of security due to military operations + collapse of civil order.”
Lazzarini stressed the need for a cease-fire.
Feb 25, 7:06 PM Netanyahu’s office presents war cabinet with plan to evacuate Gazans from ‘areas of fighting’
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has presented Israel’s war cabinet with a “plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” a release from the office said early Monday local time.
“In addition, the plan for providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement added.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Feb 24, 4:34 PM Israel agrees to updated framework in cease-fire, hostage deal
Israel has agreed to an updated framework that would establish a six-week cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, an Israeli source told ABC News. The development follows talks in Paris, which includes officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
While Israel says it’s waiting to hear back from Hamas on whether it will accept the updated language from this weekend’s talks, Israel is pushing forward with plans to enter Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that operational plans and evacuation plans in Rafah are ready to be approved by his cabinet.
As part of the proposed deal, Israel has agreed to release jailed Palestinians at a higher ratio than the previous deal, which was 3 to 1. Up to 400 Palestinian prisoners could be released in this new deal.
The Israel Defense Forces will redeploy but not withdraw from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Marcus Moore
Feb 23, 1:23 PM Blinken calls Israeli settlement expansion ‘inconsistent with international law’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is signaling a possible shift back to a long-standing U.S. policy rejecting Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling it “inconsistent with international law.”
Asked at a press availability in Argentina for his response to Israel’s purported plans to build thousands of new settlement homes in the area, Blinken responded, “We’ve seen the reports, and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement.”
“It’s been long-standing U.S. policy under Republican and Democratic administration alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace. They’re also inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said. “Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens — doesn’t strengthen — Israel security.”
The Biden administration has condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank for years, but the State Department had not yet gone so far as to say they ran afoul of international law after Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, said in 2019 that the U.S. would no longer view Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as violations.
But before delivering his rebuke, Blinken made note of what he called a “horrific terrorist attack” on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank this week and said the U.S. would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 22, 2:57 PM Over 85,000 people in Gaza could die in next 6 months if war escalates, report finds
More than 85,000 people in Gaza could die over the next six months if the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found.
The epidemiologists presented findings about death tolls in three potential scenarios: if a cease-fire is reached, if the war remains as it is, and if the war escalates.
If a cease-fire is reached, more than 11,000 people will die over the next six months, the findings estimate, based on current conditions inside Gaza.
If the status quo of the war is maintained, more than 66,000 people will die during the same period, the findings show.
And in the worst-case scenario, if the war escalates, more than 85,000 people could die, the report found.
These numbers are in addition to the more than 29,000 people who have already died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Feb 22, 2:18 PM Israeli war cabinet approves sending negotiators to Paris talks
The Israeli war cabinet on Friday approved sending Israeli negotiators to hostage and cease-fire talks in Paris. The war cabinet’s decision will be brought to the Israeli security cabinet for approval later on Friday night.
Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. officials are also expected to be at Friday’s talks in Paris, according to reports.
Feb 22, 12:18 PM Israel concludes 1-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces said Thursday that its soldiers have concluded their one-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the IDF said it arrested at least 200 suspected Hamas members.
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that it helped evacuate some of the critically ill patients from the hospital.
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Hospital were still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients. The IDF denied these claims.
Feb 22, 3:35 AM One dead, several injured in shooting near Jerusalem, Israeli authorities say
At least one person was killed and several others were injured Thursday in a shooting on a main road just outside Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
Highway 1 was packed with cars when gunfire erupted Thursday morning near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Three “terrorists” armed with automatic weapons pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire at cars that were standing still in the traffic jam, according to the Israel Police.
Israeli security forces who were already on scene “neutralized” two of the suspects, police said. A third suspect who had tried to escape was later found and also “neutralized,” according to police.
Medics arrived and “ran from vehicle to vehicle” searching for victims, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene while several others were transported to area hospitals, including four people who were moderately injured with gunshot wounds, MDA said.
Feb 21, 2:59 PM Israeli Minister Gantz expresses cautious optimism about new hostage deal
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism that a new outline for a possible hostage deal could move forward.
Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said at Israel’s Defense Headquarters Wednesday that there are “attempts” to “promote a new outline” for a hostage deal, and there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”
“We will not stop looking for the way, and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Dana Savir
Feb 21, 1:02 PM 8 bodies remain in Nasser Medical Complex among living patients, Gaza Ministry of Health says
Eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza are still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said the bodies are still in the hospital because Israeli forces refuse to remove them.
The bodies “have begun to swell and show signs of decomposition, posing a danger to other patients,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Israeli authorities denied these claims and said no bodies are still inside Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces has been operating inside of Nasser Hospital for the last week. On Monday, the IDF announced its soldiers had arrested 200 suspected Hamas members at Nasser Hospital.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Camilla Alcini
Feb 21, 8:28 AM Israel considering sending delegation to Egypt for new round of talks, source says
Israel is weighing the possibility of sending a delegation back to Egypt for continued negotiations over a potential cease-fire or hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
There is some cautious optimism over the latest round of talks in Cairo, the source said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 21, 8:14 AM Israel preparing to reopen Karni border crossing to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, source says
Israel is preparing to reopen the Karni border crossing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
Israel shuttered the Karni crossing, located on the border between southwestern Israel and northeastern Gaza, when Palestinian militant group Hamas came to power in the enclave in 2007 before permanently closing the crossing in 2011.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the United Nations.
Feb 21, 7:56 AM UN food agency pauses deliveries to northern Gaza
The World Food Program, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, announced Tuesday that it is pausing deliveries of food aid to the northern Gaza Strip “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distribution.”
The decision came after a WFP convoy heading north from Gaza City was “surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint” on Sunday, the agency said. The same convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” when it tried to resume its journey north on Monday, according to the WFP.
“Several trucks were looted between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger,” the WFP said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
An analysis released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), found that 15.6% of children under the age of 2 are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, compared to 5% in southern Gaza, where most aid enters the war-torn enclave. The acute malnutrition rate across Gaza was less than 1% before the war began last October, according to the report.
Feb 20, 2:21 PM Hostages held in Gaza have received medicine, Qatar says
Qatari officials said hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received the medication that was part of a deal brokered last month.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said it has asked Qatar for evidence that the medicine was delivered.
“Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our abductees,” the office said in a statement.
Feb 20, 12:21 PM US draft resolution calls for temporary cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “an unconditional cease-fire without any obligation for Hamas to release hostages” was irresponsible.
“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share — a text that can and should be adopted by the council, so that we can have a temporary cease-fire as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released,” she said.
The U.S. has been circulating its own draft resolution on Gaza that calls for a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of all hostages, while also condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to senior administration officials familiar with the matter.
If the proposal were to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it would mark the first time the body has formally condemned Hamas’ actions.
The officials say the draft also makes clear “that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah should not proceed” and that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians, while also calling on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open.”
The senior officials signaled that American diplomats wouldn’t rush the text to a vote and that they intended on “allowing time for negotiations.”
While hostage talks have sputtered over the past couple of weeks, senior administration officials said they were making some progress.
“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one official said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 20, 11:34 AM US votes against immediate cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
The U.S. has said an immediate cease-fire could impede the negotiations looking to free hostages and agree to a pause in fighting, the AP said.
Feb 20, 11:07 AM IDF operating inside Al-Amal Hospital
Israeli forces, which already entered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, are also now operating inside the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to ABC News.
“Al-Amal Hospital is currently under multiple attacks, as Israeli forces have directly targeted the third floor of the hospital, resulting in the burning of two rooms,” and “the hospital’s water lines were targeted,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Over 8,000 patients were evacuated from the hospital earlier this month, but almost 100 patients still remain inside, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Feb 20, 7:13 AM WHO helps transfer 32 critical patients out of Gaza’s besieged Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it has helped to successfully transfer 32 critically ill patients, including two children, from besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The WHO said its staff led two “life-saving,” “high-risk” missions at the medical complex in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions.” Staff at Nasser Hospital had requested the transfer of patients after the facility became “non-functional” following an Israeli military raid on Feb. 14 after a weeklong siege, according to the WHO.
“Weak and frail patients were transferred amidst active conflict near the aid convoy,” the WHO said in a statement. “Road conditions hindered the swift movement of ambulances, placing the health of patients at further risk.”
“Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the organization added. “WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.”
The WHO estimates that 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser Hospital. As the facility’s intensive care unit was no longer functioning, the only remaining ICU patient was transferred to a different part of the complex where other patients are receiving basic care, according to the WHO.
“WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths,” the organization said. “Efforts to facilitate further patient referrals amidst the ongoing hostilities are in process.”
Prior to the missions on Sunday and Monday, the WHO said it “received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral.” At least five patients reportedly died in Nasser Hospital’s ICU before any missions or transfers were possible, according to the WHO.
Nasser Hospital is the main medical center serving southern Gaza. Ground troops from the Israel Defense Forces stormed the facility last week, looking for members of Hamas who the IDF alleges have been conducting military operations out of the hospital. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza and is at war with neighboring Israel, denies the claims.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said. “Facilities in the south are already operating well beyond maximum capacity and are barely able to receive more patients.”
Feb 20, 5:26 AM Aid groups warn of potential ‘explosion in preventable child deaths’ in Gaza
A new analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, found that 90% of children under the age of 2 in the war-torn Gaza Strip face severe food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups a day.
The same was true for 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to the report released Monday. And at least 90% of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks, the report said.
In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished, compared to more than 15% in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, the report said. Before war broke out last October between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, the acute malnutrition rate across the coastal enclave was less than 1%, according to the report.
The report also found that more than 80% of homes in Gaza lack clean and safe water, with the average household having one liter per person per day.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at UNICEF, said in a statement. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Feb 19, 12:31 PM Gaza’s health ministry accuses IDF of turning Nasser Hospital into ‘military barracks’
Israeli troops have turned Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving the southern Gaza Strip, into a “military barracks” and are “endangering the lives of patients and medical staff,” according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The health ministry said Monday that patients and medical staff inside Nasser Hospital are now without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases since Israeli ground troops raided the facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last week.
The World Health Organization, which warned on Sunday that Nasser Hospital “is not functional anymore,” said more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.
The WHO said it has evacuated 14 critical patients from the hospital to receive treatment elsewhere.
The Israel Defense Forces alleges that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has been conducting military operations out of Nasser Hospital and other medical centers in the war-torn enclave — claims which Hamas denies.
A picture of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with the lettering ‘We believe in Alexey’ is pictured at a makeshift memorial in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on February 29, 2024. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
(MOSCOW) — The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is taking place in Moscow on Friday, as his team accused authorities of still trying to disrupt it and prevent people from gathering to pay their respects to Vladimir Putin’s most potent critic.
Navalny’s team has accused authorities of trying to block a public funeral, fearing protests, but his colleagues on Thursday insisted anyone wishing to say farewell should come regardless of threats.
The funeral service is being held at a small church in the southern suburb of Marino. Navalny will be buried at the nearby Borisov cemetery, according to his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh.
“Despite all the resistance, the farewell to Alexey will definitely take place tomorrow,” Yarmysh wrote Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the service would begin at 2 p.m. local time, with the burial taking place two hours later. “If you are in Moscow — come,” she said.
Navalny’s team has also called on people outside Moscow to go to memorials for Navalny in their respective cities.
It’s likely police could try to prevent crowds from reaching the service, and Friday could see mass arrests. Since Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison colony two weeks ago, police have detained hundreds of people trying to lay flowers at monuments to political repression to honor him.
Photos circulated by local Russian social media news channels Thursday evening appeared to show police stacking barricades near the church where the funeral service will be held.
After authorities initially refused to hand over Navalny’s body to his mother, his team accused them of continuing to try to disrupt the burial, alleging that funeral homes and cemeteries were pressured not to help them. Russian authorities gave Navalny’s body to his mother more than a week after the opposition leader’s Feb. 16 death.
Yarmysh on Thursday said they were struggling to find a hearse to carry Navalny’s body because undertakers were allegedly being threatened. Moscow authorities on Thursday evening also refused to authorize a request to hold a memorial march on Saturday of up to 50,000 people.
Yekaterina Duntsova, a liberal opposition activist, posted a photograph of the refusal from the Moscow mayor’s office, which cited COVID restrictions as justification for blocking the march, despite Moscow not enforcing restrictions in the city since the early months of the pandemic in 2020.
Navalny’s family and allies have accused Russia of killing the Putin critic in prison. Navalny had been previously poisoned and nearly died in an assassination attempt blamed on the Russian president.
Some Western countries, including the United States, have said Putin bears responsibility for Navalny’s death. “We don’t know exactly what happened but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the result of something that Putin and his friends did,” President Joe Biden said.
The level of repression in Russia means it’s difficult to predict how many people will try to attend Navalny’s funeral. After the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in front of the Kremlin in 2015, around 50,000 people marched through the center of Moscow for his funeral. Navalny likely has an even stronger following, but the environment is now vastly different in Russia, where there’s currently almost zero tolerance for dissent and virtually all independent opposition figures are driven into exile or jailed.
Navalny, who was 47, for most of the last decade emerged as the unrivaled opponent of Putin’s regime.
He built a millions-strong following through innovative anti-corruption investigations that exposed the ill-gotten wealth of Putin and senior Russian officials, publishing them as humorous, viral videos. He sought to run for president and built up a grassroots political movement, leading protests and conducting tactical voting campaigns aimed at undercutting Putin’s rule.
Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent while on a plane to Moscow in August 2020. He was flown to Germany, where he received treatment and doctors confirmed he’d been poisoned. The U.S. later sanctioned four Russians it said were involved in the poisoning and who were members of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or the FSB — the main successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB.
Despite the assassination attempt, Navalny returned to Russia in early 2021 and was immediately imprisoned on fraud and extremism charges that were widely dismissed as politically motivated. Put on trial again while in prison, Navalny continued to mock and criticize Putin’s regime and organize peaceful efforts to weaken it.
In life, Navalny led many peaceful demonstrations throughout Moscow in defiance of bans by authorities, denouncing official corruption and calling for free elections. Police arrested thousands of people at the protests, taking an ever harder line. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, virtually no public protest has been permitted, with even those holding single-person pickets holding blank pieces of paper being detained.
Still, it appeared likely people would attempt to reach Friday’s funeral.
Navalny’s death has devastated Russia’s already beleaguered anti-Kremlin opposition. His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue his fight, making public appearances and continuing to call for action against Putin. In a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, she called Putin a “bloody monster” and urged countries to treat him as the head of an “organized crime gang” and to find innovative ways to target his and his circle’s assets in their territory.
Navalnaya has lived in exile for several years and would likely face arrest if she returned to Russia.
She accused Putin and Moscow’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, on Wednesday of trying to prevent a public ceremony for Navalny.
“People in the Kremlin killed him, then they abused Alexey’s body, then abused his mother, now they are abusing his memory,” she wrote on X. “We don’t want any special treatment — just give the opportunity to people to say goodbye normally to Alexey. Just don’t interfere, please.”
(NEW YORK) — More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 29, 3:20 PM Civilian deaths in Gaza City ‘very well could’ complicate hostage talks: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller acknowledged that Thursday’s deadly incident in Gaza City “very well could” complicate hostage talks.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured when Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food in Gaza City, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Israeli security officials told ABC News the crowd approached Israeli troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
During a press briefing later Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari claimed soldiers did not fire at people seeking aid.
“This terrible event underscores the urgency in bringing the hostage talks to a close,” Miller said. “We continue to believe a deal is possible and that the deal is in the interest of Israel, the Palestinian people and the broader region.”
“When it comes to establishing facts on the ground, we are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place,” Miller noted. “We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers.”
He later added that no United Nations agencies were believed to have been involved, and that the U.S. had seen “conflicting reports” from Israel and local Palestinians.
“We don’t have ground truth on what happened,” he said, later adding that “oftentimes the early accounts in these situations have turned out to be incorrect.”
Miller also expressed “the United States’ deepest condolences to the families for those who died.”
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict, not just today, but over the past nearly five months. And when you think about today’s tragedy, it is especially heartbreaking to consider how many of those families affected will be burying loved ones not for the first time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 29, 1:15 PM Biden ‘hopeful’ for cease-fire but ‘probably not by Monday’
After suggesting a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel could happen by Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden is now indicating it may take longer to reach a deal, without offering a new timeline.
“Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful,” Biden told reporters on Thursday. “Hope springs eternal.”
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Biden spoke on the phone Thursday with the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt. All leaders agreed that Hamas should release the hostages “without delay” and that it would result in “an immediate and sustained cease-fire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks,” according to a White House readout.
Biden also thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and plans to surge more assistance to the region.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Feb 29, 12:23 PM Over 100 killed while waiting for food aid in northern Gaza
Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on hungry Palestinians who were waiting for food aid in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
At least 112 people were killed and 760 others were injured in the incident at Al-Nabulsi roundabout near Al-Rashid Street in the southwest of Gaza City, the health ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the death toll was expected to rise as dozens of the wounded were in critical or serious condition. Patients from the incident who were admitted to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City suffered from injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, being hit by tank artillery shells and being trampled, according to the health ministry spokesperson.
When asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News on Thursday: “Early this morning, during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks, and looted the supplies being delivered. During the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review.”
Israeli security officials told ABC News on Thursday that the crowd approached IDF troops securing the passage of aid trucks in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded with live fire. There was no use of artillery fire, airstrikes or drone strikes in the incident, according to Israeli security officials.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks, according to the United Nations, which continues to warn about the threat of famine for people still living there.
One of the truck drivers who delivers humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, Ahmed Ayad, told ABC News on Wednesday that crowds of people waiting for food aid on Al-Rashid Street block the vehicles from reaching their final destination, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire.
“They fire so that we can advance comfortably,” Ayad said. “But people don’t respond to the shooting, so they move toward us and take aid from the truck. They’re waiting. Everyone is anxious and the amount [of food] arriving is not enough.”
U.S.President Joe Biden said Thursday that the White House is looking into the reports of Israeli forces killing civilians.
“There are two complete versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet,” Biden said, adding that this will complicate the cease-fire negotiations.
The Biden administration is considering airdropping aid into Gaza, a U.S. official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Morgan Winsor and Samy Zyara
Feb 29, 4:53 AM Death toll tops 30,000 in Gaza
More than 30,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the latest outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel began on Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Over 70,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday morning.
Of those killed, 75% are children, women and elderly people, according to a separate statement from Hamas.
The World Health Organization, the global health arm of the United Nations, also confirmed the grim milestone with Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus writing in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “a large majority” of those killed in Gaza are “women and children.”
Tedros called for a cease-fire, saying: “This horrific violence and suffering must end.”
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 3:58 PM US urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan
U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on the Israeli government to allow worshipers to access the site during the holy month of Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the occupied West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
When asked whether the United States had received assurances that Israel — a close ally — would allow such access, Miller told reporters that the Biden administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he added.
The United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, has been mediating talks between Hamas and Israel since the war began.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:36 PM State Department urges Israel to allow access to Al-Aqsa during Ramadan
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller had no comment on Hamas’ calls for a march on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but Miller did call on Israel to allow worshipers to access the site during Ramadan, stressing it was in Israel’s national security interest to avoid fueling tension in the West Bank.
“I don’t have any comment on the call for marches,” Miller said. “I would just say, as it pertains to Al-Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice.”
Asked whether the U.S. had received assurances that the Israeli government would allow such access, Miller said the administration was aware of “plans under consideration,” but said he did not know if a final decision had been made.
“It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s not just a matter of granting people religious freedom that they deserve, to which they have a right, but it’s also a matter that directly is important to Israel’s security,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 28, 3:14 PM Israeli official says negotiations are slow
Progress toward reaching a hostage and cease-fire deal is slow, according to an Israeli political official with knowledge of the negotiations.
Gaps remain in the discussions surrounding the redeployment of Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip, residents returning to northern Gaza and how many Palestinian prisoners Israel is willing to release, the official said.
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to meet Thursday to discuss progress in the negotiations, the official said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Feb 28, 12:15 PM Hamas says it’s showing ‘flexibility’ in talks but ‘ready’ to continue fighting
Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that they are showing “flexibility” in their ongoing negotiations with Israel but are “ready” to continue fighting.
“Any flexibility we are showing in the negotiations is to protect the blood of our people and to put an end to their huge pains and sacrifices in the brutal war of extermination against it,” Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, said in a statement. “In parallel, [we are] ready to defend our people.”
Haniyeh also called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to “march toward Al-Aqsa mosque from the first day of the holy month of Ramadan,” which is March 10.
Israel has reportedly accepted a framework agreement of a six-week cease-fire with Hamas, during which 40 Israeli hostages being held in the war-torn Gaza Strip would be released in return for several hundred Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas, on the other hand, has not commented on the specifics in that framework.
Hamas’ main demands are that any agreement should include a path toward a more permanent end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. However, Israel is not willing to accept that, which is why the framework it has reportedly agreed to would only see Israeli troops redeployed within Gaza and not withdrawn fully from the Hamas-ruled enclave.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Will Gretsky, Tom Soufi Burridge and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:07 AM IDF says it coordinated airdrop of humanitarian aid in southern Gaza
A supply of humanitarian aid was airdropped in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Tuesday in cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and the United States, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Approximately 160 packages of food, medical equipment and fuel were airdropped along Gaza’s southern coastline using American, Egyptian, Emirati, French and Jordanian planes, the IDF said. The packages were subsequently transferred to residents of southern Gaza and the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis, according to the IDF.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 28, 8:04 AM Hamas, Fatah to meet in Russia for talks on potential unity government, Gaza reconstruction
Representatives of Hamas and Fatah will meet in Russia’s capital city on Thursday to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the rebuilding of the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Fatah, the largest political party within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the dominating force behind the Palestinian Authority (PA), currently only controls the West Bank after being forced out of Gaza amid violent clashes with Hamas when the Palestinian militant group and political organization won legislative elections in 2007. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by several countries including the United States, is not part of the PLO and rejects the Fatah-controlled PA’s collaboration with Israeli authorities to maintain security in the West Bank.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 3:55 PM Biden’s optimism for deal stems from ongoing negotiations: State Department
After President Joe Biden said Monday he “hopes” to see a cease-fire reached by March 4, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that Biden’s optimism stemmed from “the broad outlines of a deal” agreed to by Israel, the U.S. and other partners last week, as well as “negotiations that are continuing through this week.”
But Miller said Hamas wields significant control over when and whether a deal is reached.
“Certainly, we’d welcome getting one by this weekend,” Miller said. “What I can say about the overall progress is that we made significant progress towards an agreement last week when we had officials from United States government engaging in the region. We continue to pursue further progress this week.”
“We are trying to push this deal over the finish line — we do think it’s possible,” Miller said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 27, 1:29 PM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Netanyahu said in a statement later on Tuesday, “Since the beginning of the war, I have been leading a political campaign whose purpose is to curb the pressures intended to end the war before its time, and on the other hand also to gain support for Israel.”
“We have significant successes in this area, because today the Howard-Harris survey is published in the United States, which shows that 82% of the American public supports Israel,” he continued. “This gives us two more strength to continue the campaign until the complete victory.”
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee, Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor
Feb 27, 9:52 AM 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 29,878 people have been killed and 70,215 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.
Feb 27, 7:13 AM UNRWA ‘needs to be dissolved,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is “intertwined with terror and needs to be dissolved.”
“Their sole goal was to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem,” the official said. “Their compliance with Hamas terrorism and incitement was exposed. Any prospect for peace depends on dissolving UNRWA.”
The Israeli official said humanitarian aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip should be provided by people “who are not associated with Hamas or UNRWA.”
ABC News has reached out to UNRWA for comment.
In a dossier released in late January, the Israeli military alleged that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
UNRWA has said it is investigating the allegations and took swift action against those accused of being involved in the attack. However, the United States and other top donors have suspended their funding to the agency, which is the biggest humanitarian aid provider in Gaza.
Feb 27, 5:54 AM Netanyahu ‘surprised’ by Biden’s remarks on potential cease-fire deal, source says
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
Feb 27, 5:42 AM Qatar says no breakthrough in talks between Israel, Hamas
A spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that there is no breakthrough to announce concerning a potential deal between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire and hostage release.
“Many developments have occurred. Nothing to announce today, but we feel optimistic,” the spokesperson told reporters.
The spokesperson said the talks remain “ongoing” and they cannot comment on U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that a deal is expected by next Monday.
Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 27, 5:30 AM Hamas’ demands in negotiations ‘are still delusional,’ Israeli official says
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that Hamas’ demands in ongoing negotiations “are still delusional.”
“Military pressure and determined negotiation have helped free 112 hostages to date. Israel will get the remaining hostages home,” the official said. “A deal was done in November and another deal can be made once Hamas comes to reality. Hamas demands are still delusional.”
Feb 26, 6:28 PM Biden ‘hopes’ for cease-fire in Gaza by next Monday
President Biden said he “hopes” to have a cease-fire in Gaza by March 4.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” the president told reporters Monday. “My national security advisor tells me that we’re close, it’s not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”
The comments came during a stop at Van Leeuwen’s ice cream shop in New York City as the president visited NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers.
Feb 26, 4:03 PM State Department says there’s been ‘progress’ in hostage talks
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday that there’s been “progress” in hostage talks over the last few days, but he said it’s unclear whether Hamas would accept the latest proposal.
“We’ve had progress with the conversations we’ve had between Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar,” Miller said.
He was then asked if they might reach a deal before Ramadan, which begins on March 10.
“I can’t make that assessment because it depends on Hamas. We believe a deal is possible and we hope Hamas will agree to one,” he said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 26, 12:16 PM Aid to Gaza has dropped by half since January, UNRWA says
Humanitarian aid to Gaza dropped by 50% from January to February, according to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of 2 million Palestinians in desperate living conditions,” Lazzarini said on social media Monday. “Among the obstacles: lack of political will, regular closing of the crossing points & lack of security due to military operations + collapse of civil order.”
Lazzarini stressed the need for a cease-fire.
Feb 25, 7:06 PM Netanyahu’s office presents war cabinet with plan to evacuate Gazans from ‘areas of fighting’
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has presented Israel’s war cabinet with a “plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” a release from the office said early Monday local time.
“In addition, the plan for providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement added.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Feb 24, 4:34 PM Israel agrees to updated framework in cease-fire, hostage deal
Israel has agreed to an updated framework that would establish a six-week cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, an Israeli source told ABC News. The development follows talks in Paris, which includes officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
While Israel says it’s waiting to hear back from Hamas on whether it will accept the updated language from this weekend’s talks, Israel is pushing forward with plans to enter Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that operational plans and evacuation plans in Rafah are ready to be approved by his cabinet.
As part of the proposed deal, Israel has agreed to release jailed Palestinians at a higher ratio than the previous deal, which was 3 to 1. Up to 400 Palestinian prisoners could be released in this new deal.
The Israel Defense Forces will redeploy but not withdraw from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Marcus Moore
Feb 23, 1:23 PM Blinken calls Israeli settlement expansion ‘inconsistent with international law’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is signaling a possible shift back to a long-standing U.S. policy rejecting Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling it “inconsistent with international law.”
Asked at a press availability in Argentina for his response to Israel’s purported plans to build thousands of new settlement homes in the area, Blinken responded, “We’ve seen the reports, and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement.”
“It’s been long-standing U.S. policy under Republican and Democratic administration alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace. They’re also inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said. “Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens — doesn’t strengthen — Israel security.”
The Biden administration has condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank for years, but the State Department had not yet gone so far as to say they ran afoul of international law after Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, said in 2019 that the U.S. would no longer view Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as violations.
But before delivering his rebuke, Blinken made note of what he called a “horrific terrorist attack” on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank this week and said the U.S. would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 22, 2:57 PM Over 85,000 people in Gaza could die in next 6 months if war escalates, report finds
More than 85,000 people in Gaza could die over the next six months if the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found.
The epidemiologists presented findings about death tolls in three potential scenarios: if a cease-fire is reached, if the war remains as it is, and if the war escalates.
If a cease-fire is reached, more than 11,000 people will die over the next six months, the findings estimate, based on current conditions inside Gaza.
If the status quo of the war is maintained, more than 66,000 people will die during the same period, the findings show.
And in the worst-case scenario, if the war escalates, more than 85,000 people could die, the report found.
These numbers are in addition to the more than 29,000 people who have already died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Feb 22, 2:18 PM Israeli war cabinet approves sending negotiators to Paris talks
The Israeli war cabinet on Friday approved sending Israeli negotiators to hostage and cease-fire talks in Paris. The war cabinet’s decision will be brought to the Israeli security cabinet for approval later on Friday night.
Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. officials are also expected to be at Friday’s talks in Paris, according to reports.
Feb 22, 12:18 PM Israel concludes 1-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces said Thursday that its soldiers have concluded their one-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the IDF said it arrested at least 200 suspected Hamas members.
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that it helped evacuate some of the critically ill patients from the hospital.
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Hospital were still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients. The IDF denied these claims.
Feb 22, 3:35 AM One dead, several injured in shooting near Jerusalem, Israeli authorities say
At least one person was killed and several others were injured Thursday in a shooting on a main road just outside Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
Highway 1 was packed with cars when gunfire erupted Thursday morning near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Three “terrorists” armed with automatic weapons pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire at cars that were standing still in the traffic jam, according to the Israel Police.
Israeli security forces who were already on scene “neutralized” two of the suspects, police said. A third suspect who had tried to escape was later found and also “neutralized,” according to police.
Medics arrived and “ran from vehicle to vehicle” searching for victims, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene while several others were transported to area hospitals, including four people who were moderately injured with gunshot wounds, MDA said.
Feb 21, 2:59 PM Israeli Minister Gantz expresses cautious optimism about new hostage deal
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism that a new outline for a possible hostage deal could move forward.
Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said at Israel’s Defense Headquarters Wednesday that there are “attempts” to “promote a new outline” for a hostage deal, and there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”
“We will not stop looking for the way, and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Dana Savir
Feb 21, 1:02 PM 8 bodies remain in Nasser Medical Complex among living patients, Gaza Ministry of Health says
Eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza are still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said the bodies are still in the hospital because Israeli forces refuse to remove them.
The bodies “have begun to swell and show signs of decomposition, posing a danger to other patients,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Israeli authorities denied these claims and said no bodies are still inside Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces has been operating inside of Nasser Hospital for the last week. On Monday, the IDF announced its soldiers had arrested 200 suspected Hamas members at Nasser Hospital.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Camilla Alcini
Feb 21, 8:28 AM Israel considering sending delegation to Egypt for new round of talks, source says
Israel is weighing the possibility of sending a delegation back to Egypt for continued negotiations over a potential cease-fire or hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
There is some cautious optimism over the latest round of talks in Cairo, the source said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 21, 8:14 AM Israel preparing to reopen Karni border crossing to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, source says
Israel is preparing to reopen the Karni border crossing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
Israel shuttered the Karni crossing, located on the border between southwestern Israel and northeastern Gaza, when Palestinian militant group Hamas came to power in the enclave in 2007 before permanently closing the crossing in 2011.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the United Nations.
Feb 21, 7:56 AM UN food agency pauses deliveries to northern Gaza
The World Food Program, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, announced Tuesday that it is pausing deliveries of food aid to the northern Gaza Strip “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distribution.”
The decision came after a WFP convoy heading north from Gaza City was “surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint” on Sunday, the agency said. The same convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” when it tried to resume its journey north on Monday, according to the WFP.
“Several trucks were looted between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger,” the WFP said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
An analysis released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), found that 15.6% of children under the age of 2 are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, compared to 5% in southern Gaza, where most aid enters the war-torn enclave. The acute malnutrition rate across Gaza was less than 1% before the war began last October, according to the report.
Feb 20, 2:21 PM Hostages held in Gaza have received medicine, Qatar says
Qatari officials said hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received the medication that was part of a deal brokered last month.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said it has asked Qatar for evidence that the medicine was delivered.
“Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our abductees,” the office said in a statement.
Feb 20, 12:21 PM US draft resolution calls for temporary cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “an unconditional cease-fire without any obligation for Hamas to release hostages” was irresponsible.
“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share — a text that can and should be adopted by the council, so that we can have a temporary cease-fire as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released,” she said.
The U.S. has been circulating its own draft resolution on Gaza that calls for a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of all hostages, while also condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to senior administration officials familiar with the matter.
If the proposal were to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it would mark the first time the body has formally condemned Hamas’ actions.
The officials say the draft also makes clear “that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah should not proceed” and that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians, while also calling on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open.”
The senior officials signaled that American diplomats wouldn’t rush the text to a vote and that they intended on “allowing time for negotiations.”
While hostage talks have sputtered over the past couple of weeks, senior administration officials said they were making some progress.
“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one official said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 20, 11:34 AM US votes against immediate cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
The U.S. has said an immediate cease-fire could impede the negotiations looking to free hostages and agree to a pause in fighting, the AP said.
Feb 20, 11:07 AM IDF operating inside Al-Amal Hospital
Israeli forces, which already entered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, are also now operating inside the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to ABC News.
“Al-Amal Hospital is currently under multiple attacks, as Israeli forces have directly targeted the third floor of the hospital, resulting in the burning of two rooms,” and “the hospital’s water lines were targeted,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Over 8,000 patients were evacuated from the hospital earlier this month, but almost 100 patients still remain inside, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Feb 20, 7:13 AM WHO helps transfer 32 critical patients out of Gaza’s besieged Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it has helped to successfully transfer 32 critically ill patients, including two children, from besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The WHO said its staff led two “life-saving,” “high-risk” missions at the medical complex in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions.” Staff at Nasser Hospital had requested the transfer of patients after the facility became “non-functional” following an Israeli military raid on Feb. 14 after a weeklong siege, according to the WHO.
“Weak and frail patients were transferred amidst active conflict near the aid convoy,” the WHO said in a statement. “Road conditions hindered the swift movement of ambulances, placing the health of patients at further risk.”
“Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the organization added. “WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.”
The WHO estimates that 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser Hospital. As the facility’s intensive care unit was no longer functioning, the only remaining ICU patient was transferred to a different part of the complex where other patients are receiving basic care, according to the WHO.
“WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths,” the organization said. “Efforts to facilitate further patient referrals amidst the ongoing hostilities are in process.”
Prior to the missions on Sunday and Monday, the WHO said it “received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral.” At least five patients reportedly died in Nasser Hospital’s ICU before any missions or transfers were possible, according to the WHO.
Nasser Hospital is the main medical center serving southern Gaza. Ground troops from the Israel Defense Forces stormed the facility last week, looking for members of Hamas who the IDF alleges have been conducting military operations out of the hospital. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza and is at war with neighboring Israel, denies the claims.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said. “Facilities in the south are already operating well beyond maximum capacity and are barely able to receive more patients.”
Feb 20, 5:26 AM Aid groups warn of potential ‘explosion in preventable child deaths’ in Gaza
A new analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, found that 90% of children under the age of 2 in the war-torn Gaza Strip face severe food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups a day.
The same was true for 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to the report released Monday. And at least 90% of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks, the report said.
In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished, compared to more than 15% in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, the report said. Before war broke out last October between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, the acute malnutrition rate across the coastal enclave was less than 1%, according to the report.
The report also found that more than 80% of homes in Gaza lack clean and safe water, with the average household having one liter per person per day.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at UNICEF, said in a statement. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Feb 19, 12:31 PM Gaza’s health ministry accuses IDF of turning Nasser Hospital into ‘military barracks’
Israeli troops have turned Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving the southern Gaza Strip, into a “military barracks” and are “endangering the lives of patients and medical staff,” according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The health ministry said Monday that patients and medical staff inside Nasser Hospital are now without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases since Israeli ground troops raided the facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last week.
The World Health Organization, which warned on Sunday that Nasser Hospital “is not functional anymore,” said more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.
The WHO said it has evacuated 14 critical patients from the hospital to receive treatment elsewhere.
The Israel Defense Forces alleges that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has been conducting military operations out of Nasser Hospital and other medical centers in the war-torn enclave — claims which Hamas denies.
