(WASHINGTON) — A Chinese fighter pilot nearly crashed into an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea during a nighttime intercept on Tuesday, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The Chinese pilot “demonstrated poor airmanship” in his J-11 jet, flying within just 10 feet of the B-52 bomber “with uncontrolled excessive speed,” putting both planes in danger of colliding, according to U.S. officials.
Video released by the U.S. on Thursday in a social media post shows how dangerously close the Chinese jet got to the American aircraft.
“The PRC intercept was conducted at night, with limited visibility, in a manner contrary to international air safety rules and norms,” a news release from Indo-Pacific Command said.
“We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” the release said.
According to Indo-Pacific Command, Tuesday’s near collision is the latest in a string of more than 180 “unsafe, unprofessional, and other behaviors that seek to impinge upon the ability of the United States and other nations to safely conduct operations” since fall 2021.
Last week, the Pentagon released videos and descriptions of 15 recent instances of what it called “coercive and risky operational behavior” by China’s People’s Liberation Army against U.S. aircraft, though none of those involved a Chinese fighter harassing a U.S. bomber.
None of the 15 cases of “risky and coercive” PRC pilot behavior released by PACOM last week involved U.S. bombers, according to a U.S. official.
(NEW YORK) — At least 27 are dead and several others missing after Hurricane Otis came ashore with record ferocity on Mexico’s western shore early Wednesday, according to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s office.
Hurricane Otis is the strongest hurricane on record to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast, making landfall as a Category 5 with winds up to 165 mph.
On Wednesday, Hurricane Otis strengthened to a Category 5 storm as it made landfall in Mexico, where it was expected to bring “catastrophic damage,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which had been a tropical storm as of Tuesday morning, rapidly intensified within 24 hours.
Prior to Otis, the strongest hurricane on record to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast was Category 4 Hurricane Patricia in 2015.
Wind speeds approached 165 mph on Wednesday as the storm approached Acapulco, a Mexican resort town, at about 1 a.m. local time, according to a bulletin.
“There will be rain all day and we are trying to reestablish communications. So far, we have no data on human losses, but we do have data on material damage, broken roads … the highway itself reaching Acapulco has landslides,” López Obrador said Wednesday.
“There is no possibility of flying by plane or helicopter. We have to wait, the prognosis is that it will decrease in intensity,” López Obrador said.
In less than 24 hours, Otis went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane with winds of 165 mph. Such rapid intensification puts Otis amongst the top tropical cyclones on record.
“It is a very strong hurricane and it had atypical behavior,” López Obrador said.
Flash flooding is also possible with up to 20 inches of rain are expected through Thursday in areas including Guerrero and the western coastal sections of Oaxaca, officials said.
“This rainfall will produce flash and urban flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm weakened to a tropical storm by midday Wednesday and dissipated later in the day.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 26, 6:06 AM EDT
Israeli military briefly enters northern Gaza, IDF says
Israeli tanks and infantry personnel briefly entered northern Gaza in “preparation for the next stages of combat,” the Israel Defense Forces said early Thursday.
“IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts,” the military said in a post on social media.
The post included a video that appeared to show bulldozers breaking through a barricade-like structure, followed by footage of a military convoy traveling along dirt roads and then several explosions.
“The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory,” IDF said.
Oct 25, 5:46 PM EDT
House passes resolution defending Israel
The House of Representatives passed a resolution defending Israel and condemning Hamas after the group’s attack earlier this month and the escalating war in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution passed in a 412-10 vote. Six members voted present. Nine of the 10 “no” votes came from progressive Democrats, while Rep. Thomas Massie, Ky., was the only Republican to vote against the resolution.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Tal Axelrod
Oct 25, 5:31 PM EDT
Dueling Russia, US resolutions on conflict fail to advance at UN Security Council
The dueling resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war put forth to the United Nations Security Council by Russia and the U.S. have both failed.
Russia’s version called for a humanitarian ceasefire and avoided condemning Hamas. Russia, China, the UAE and Gabon voted in favor of the draft, while nine members abstained, and both the U.S. and the U.K. voted against it.
While the U.S. emphasized in its resolution Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, officials worked to find a middle ground that would placate a majority of members, urging a pause to military action in Gaza. The U.S. measure secured the votes it needed to advance out of the council but was ultimately vetoed by Russia and China.
“The United States is deeply disappointed that Russia and China vetoed this resolution. A resolution that, as I’ve said, was strong and it was balanced. That was the product of consultations with members of this Council. We did listen to all of you. We incorporated feedback. And we worked to forge consensus around a resolution that would send a clear message to the world – and most importantly, to Israelis and Palestinians – that this Council is determined to meet this moment,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 25, 4:40 PM EDT
WHO calls for release of hostages, proof of life, proof of medical care
The World Health Organization said there’s “an urgent need” for Hamas to “provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release” of the hostages.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he met with families of some hostages on Wednesday.
“Many of the hostages, including children, women and the elderly, have pre-existing health conditions requiring urgent and sustained care and treatment,” he said in a statement. “The mental health trauma that the abducted, and the families, are facing is acute and psychosocial support is of great importance.”
Oct 25, 4:36 PM EDT
Israeli official: ‘Definitions of defeating Hamas’ must be more ‘realistic’
Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, the former head of the Israel National Security Council, told ABC News the “definitions of defeating Hamas … have to be a little more measurable and realistic.”
Eiland, who has been working inside Israel’s military headquarters, said there’s no way to completely destroy Hamas, but he said what Israel can do “is destroy the military capabilities and other governmental functions of Hamas.”
“But even to achieve this limited goal we will have to maintain the military effort,” he said.
Eiland said Israel cannot allow Hamas “the ability now or in the future to rebuild their rocket arsenal.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Oct 25, 3:44 PM EDT
House to vote on resolution defending Israel
The House on Wednesday is debating a resolution to show support for Israel and condemn Hamas.
The resolution introduced by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul is entitled “Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.”
It’s expected to pass with large bipartisan support.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
Oct 25, 3:39 PM EDT
Israeli forces said they’ve hit underground tunnels
Missiles fired by Israeli forces have struck underground tunnels in Gaza, targeting Hamas terrorists, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said. It’s unclear what the result of the hit was.
Hamas has previously claimed to have built 500 kilometers — more than 300 miles — of tunnels under Gaza. The tunnel system is designed to conceal and cover Hamas militants and allow them to execute surprise attacks, according to experts.
The IDF spokesman said Israel’s current attacks in Gaza are improving their situation for the next stage of the long war ahead.
Oct 25, 2:35 PM EDT
Biden says Israel has right to defend itself while urging country to follow ‘laws of war’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday emphasized U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself, while also urging the country to do “everything in its power” to protect innocent people in Gaza.
“We will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” Biden said during a press conference at the White House with Australia’s prime minister.
Biden said Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields, putting an “added burden on Israel while they go after Hamas,” but Israel should still do everything it can to follow the “laws of war.”
“Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians,” he said.
Biden also said the flow of aid to Gaza needs to increase and that he was working “around the clock” to secure the release of hostages.
He reiterated his support for a two-state solution, saying that the status quo will never return after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did — I have no proof of this, my instinct tells me — is because of the progress we were making toward regional integration for Israel and regional integration overall. And we can’t leave that work behind,” Biden said, repeating a claim he’s made before about his efforts to broker a broader deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that would lead to Saudi Arabia recognizing Israel.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Oct 25, 2:23 PM EDT
Israel readying for ground operation, won’t reveal date: Netanyahu
Israeli forces are getting ready for the ground operation into Gaza, but will not tell anyone when it will be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
When soldiers enter Gaza, they’ll “exact the full price from these murderers,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.
“I once again call on the uninvolved population in Gaza to evacuate to the southern strip,” he said.
Netanyahu also said Israel will “do everything possible to bring hostages home.”
“We are gathering the support of world leaders,” he added. “Our fight against Hamas is also their fight.”
Oct 25, 12:52 PM EDT
Gaza shelters 4 times over their capacities: UNRWA
Shelters in Gaza are four times over their capacities, forcing many people to sleep in the streets, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Nearly 600,000 displaced Gaza residents are sheltering at 150 UNRWA facilities, the agency said.
Oct 25, 12:41 PM EDT
Tuesday marks deadliest day in Gaza since conflict began
Tuesday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 700 people died on Tuesday, OCHA said.
Over 6,500 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Oct 25, 11:40 AM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip” Wednesday night, UNRWA said.
Oct 25, 11:29 AM EDT
UN secretary-general responds to Israeli ambassador’s criticism
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is responding to the Israeli ambassador’s call for him to resign, saying it’s false to accuse him of “justifying” Hamas’ attacks.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres asserted that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” sparking immediate backlash from Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan.
“The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner,” Erdan said. “His statement that, ‘The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,’ expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”
Experts breakdown Israel-Hamas conflict
“It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views,” Erdan said.
Guterres said at the U.N. Wednesday, “I am shocked by the misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite. In the beginning of my intervention yesterday, I clearly stated — and I quote: ‘I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.'”
“Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people,” Guterres continued. “And in doing so, I also clearly stated, and I quote: ‘But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.'”
Oct 25, 11:10 AM EDT
Gaza hospital ‘will turn into a big morgue,’ doctor warns
In Gaza, where the “health system is collapsing,” doctors “cannot offer much” to their hundreds of severely wounded patients, Dr. Mohammed Ghandil from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital told ABC News.
“The hospital door is open, but the health care is not provided,” Ghandil said.
“We are just giving some peaceful words for them to die,” he said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that one-third of hospitals in Gaza and two-thirds of clinics were not functioning.
More than 17,000 people in Gaza have been wounded since Oct. 7.
“Even the medical patient [who] was not wounded, who came with heart attack, with stroke, with sepsis, we’re just sending them home because there is no bed in the hospital,” he said. “The hospital corridors, the hospital backyards, the hospital balcony are fully, fully packed with the severely wounded.”
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If the fuel is zero,” Ghandil said, “the doctors and the nurses will go home and the hospital will turn to a big morgue.”
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
Oct 25, 10:31 AM EDT
‘Some progress’ in hostage negations, Qatar says
“Some progress” has been made as Qatar continues its hostage negotiations with Hamas, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at a news conference.
“If we compare where we started and where we are right now, there is some progress and some breakthrough and we will remain hopeful,” he said. “The negotiations are still ongoing and at any moment of time, I think that if we will be able to get along between the two parties, I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon.”
Israel reported that 222 hostages were taken by Hamas. Four hostages have been released in the last week: two American women and two Israeli women.
Oct 25, 10:01 AM EDT
UN meeting Thursday to debate Israel-Hamas war
The United Nations General Assembly will be called back into an emergency special session in New York on Thursday morning to debate the Israel-Hamas war.
The general assembly could vote on moves, including a humanitarian pause in Gaza and the establishment of an international protective presence in Gaza.
Oct 25, 5:35 AM EDT
IDF says it targeted Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian military in ‘wide-scale strikes’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that it has carried out “wide-scale strikes” in the neighboring Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
The Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, military headquarters and weapons warehouses, as well as “several terrorists,” including a Hamas commander, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it also killed five Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon who tried to launch missiles and rockets against Israeli forces in the last day.
Two rockets were fired into Israel from neighboring Syria and the IDF said it responded by attacking infrastructure and positions of the Syrian military.
Oct 24, 7:28 PM EDT
US intelligence assess ‘with high confidence’ that Israel was not responsible for Gaza hospital explosion
An official with the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence told reporters Tuesday that the office has updated its assessment of last week’s explosion of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds, and stated “with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.”
The official added, “We assess with low confidence that Palestine Islamic Jihad, PIJ, was responsible for launching the rocket that landed on the hospital,” the official added, noting that they suspect based on their analysis that the rocket responsible likely suffered a “catastrophic motor failure.”
The intelligence official said they were drawing on “intelligence, missile activity, open-source video and images of the incident,” including an examination of the blast effects.
“If an Israeli munition was responsible for this blast, we would expect that Palestinian militants would be very directly and clearly showing what they thought was an Israeli munition,” the official said. “We’ve looked at all of the images and in none of them do we assess that there are remnants, Israeli munitions.”
Oct 24, 5:45 PM EDT
US engaging in ongoing talks to release a number of hostages: Source
Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and regional partners, including Israel, Egypt, and Qatar to secure the release of a large number of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, a source with knowledge told ABC News.
The U.S. is still advising for a delay to have more time for the hostages to be released and for aid to get out, but does not want to appear to be dictating what to do to the Israelis, according to the source.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 4:12 PM EDT
Blinken updates number of Americans killed
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that 33 Americans were confirmed dead after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 3:39 PM EDT
How the ‘law of war’ could apply to an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
With Israel appearing to be on the cusp of a ground invasion into Gaza, President Joe Biden and other world leaders this week said the Jewish state has the right to defend itself against the recent brutal attacks by Hamas.
At the same time, they warned, Israel must abide by the “law of war” in protecting innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
But with the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands more Palestinian civilians killed, can Israel do both? And could either Israel or Hamas be prosecuted for war crimes?
Click here to read what you need to know about international humanitarian laws and how they apply in the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Oct 24, 3:28 PM EDT
Kirby: Israel needs to ‘consider possibility of humanitarian pause’
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday a “ceasefire right now really only benefits Hamas.”
When asked if the U.S. has set or discussed any red lines with the Israelis, he said simply, “No.”
But when pressed to elaborate on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that “humanitarian pauses must be considered,” he said, “pauses in operation is a tool and a tactic” that can protect civilians for temporary periods of time.
Later when asked, Kirby said Blinken talked about the need to “consider the possibility of a humanitarian pause, to allow aid to get in — and get in unfettered — and to allow for the safe movement of people out.”
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 2:12 PM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” the agency said.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said, “We know for sure that there’s plenty of fuel in Gaza. Hamas has stored fuel in advance, and is stealing fuel from both civilians and the U.N. to power its war machine against Israel.”
Oct 24, 1:45 PM EDT
20 more aid trucks cross Rafah: Egyptian officials
Twenty more aid trucks crossed the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border on Tuesday and are now headed to the Israel-Egypt Nitzana Border Crossing for inspection, according to Egyptian officials.
It is not clear if the trucks have reached Gaza yet, where humanitarian conditions are worsening by the day, but these new trucks will bring the total to 74 aid trucks crossing through over the last four days.
The Rafah border crossing was shut on Oct. 10 after it was hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times on Oct. 9 and 10.
The crossing has briefly opened each day since Saturday, permitting a small amount of aid to enter Gaza.
Asked by a reporter if humanitarian aid is getting to Gaza fast enough, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, “Not fast enough.”
Oct 24, 1:26 PM EDT
Israeli, Palestinian Authority foreign ministers speak out at UN Security Council meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, gave long, impassioned speeches at the United Nations Security Council meeting about the suffering their people are experiencing.
Cohen began by holding up photographs of the Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas, reading out their names and ages.
“They are just a few the many children and babies that have not seen evil. They have not caused evil. But they are victims of evil,” he said.
Cohen described Hamas as “the new Nazis” and said Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel should serve as “a wakeup call against extremism.”
Al-Maliki purported that Israel’s retaliation had equated to “ongoing massacres being deliberately, systematically, and savagely” perpetrated against Palestinians civilians.
“The Security Council has a duty to stop them,” he said. “It is our collective human duty to stop them now.”
He suggested that Israel’s campaign would ultimately lead to more conflict, saying “more injustice and more killing will not make Israel safer.”
The foreign minister argued that everyone on the council should be united behind one goal.
“We should be on the same side — all of us who believe in justice and peace,” he said. “We should stand shoulder to shoulder in these moments. But that is only possible if everyone recognizes the value of Palestinian life — the need to uphold Palestinian rights.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 1:17 PM EDT
Blinken backs Israel but says ‘humanitarian pauses must be considered’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s military actions at the United Nations Security Council, but Blinken said “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza — the administration’s strongest statement of a support for any type of halt in Israel’s efforts to vanquish Hamas.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such heart from repeating itself. No member of this council, no nation in this entire body. could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
The secretary said every member of the U.N. has a “responsibility to denounce the member states that arm, fund and train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts,” reminding them that many other foreign nationals were also killed and kidnapped in its attacks.”
Blinken then turned to ongoing efforts to protect civilian lives, first emphasizing that Hamas is responsible for putting the innocent in harm’s way, before shifting to Israel’s responsibilities.
“Hamas must cease using them as human shields,” he said. “Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. It means means food, medicine and water and other assistance must flow into Gaza and to the areas people need them. It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
Previously, the State Department and other U.S. officials flatly rejected calls for any kind of ceasefir, arguing, as State Department spokesperson Matt Miller did Monday, that it would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue watching terrorist attacks against Israel.”
In his remarks, Blinken also detailed the administration’s efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East, but emphasized the threat posed by Iran and promised the U.S. would not allow attacks on Americans to go unanswered.
“We do not want this war to widen, but if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake — we will defend our people, we will defend our security–swiftly and decisively,” he vowed.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 11:54 AM EDT
784 slain in Israel identified, Israeli police say
The Israeli police said they’ve identified at least 784 people killed by Hamas.
Police said some bodies were in such bad condition that they have not yet been identified.
At least 1,400 people have died and 4,629 others have been injured in Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Oct 24, 11:35 AM EDT
US sends 3-star Marine general to advise Israel
The Biden administration has sent Lt. Gen. James Glynn, a three-star Marine general who is currently serving as the head of Marine personnel, to Israel to advise the country on its military operations, according to a U.S. official.
The news was first reported by Axios on Monday.
Glynn is “not directing operations” but rather is “purely there to provide military advice and pose hard questions to help [the Israel Defense Forces] think through various scenarios,” the U.S. official told ABC News.
The official said Glynn was in Israel “temporarily” and was not expected to still be there when a ground operation starts.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Oct 24, 11:30 AM EDT
Fuel ‘most vital commodity’ in Gaza, WHO says
Fuel is now the “most vital commodity” in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
The limited aid trucks trickling into Gaza have not included any fuel, the organization said. Before Oct. 7, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza every day, including about 45 trucks bringing fuel, said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.
Without fuel, “trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Alrifai.
Alrifai said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency would be responsible for delivering the fuel to hospitals and water desalination plants and keeping it out of Hamas’ hands.
The WHO said one in three hospitals in Gaza and two in three clinics are not functioning, with the health system overwhelmed by more than 16,000 injured people.
Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, said he’s begging “all those in a situation to make a decision or influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe.”
Oct 24, 11:03 AM EDT
Underground hospital prepares to treat wounded IDF soldiers
In just two weeks, the space below Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.
Rows of hospital beds and medical equipment have been set up in what was meant to be used as a parking garage.
“We have up to 130 beds here, including intensive care beds,” Dr. Tamar Elram, director of the Hadassha Mount Scopus Hospital, told ABC News. “Everything that we do here is in total cooperation and agreement with the army and with police and all the other security forces.”
The hospital has also been treating civilian victims, like Michal Alon, who was shot in the hand and chest by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and is now embarking on the long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally.
Israeli hospital prepares for war casualties
“We’ve already got soldiers and civilians who are turning to our ERs, two and a half weeks after the terror attack, starting to suffer from acute post-traumatic syndrome,” Elram said.
Elram says one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced in preparing for what’s to come includes manpower. Some staffers are leaving the hospital to go serve in the Israeli military.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Ines De La Cuetara
Oct 24, 9:07 AM EDT
Hostages influencing Israeli military’s operational plans, spokesperson says
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner confirmed that hostages are influencing the plans of Israel’s forces.
“Of course the presence of the hostages is at the top of our priority list,” Lerner told ABC News. “It is obviously influencing our operational capabilities, operational plans.”
Lerner said that while the military has been given the “green light” to go into Gaza, they have not officially been given the command to “go” from the government.
Asked if the window for an operation into Gaza will close, Lerner responded, “There is no choice for Israel.”
Learner also said Israeli forces are actively trying to assassinate Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahye Sinwar, but they haven’t found him yet.
As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.
“Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza — they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals,” he said.
Oct 24, 8:29 AM EDT
Parents describe watching video of Hamas taking son hostage
The father of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas at the Supernova music festival, said he has gained some “strength” from seeing a video of his son on the day of the attack.
“No parent should ever be subjected to this sight,” Jon Polin said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday.
Polin and Rachel Goldberg’s son was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack. He had been hiding with a group in a bomb shelter and witnesses saw him being loaded into the back of a Hamas pickup truck, his parents told ABC News earlier this month.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents said on Tuesday they have since seen a video in which their son leaves the bomb shelter.
“Knowing he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre and he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck and uses his weak hand, his only hand now, to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed,” Polin said. “It gives me a sense of, he’s got a perseverance and fortitude that we hope carries him through this.”
Oct 24, 8:25 AM EDT
Gaza hospitals as ‘dire as it can be’
Hospitals in Gaza are “horrific scenes,” filled with killed and injured children and “medical staff working 24/7 with almost nothing in terms of resources and equipment,” said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Seventy-percent of the victims are children, women and the elderly, according to the health ministry.
The ministry said 12 hospitals and 32 health centers are out of service, with those numbers expected to rise as airstrikes continue and Gaza runs out of fuel.
“It’s dire as it can be. The scenes inside the hospital are almost indescribable — one of our doctors recently had to do an operation on the floor, in the corridor of the hospital, because there was nowhere to do it. The situation is untenable, absolutely horrific,” al-Qudra said.
Oct 24, 6:52 AM EDT
‘Through hell,’ released Hamas hostage says of days in captivity
After Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, was taken hostage by Hamas militants, she was brought into a “huge network” of underground tunnels, which she described on Tuesday as being “like a spider’s web.”
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifschitz told gathered reporters in the lobby of the Tel Aviv hospital where she’s being treated.
As Lifschitz spoke in Hebrew, her daughter translated her words into English.
The 85-year-old had been taken by motorcycle on Oct. 7, carried away through fields while her captors struck her with sticks and removed her watch and jewellery, she said. She was made to walk a few kilometers to the entrance of one of the many tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
She said she was kept during her captivity in a “clean” location, where doctors visited every few days. Medicine was available, she said.
She slept on a mattress on one of the tunnel’s floors. She ate white cheese, cucumbers and pita bread, she said.
Oct 24, 1:06 AM EDT
Three Hamas deputy commanders killed: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday morning that three Hamas deputy commanders were killed Monday night.
“During the night, IDF aircraft also attacked operational headquarters used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas and assembly points of the terrorist organization located inside mosques,” the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The deputy commander of the Nusirat battalion, the deputy commander of the Shati battalion and the deputy commander of the Alfurkan battalion of Hamas were killed, the IDF said in the post.
Oct 23, 10:27 PM EDT
Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages’ release, humanitarian assistance for Gaza
President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, once again addressing his commitment to efforts to “secure the release of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas – including Americans – and to provide for safe passage for U.S. citizens and other civilians in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call. Biden welcomed the news of the two hostages who were released earlier on Monday, per the readout.
During the call, Biden also “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” according to the readout.
Biden also spoke with Netanyahu about U.S. support for Israel and what the White House said was “ongoing efforts at regional deterrence, to include new U.S. military deployments.”
Oct 23, 6:06 PM EDT
Kirby warns of uptick in Iran-linked attacks
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that in recent days there had been “an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups against military bases housing U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
“We know Iran continues to support Hamas and Hezbollah, and we know Iran is closely monitoring these events and in some cases, actively facilitating attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit for their own good, or for that of Iran,” Kirby said.
Kirby said Iran tries to “maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that.”
He added that there is still no direct evidence that Iran was involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
(NEW YORK) — Dueling resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war put forth to the U.N. Security Council by Russia and the U.S. both failed on Wednesday, illustrating the chamber’s deadlock on the conflict.
Russia’s version called for a humanitarian ceasefire and avoided condemning Hamas, which launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and spurred the war. The Russian measure didn’t secure the votes needed to advance, with Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Gabon voting in favor of the draft, nine members abstaining and both the U.S. and the U.K. voting against it.
While the U.S. has emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, officials also worked to find a middle ground that would placate a majority of members, urging a pause to military action in Gaza, the Palestinian territory next to Israel that Hamas controls.
The U.S. measure secured the votes it needed to advance out of the council but was ultimately vetoed by Russia and China. The five permanent members of the Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K. — have veto power.
“The United States is deeply disappointed that Russia and China vetoed this resolution. A resolution that, as I’ve said, was strong and it was balanced,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “That was the product of consultations with members of this council. We did listen to all of you. We incorporated feedback. And we worked to forge consensus around a resolution that would send a clear message to the world — and most importantly, to Israelis and Palestinians — that this council is determined to meet this moment.”
“Though today’s vote was a setback, we must not be deterred,” Thomas-Greenfield added, reiterating that the United States’ goal is “to build a more peaceful and secure future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
In a speech at the Security Council on Tuesday where he announced that the U.S. would offer up a draft resolution defining the U.N.’s role in the conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s military actions but said that “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza — the Biden administration’s strongest statement of support for any type of halt in Israel’s efforts to vanquish Hamas, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.
More than 1,400 people were killed by the Hamas attacks in Israel, according to Israeli officials, while more than 6,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures have not been independently confirmed by ABC News.
“First, we all recognize the right and, indeed, the imperative of states to defend themselves against terrorism. That’s why we must unequivocally condemn Hamas and its barbaric terrorist attack against Israel,” Blinken said Tuesday, listing some of the atrocities committed by Hamas militants.
“Parents executed in front of their children. Children executed in front of their parents. And so many taken hostage in Gaza,” he said. “We have to ask — indeed, it must be asked — where’s the outrage? Where’s the revulsion? Where’s the rejection? Where’s the explicit condemnation of these horrors?”
In his remarks, Blinken also detailed the administration’s efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading outward in the Middle East but emphasized the threat posed by Iran and promised the U.S. would not allow recent militia attacks on American soldiers to go unanswered.
“We do not want this war to widen, but if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake,” he said. “We will defend our people, we will defend our security — swiftly and decisively.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday he “did not demand” Israel delay a ground incursion of Gaza in an effort to protect hostages and keep humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza.
“What I have indicated to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is that, if it’s possible, to get these folks out safely that’s what he should do. It’s their decision. I did not demand it,” Biden said.
“Obviously, they’re in jeopardy,” Biden said of the hostages. “The question is whether or not there’s any way of getting them out. If we can get them out, we should get them out.”
After weeks of bombing in Gaza, Biden reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself by eliminating the threat posed by Hamas after it launched a terror attack on Oct. 7 — while also stressing the need for Israel to limit civilian casualties and offer a “vision of what comes next.”
“There’s no going back to status quo as it stood on October the 6th,” Biden said on Wednesday, referencing the eve of the terrorist attacks on Israel that claimed more than 1,400 lives. “That means ensuring Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel and use Palestinian civilians as human shields.”
Biden underscored the administration’s support of a two-state solution — which would establish an independent Palestinian homeland alongside Israel — and said it would take cooperation from all sides to turn that vision into a reality.
“It means a concentrated effort from all of the parties, the Israelis, the Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders, to put us on a path toward peace,” Biden said.
Biden delivered his remarks on the conflict in the White House Rose Garden alongside Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was welcomed to Washington for a state visit intended to strengthen a key U.S. alliance in the Pacific, although the conflict in the Middle East loomed large over their agenda.
As regional backlash to Israeli strikes on Gaza grows, both Biden and Albanese stressed the need for additional humanitarian aid as well as the need to protect civilians lives in the area.
“Hamas is hiding behind Palestinian civilians and it’s despicable — and not surprisingly — cowardly as well. This also puts an added burden on Israel while they go after Hamas,” Biden said. “But that does not lessen the need to operate and align with the laws of war.”
“In times of crisis, respect for international humanitarian law is paramount,” Albanese said.
But Biden also pushed back on the more than 6,500 civilian casualties the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry claims have resulted from Israel’s retaliation — a number the administration and reputable international organizations have no way of verifying. ABC News has not independently confirmed those casualty numbers.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said.
“Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel, and it’s against their interest when that doesn’t happen, but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,” he added.
While the administration has repeatedly highlighted its efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading across the Middle East, Biden was pressed on whether strikes carried out by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria are evidence that is already happening.
“We have had troops in the region since 9/11 to go after ISIS and prevent its reemergence,” Biden responded. “My warning to the Ayatollah [Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran] was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel.”
Earlier in the event with the Australian prime minister, Biden again speculated that the impetus for Hamas’ attacks was to foil the progress towards the normalization of diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a long-held goal of the administration and a prospect abhorred by Iran and many extremist groups in the region.
“I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did — I have no proof of this, my instinct tells me — is because of the progress we were making toward regional integration for Israel and regional integration overall. And we can’t leave that work behind,” Biden said.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 25, 2:35 PM EDT
Biden says Israel has right to defend itself while urging country to follow ‘laws of war’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday emphasized U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself, while also urging the country to do “everything in its power” to protect innocent people in Gaza.
“We will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” Biden said during a press conference at the White House with Australia’s prime minister.
Biden said Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields, putting an “added burden on Israel while they go after Hamas,” but Israel should still do everything it can to follow the “laws of war.”
“Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians,” he said.
Biden also said the flow of aid to Gaza needs to increase and that he was working “around the clock” to secure the release of hostages.
He reiterated his support for a two-state solution, saying that the status quo will never return after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did — I have no proof of this, my instinct tells me — is because of the progress we were making toward regional integration for Israel and regional integration overall. And we can’t leave that work behind,” Biden said, repeating a claim he’s made before about his efforts to broker a broader deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that would lead to Saudi Arabia recognizing Israel.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Oct 25, 2:23 PM EDT
Israel readying for ground operation, won’t reveal date: Netanyahu
Israeli forces are getting ready for the ground operation into Gaza, but will not tell anyone when it will be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
When soldiers enter Gaza, they’ll “exact the full price from these murderers,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.
“I once again call on the uninvolved population in Gaza to evacuate to the southern strip,” he said.
Netanyahu also said Israel will “do everything possible to bring hostages home.”
“We are gathering the support of world leaders,” he added. “Our fight against Hamas is also their fight.”
Oct 25, 12:52 PM EDT
Gaza shelters 4 times over their capacities: UNRWA
Shelters in Gaza are four times over their capacities, forcing many people to sleep in the streets, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Nearly 600,000 displaced Gaza residents are sheltering at 150 UNRWA facilities, the agency said.
Oct 25, 12:41 PM EDT
Tuesday marks deadliest day in Gaza since conflict began
Tuesday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 700 people died on Tuesday, OCHA said.
Over 6,500 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Oct 25, 11:40 AM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip” Wednesday night, UNRWA said.
Oct 25, 11:29 AM EDT
UN secretary-general responds to Israeli ambassador’s criticism
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is responding to the Israeli ambassador’s call for him to resign, saying it’s false to accuse him of “justifying” Hamas’ attacks.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres asserted that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” sparking immediate backlash from Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan.
“The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner,” Erdan said. “His statement that, ‘The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,’ expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”
Experts breakdown Israel-Hamas conflict
“It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views,” Erdan said.
Guterres said at the U.N. Wednesday, “I am shocked by the misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite. In the beginning of my intervention yesterday, I clearly stated — and I quote: ‘I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.'”
“Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people,” Guterres continued. “And in doing so, I also clearly stated, and I quote: ‘But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.'”
Oct 25, 11:10 AM EDT
Gaza hospital ‘will turn into a big morgue,’ doctor warns
In Gaza, where the “health system is collapsing,” doctors “cannot offer much” to their hundreds of severely wounded patients, Dr. Mohammed Ghandil from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital told ABC News.
“The hospital door is open, but the health care is not provided,” Ghandil said.
“We are just giving some peaceful words for them to die,” he said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that one-third of hospitals in Gaza and two-thirds of clinics were not functioning.
More than 17,000 people in Gaza have been wounded since Oct. 7.
“Even the medical patient [who] was not wounded, who came with heart attack, with stroke, with sepsis, we’re just sending them home because there is no bed in the hospital,” he said. “The hospital corridors, the hospital backyards, the hospital balcony are fully, fully packed with the severely wounded.”
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If the fuel is zero,” Ghandil said, “the doctors and the nurses will go home and the hospital will turn to a big morgue.”
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
Oct 25, 10:31 AM EDT
‘Some progress’ in hostage negations, Qatar says
“Some progress” has been made as Qatar continues its hostage negotiations with Hamas, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at a news conference.
“If we compare where we started and where we are right now, there is some progress and some breakthrough and we will remain hopeful,” he said. “The negotiations are still ongoing and at any moment of time, I think that if we will be able to get along between the two parties, I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon.”
Israel reported that 222 hostages were taken by Hamas. Four hostages have been released in the last week: two American women and two Israeli women.
Oct 25, 10:01 AM EDT
UN meeting Thursday to debate Israel-Hamas war
The United Nations General Assembly will be called back into an emergency special session in New York on Thursday morning to debate the Israel-Hamas war.
The general assembly could vote on moves, including a humanitarian pause in Gaza and the establishment of an international protective presence in Gaza.
Oct 25, 5:35 AM EDT
IDF says it targeted Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian military in ‘wide-scale strikes’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that it has carried out “wide-scale strikes” in the neighboring Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
The Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, military headquarters and weapons warehouses, as well as “several terrorists,” including a Hamas commander, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it also killed five Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon who tried to launch missiles and rockets against Israeli forces in the last day.
Two rockets were fired into Israel from neighboring Syria and the IDF said it responded by attacking infrastructure and positions of the Syrian military.
Oct 24, 7:28 PM EDT
US intelligence assess ‘with high confidence’ that Israel was not responsible for Gaza hospital explosion
An official with the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence told reporters Tuesday that the office has updated its assessment of last week’s explosion of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds, and stated “with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.”
The official added, “We assess with low confidence that Palestine Islamic Jihad, PIJ, was responsible for launching the rocket that landed on the hospital,” the official added, noting that they suspect based on their analysis that the rocket responsible likely suffered a “catastrophic motor failure.”
The intelligence official said they were drawing on “intelligence, missile activity, open-source video and images of the incident,” including an examination of the blast effects.
“If an Israeli munition was responsible for this blast, we would expect that Palestinian militants would be very directly and clearly showing what they thought was an Israeli munition,” the official said. “We’ve looked at all of the images and in none of them do we assess that there are remnants, Israeli munitions.”
Oct 24, 5:45 PM EDT
US engaging in ongoing talks to release a number of hostages: Source
Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and regional partners, including Israel, Egypt, and Qatar to secure the release of a large number of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, a source with knowledge told ABC News.
The U.S. is still advising for a delay to have more time for the hostages to be released and for aid to get out, but does not want to appear to be dictating what to do to the Israelis, according to the source.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 4:12 PM EDT
Blinken updates number of Americans killed
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that 33 Americans were confirmed dead after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 3:39 PM EDT
How the ‘law of war’ could apply to an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
With Israel appearing to be on the cusp of a ground invasion into Gaza, President Joe Biden and other world leaders this week said the Jewish state has the right to defend itself against the recent brutal attacks by Hamas.
At the same time, they warned, Israel must abide by the “law of war” in protecting innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
But with the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands more Palestinian civilians killed, can Israel do both? And could either Israel or Hamas be prosecuted for war crimes?
Click here to read what you need to know about international humanitarian laws and how they apply in the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Oct 24, 3:28 PM EDT
Kirby: Israel needs to ‘consider possibility of humanitarian pause’
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday a “ceasefire right now really only benefits Hamas.”
When asked if the U.S. has set or discussed any red lines with the Israelis, he said simply, “No.”
But when pressed to elaborate on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that “humanitarian pauses must be considered,” he said, “pauses in operation is a tool and a tactic” that can protect civilians for temporary periods of time.
Later when asked, Kirby said Blinken talked about the need to “consider the possibility of a humanitarian pause, to allow aid to get in — and get in unfettered — and to allow for the safe movement of people out.”
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 2:12 PM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” the agency said.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said, “We know for sure that there’s plenty of fuel in Gaza. Hamas has stored fuel in advance, and is stealing fuel from both civilians and the U.N. to power its war machine against Israel.”
Oct 24, 1:45 PM EDT
20 more aid trucks cross Rafah: Egyptian officials
Twenty more aid trucks crossed the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border on Tuesday and are now headed to the Israel-Egypt Nitzana Border Crossing for inspection, according to Egyptian officials.
It is not clear if the trucks have reached Gaza yet, where humanitarian conditions are worsening by the day, but these new trucks will bring the total to 74 aid trucks crossing through over the last four days.
The Rafah border crossing was shut on Oct. 10 after it was hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times on Oct. 9 and 10.
The crossing has briefly opened each day since Saturday, permitting a small amount of aid to enter Gaza.
Asked by a reporter if humanitarian aid is getting to Gaza fast enough, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, “Not fast enough.”
Oct 24, 1:26 PM EDT
Israeli, Palestinian Authority foreign ministers speak out at UN Security Council meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, gave long, impassioned speeches at the United Nations Security Council meeting about the suffering their people are experiencing.
Cohen began by holding up photographs of the Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas, reading out their names and ages.
“They are just a few the many children and babies that have not seen evil. They have not caused evil. But they are victims of evil,” he said.
Cohen described Hamas as “the new Nazis” and said Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel should serve as “a wakeup call against extremism.”
Al-Maliki purported that Israel’s retaliation had equated to “ongoing massacres being deliberately, systematically, and savagely” perpetrated against Palestinians civilians.
“The Security Council has a duty to stop them,” he said. “It is our collective human duty to stop them now.”
He suggested that Israel’s campaign would ultimately lead to more conflict, saying “more injustice and more killing will not make Israel safer.”
The foreign minister argued that everyone on the council should be united behind one goal.
“We should be on the same side — all of us who believe in justice and peace,” he said. “We should stand shoulder to shoulder in these moments. But that is only possible if everyone recognizes the value of Palestinian life — the need to uphold Palestinian rights.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 1:17 PM EDT
Blinken backs Israel but says ‘humanitarian pauses must be considered’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s military actions at the United Nations Security Council, but Blinken said “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza — the administration’s strongest statement of a support for any type of halt in Israel’s efforts to vanquish Hamas.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such heart from repeating itself. No member of this council, no nation in this entire body. could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
The secretary said every member of the U.N. has a “responsibility to denounce the member states that arm, fund and train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts,” reminding them that many other foreign nationals were also killed and kidnapped in its attacks.”
Blinken then turned to ongoing efforts to protect civilian lives, first emphasizing that Hamas is responsible for putting the innocent in harm’s way, before shifting to Israel’s responsibilities.
“Hamas must cease using them as human shields,” he said. “Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. It means means food, medicine and water and other assistance must flow into Gaza and to the areas people need them. It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
Previously, the State Department and other U.S. officials flatly rejected calls for any kind of ceasefir, arguing, as State Department spokesperson Matt Miller did Monday, that it would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue watching terrorist attacks against Israel.”
In his remarks, Blinken also detailed the administration’s efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East, but emphasized the threat posed by Iran and promised the U.S. would not allow attacks on Americans to go unanswered.
“We do not want this war to widen, but if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake — we will defend our people, we will defend our security–swiftly and decisively,” he vowed.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 11:54 AM EDT
784 slain in Israel identified, Israeli police say
The Israeli police said they’ve identified at least 784 people killed by Hamas.
Police said some bodies were in such bad condition that they have not yet been identified.
At least 1,400 people have died and 4,629 others have been injured in Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Oct 24, 11:35 AM EDT
US sends 3-star Marine general to advise Israel
The Biden administration has sent Lt. Gen. James Glynn, a three-star Marine general who is currently serving as the head of Marine personnel, to Israel to advise the country on its military operations, according to a U.S. official.
The news was first reported by Axios on Monday.
Glynn is “not directing operations” but rather is “purely there to provide military advice and pose hard questions to help [the Israel Defense Forces] think through various scenarios,” the U.S. official told ABC News.
The official said Glynn was in Israel “temporarily” and was not expected to still be there when a ground operation starts.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Oct 24, 11:30 AM EDT
Fuel ‘most vital commodity’ in Gaza, WHO says
Fuel is now the “most vital commodity” in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
The limited aid trucks trickling into Gaza have not included any fuel, the organization said. Before Oct. 7, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza every day, including about 45 trucks bringing fuel, said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.
Without fuel, “trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Alrifai.
Alrifai said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency would be responsible for delivering the fuel to hospitals and water desalination plants and keeping it out of Hamas’ hands.
The WHO said one in three hospitals in Gaza and two in three clinics are not functioning, with the health system overwhelmed by more than 16,000 injured people.
Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, said he’s begging “all those in a situation to make a decision or influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe.”
Oct 24, 11:03 AM EDT
Underground hospital prepares to treat wounded IDF soldiers
In just two weeks, the space below Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.
Rows of hospital beds and medical equipment have been set up in what was meant to be used as a parking garage.
“We have up to 130 beds here, including intensive care beds,” Dr. Tamar Elram, director of the Hadassha Mount Scopus Hospital, told ABC News. “Everything that we do here is in total cooperation and agreement with the army and with police and all the other security forces.”
The hospital has also been treating civilian victims, like Michal Alon, who was shot in the hand and chest by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and is now embarking on the long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally.
Israeli hospital prepares for war casualties
“We’ve already got soldiers and civilians who are turning to our ERs, two and a half weeks after the terror attack, starting to suffer from acute post-traumatic syndrome,” Elram said.
Elram says one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced in preparing for what’s to come includes manpower. Some staffers are leaving the hospital to go serve in the Israeli military.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Ines De La Cuetara
Oct 24, 9:07 AM EDT
Hostages influencing Israeli military’s operational plans, spokesperson says
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner confirmed that hostages are influencing the plans of Israel’s forces.
“Of course the presence of the hostages is at the top of our priority list,” Lerner told ABC News. “It is obviously influencing our operational capabilities, operational plans.”
Lerner said that while the military has been given the “green light” to go into Gaza, they have not officially been given the command to “go” from the government.
Asked if the window for an operation into Gaza will close, Lerner responded, “There is no choice for Israel.”
Learner also said Israeli forces are actively trying to assassinate Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahye Sinwar, but they haven’t found him yet.
As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.
“Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza — they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals,” he said.
Oct 24, 8:29 AM EDT
Parents describe watching video of Hamas taking son hostage
The father of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas at the Supernova music festival, said he has gained some “strength” from seeing a video of his son on the day of the attack.
“No parent should ever be subjected to this sight,” Jon Polin said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday.
Polin and Rachel Goldberg’s son was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack. He had been hiding with a group in a bomb shelter and witnesses saw him being loaded into the back of a Hamas pickup truck, his parents told ABC News earlier this month.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents said on Tuesday they have since seen a video in which their son leaves the bomb shelter.
“Knowing he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre and he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck and uses his weak hand, his only hand now, to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed,” Polin said. “It gives me a sense of, he’s got a perseverance and fortitude that we hope carries him through this.”
Oct 24, 8:25 AM EDT
Gaza hospitals as ‘dire as it can be’
Hospitals in Gaza are “horrific scenes,” filled with killed and injured children and “medical staff working 24/7 with almost nothing in terms of resources and equipment,” said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Seventy-percent of the victims are children, women and the elderly, according to the health ministry.
The ministry said 12 hospitals and 32 health centers are out of service, with those numbers expected to rise as airstrikes continue and Gaza runs out of fuel.
“It’s dire as it can be. The scenes inside the hospital are almost indescribable — one of our doctors recently had to do an operation on the floor, in the corridor of the hospital, because there was nowhere to do it. The situation is untenable, absolutely horrific,” al-Qudra said.
Oct 24, 6:52 AM EDT
‘Through hell,’ released Hamas hostage says of days in captivity
After Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, was taken hostage by Hamas militants, she was brought into a “huge network” of underground tunnels, which she described on Tuesday as being “like a spider’s web.”
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifschitz told gathered reporters in the lobby of the Tel Aviv hospital where she’s being treated.
As Lifschitz spoke in Hebrew, her daughter translated her words into English.
The 85-year-old had been taken by motorcycle on Oct. 7, carried away through fields while her captors struck her with sticks and removed her watch and jewellery, she said. She was made to walk a few kilometers to the entrance of one of the many tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
She said she was kept during her captivity in a “clean” location, where doctors visited every few days. Medicine was available, she said.
She slept on a mattress on one of the tunnel’s floors. She ate white cheese, cucumbers and pita bread, she said.
Oct 24, 1:06 AM EDT
Three Hamas deputy commanders killed: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday morning that three Hamas deputy commanders were killed Monday night.
“During the night, IDF aircraft also attacked operational headquarters used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas and assembly points of the terrorist organization located inside mosques,” the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The deputy commander of the Nusirat battalion, the deputy commander of the Shati battalion and the deputy commander of the Alfurkan battalion of Hamas were killed, the IDF said in the post.
Oct 23, 10:27 PM EDT
Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages’ release, humanitarian assistance for Gaza
President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, once again addressing his commitment to efforts to “secure the release of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas – including Americans – and to provide for safe passage for U.S. citizens and other civilians in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call. Biden welcomed the news of the two hostages who were released earlier on Monday, per the readout.
During the call, Biden also “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” according to the readout.
Biden also spoke with Netanyahu about U.S. support for Israel and what the White House said was “ongoing efforts at regional deterrence, to include new U.S. military deployments.”
Oct 23, 6:06 PM EDT
Kirby warns of uptick in Iran-linked attacks
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that in recent days there had been “an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups against military bases housing U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
“We know Iran continues to support Hamas and Hezbollah, and we know Iran is closely monitoring these events and in some cases, actively facilitating attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit for their own good, or for that of Iran,” Kirby said.
Kirby said Iran tries to “maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that.”
He added that there is still no direct evidence that Iran was involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 25, 12:52 PM EDT
Gaza shelters 4 times over their capacities: UNRWA
Shelters in Gaza are four times over their capacities, forcing many people to sleep in the streets, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Nearly 600,000 displaced Gaza residents are sheltering at 150 UNRWA facilities, the agency said.
Oct 25, 12:41 PM EDT
Tuesday marks deadliest day in Gaza since conflict began
Tuesday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 700 people died on Tuesday, OCHA said.
Over 6,500 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Oct 25, 11:40 AM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip” Wednesday night, UNRWA said.
Oct 25, 11:29 AM EDT
UN secretary-general responds to Israeli ambassador’s criticism
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is responding to the Israeli ambassador’s call for him to resign, saying it’s false to accuse him of “justifying” Hamas’ attacks.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres asserted that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” sparking immediate backlash from Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan.
“The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner,” Erdan said. “His statement that, ‘The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,’ expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”
Experts breakdown Israel-Hamas conflict
“It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views,” Erdan said.
Guterres said at the U.N. Wednesday, “I am shocked by the misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite. In the beginning of my intervention yesterday, I clearly stated — and I quote: ‘I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.'”
“Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people,” Guterres continued. “And in doing so, I also clearly stated, and I quote: ‘But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.'”
Oct 25, 11:10 AM EDT
Gaza hospital ‘will turn into a big morgue,’ doctor warns
In Gaza, where the “health system is collapsing,” doctors “cannot offer much” to their hundreds of severely wounded patients, Dr. Mohammed Ghandil from Gaza’s Nasser Hospital told ABC News.
“The hospital door is open, but the health care is not provided,” Ghandil said.
“We are just giving some peaceful words for them to die,” he said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that one-third of hospitals in Gaza and two-thirds of clinics were not functioning.
More than 17,000 people in Gaza have been wounded since Oct. 7.
“Even the medical patient [who] was not wounded, who came with heart attack, with stroke, with sepsis, we’re just sending them home because there is no bed in the hospital,” he said. “The hospital corridors, the hospital backyards, the hospital balcony are fully, fully packed with the severely wounded.”
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If the fuel is zero,” Ghandil said, “the doctors and the nurses will go home and the hospital will turn to a big morgue.”
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
Oct 25, 10:31 AM EDT
‘Some progress’ in hostage negations, Qatar says
“Some progress” has been made as Qatar continues its hostage negotiations with Hamas, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at a news conference.
“If we compare where we started and where we are right now, there is some progress and some breakthrough and we will remain hopeful,” he said. “The negotiations are still ongoing and at any moment of time, I think that if we will be able to get along between the two parties, I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon.”
Israel reported that 222 hostages were taken by Hamas. Four hostages have been released in the last week: two American women and two Israeli women.
Oct 25, 10:01 AM EDT
UN meeting Thursday to debate Israel-Hamas war
The United Nations General Assembly will be called back into an emergency special session in New York on Thursday morning to debate the Israel-Hamas war.
The general assembly could vote on moves, including a humanitarian pause in Gaza and the establishment of an international protective presence in Gaza.
Oct 25, 5:35 AM EDT
IDF says it targeted Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian military in ‘wide-scale strikes’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that it has carried out “wide-scale strikes” in the neighboring Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
The Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, military headquarters and weapons warehouses, as well as “several terrorists,” including a Hamas commander, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it also killed five Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon who tried to launch missiles and rockets against Israeli forces in the last day.
Two rockets were fired into Israel from neighboring Syria and the IDF said it responded by attacking infrastructure and positions of the Syrian military.
Oct 24, 7:28 PM EDT
US intelligence assess ‘with high confidence’ that Israel was not responsible for Gaza hospital explosion
An official with the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence told reporters Tuesday that the office has updated its assessment of last week’s explosion of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds, and stated “with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.”
The official added, “We assess with low confidence that Palestine Islamic Jihad, PIJ, was responsible for launching the rocket that landed on the hospital,” the official added, noting that they suspect based on their analysis that the rocket responsible likely suffered a “catastrophic motor failure.”
The intelligence official said they were drawing on “intelligence, missile activity, open-source video and images of the incident,” including an examination of the blast effects.
“If an Israeli munition was responsible for this blast, we would expect that Palestinian militants would be very directly and clearly showing what they thought was an Israeli munition,” the official said. “We’ve looked at all of the images and in none of them do we assess that there are remnants, Israeli munitions.”
Oct 24, 5:45 PM EDT
US engaging in ongoing talks to release a number of hostages: Source
Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and regional partners, including Israel, Egypt, and Qatar to secure the release of a large number of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, a source with knowledge told ABC News.
The U.S. is still advising for a delay to have more time for the hostages to be released and for aid to get out, but does not want to appear to be dictating what to do to the Israelis, according to the source.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 4:12 PM EDT
Blinken updates number of Americans killed
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that 33 Americans were confirmed dead after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 3:39 PM EDT
How the ‘law of war’ could apply to an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
With Israel appearing to be on the cusp of a ground invasion into Gaza, President Joe Biden and other world leaders this week said the Jewish state has the right to defend itself against the recent brutal attacks by Hamas.
At the same time, they warned, Israel must abide by the “law of war” in protecting innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
But with the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands more Palestinian civilians killed, can Israel do both? And could either Israel or Hamas be prosecuted for war crimes?
Click here to read what you need to know about international humanitarian laws and how they apply in the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Oct 24, 3:28 PM EDT
Kirby: Israel needs to ‘consider possibility of humanitarian pause’
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday a “ceasefire right now really only benefits Hamas.”
When asked if the U.S. has set or discussed any red lines with the Israelis, he said simply, “No.”
But when pressed to elaborate on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that “humanitarian pauses must be considered,” he said, “pauses in operation is a tool and a tactic” that can protect civilians for temporary periods of time.
Later when asked, Kirby said Blinken talked about the need to “consider the possibility of a humanitarian pause, to allow aid to get in — and get in unfettered — and to allow for the safe movement of people out.”
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 2:12 PM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” the agency said.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said, “We know for sure that there’s plenty of fuel in Gaza. Hamas has stored fuel in advance, and is stealing fuel from both civilians and the U.N. to power its war machine against Israel.”
Oct 24, 1:45 PM EDT
20 more aid trucks cross Rafah: Egyptian officials
Twenty more aid trucks crossed the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border on Tuesday and are now headed to the Israel-Egypt Nitzana Border Crossing for inspection, according to Egyptian officials.
It is not clear if the trucks have reached Gaza yet, where humanitarian conditions are worsening by the day, but these new trucks will bring the total to 74 aid trucks crossing through over the last four days.
The Rafah border crossing was shut on Oct. 10 after it was hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times on Oct. 9 and 10.
The crossing has briefly opened each day since Saturday, permitting a small amount of aid to enter Gaza.
Asked by a reporter if humanitarian aid is getting to Gaza fast enough, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, “Not fast enough.”
Oct 24, 1:26 PM EDT
Israeli, Palestinian Authority foreign ministers speak out at UN Security Council meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, gave long, impassioned speeches at the United Nations Security Council meeting about the suffering their people are experiencing.
Cohen began by holding up photographs of the Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas, reading out their names and ages.
“They are just a few the many children and babies that have not seen evil. They have not caused evil. But they are victims of evil,” he said.
Cohen described Hamas as “the new Nazis” and said Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel should serve as “a wakeup call against extremism.”
Al-Maliki purported that Israel’s retaliation had equated to “ongoing massacres being deliberately, systematically, and savagely” perpetrated against Palestinians civilians.
“The Security Council has a duty to stop them,” he said. “It is our collective human duty to stop them now.”
He suggested that Israel’s campaign would ultimately lead to more conflict, saying “more injustice and more killing will not make Israel safer.”
The foreign minister argued that everyone on the council should be united behind one goal.
“We should be on the same side — all of us who believe in justice and peace,” he said. “We should stand shoulder to shoulder in these moments. But that is only possible if everyone recognizes the value of Palestinian life — the need to uphold Palestinian rights.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 1:17 PM EDT
Blinken backs Israel but says ‘humanitarian pauses must be considered’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s military actions at the United Nations Security Council, but Blinken said “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza — the administration’s strongest statement of a support for any type of halt in Israel’s efforts to vanquish Hamas.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such heart from repeating itself. No member of this council, no nation in this entire body. could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
The secretary said every member of the U.N. has a “responsibility to denounce the member states that arm, fund and train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts,” reminding them that many other foreign nationals were also killed and kidnapped in its attacks.”
Blinken then turned to ongoing efforts to protect civilian lives, first emphasizing that Hamas is responsible for putting the innocent in harm’s way, before shifting to Israel’s responsibilities.
“Hamas must cease using them as human shields,” he said. “Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. It means means food, medicine and water and other assistance must flow into Gaza and to the areas people need them. It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
Previously, the State Department and other U.S. officials flatly rejected calls for any kind of ceasefir, arguing, as State Department spokesperson Matt Miller did Monday, that it would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue watching terrorist attacks against Israel.”
In his remarks, Blinken also detailed the administration’s efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East, but emphasized the threat posed by Iran and promised the U.S. would not allow attacks on Americans to go unanswered.
“We do not want this war to widen, but if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake — we will defend our people, we will defend our security–swiftly and decisively,” he vowed.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 11:54 AM EDT
784 slain in Israel identified, Israeli police say
The Israeli police said they’ve identified at least 784 people killed by Hamas.
Police said some bodies were in such bad condition that they have not yet been identified.
At least 1,400 people have died and 4,629 others have been injured in Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Oct 24, 11:35 AM EDT
US sends 3-star Marine general to advise Israel
The Biden administration has sent Lt. Gen. James Glynn, a three-star Marine general who is currently serving as the head of Marine personnel, to Israel to advise the country on its military operations, according to a U.S. official.
The news was first reported by Axios on Monday.
Glynn is “not directing operations” but rather is “purely there to provide military advice and pose hard questions to help [the Israel Defense Forces] think through various scenarios,” the U.S. official told ABC News.
The official said Glynn was in Israel “temporarily” and was not expected to still be there when a ground operation starts.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Oct 24, 11:30 AM EDT
Fuel ‘most vital commodity’ in Gaza, WHO says
Fuel is now the “most vital commodity” in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
The limited aid trucks trickling into Gaza have not included any fuel, the organization said. Before Oct. 7, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza every day, including about 45 trucks bringing fuel, said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.
Without fuel, “trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Alrifai.
Alrifai said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency would be responsible for delivering the fuel to hospitals and water desalination plants and keeping it out of Hamas’ hands.
The WHO said one in three hospitals in Gaza and two in three clinics are not functioning, with the health system overwhelmed by more than 16,000 injured people.
Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, said he’s begging “all those in a situation to make a decision or influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe.”
Oct 24, 11:03 AM EDT
Underground hospital prepares to treat wounded IDF soldiers
In just two weeks, the space below Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.
Rows of hospital beds and medical equipment have been set up in what was meant to be used as a parking garage.
“We have up to 130 beds here, including intensive care beds,” Dr. Tamar Elram, director of the Hadassha Mount Scopus Hospital, told ABC News. “Everything that we do here is in total cooperation and agreement with the army and with police and all the other security forces.”
The hospital has also been treating civilian victims, like Michal Alon, who was shot in the hand and chest by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and is now embarking on the long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally.
Israeli hospital prepares for war casualties
“We’ve already got soldiers and civilians who are turning to our ERs, two and a half weeks after the terror attack, starting to suffer from acute post-traumatic syndrome,” Elram said.
Elram says one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced in preparing for what’s to come includes manpower. Some staffers are leaving the hospital to go serve in the Israeli military.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Ines De La Cuetara
Oct 24, 9:07 AM EDT
Hostages influencing Israeli military’s operational plans, spokesperson says
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner confirmed that hostages are influencing the plans of Israel’s forces.
“Of course the presence of the hostages is at the top of our priority list,” Lerner told ABC News. “It is obviously influencing our operational capabilities, operational plans.”
Lerner said that while the military has been given the “green light” to go into Gaza, they have not officially been given the command to “go” from the government.
Asked if the window for an operation into Gaza will close, Lerner responded, “There is no choice for Israel.”
Learner also said Israeli forces are actively trying to assassinate Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahye Sinwar, but they haven’t found him yet.
As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.
“Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza — they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals,” he said.
Oct 24, 8:29 AM EDT
Parents describe watching video of Hamas taking son hostage
The father of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas at the Supernova music festival, said he has gained some “strength” from seeing a video of his son on the day of the attack.
“No parent should ever be subjected to this sight,” Jon Polin said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday.
Polin and Rachel Goldberg’s son was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack. He had been hiding with a group in a bomb shelter and witnesses saw him being loaded into the back of a Hamas pickup truck, his parents told ABC News earlier this month.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents said on Tuesday they have since seen a video in which their son leaves the bomb shelter.
“Knowing he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre and he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck and uses his weak hand, his only hand now, to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed,” Polin said. “It gives me a sense of, he’s got a perseverance and fortitude that we hope carries him through this.”
Oct 24, 8:25 AM EDT
Gaza hospitals as ‘dire as it can be’
Hospitals in Gaza are “horrific scenes,” filled with killed and injured children and “medical staff working 24/7 with almost nothing in terms of resources and equipment,” said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Seventy-percent of the victims are children, women and the elderly, according to the health ministry.
The ministry said 12 hospitals and 32 health centers are out of service, with those numbers expected to rise as airstrikes continue and Gaza runs out of fuel.
“It’s dire as it can be. The scenes inside the hospital are almost indescribable — one of our doctors recently had to do an operation on the floor, in the corridor of the hospital, because there was nowhere to do it. The situation is untenable, absolutely horrific,” al-Qudra said.
Oct 24, 6:52 AM EDT
‘Through hell,’ released Hamas hostage says of days in captivity
After Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, was taken hostage by Hamas militants, she was brought into a “huge network” of underground tunnels, which she described on Tuesday as being “like a spider’s web.”
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifschitz told gathered reporters in the lobby of the Tel Aviv hospital where she’s being treated.
As Lifschitz spoke in Hebrew, her daughter translated her words into English.
The 85-year-old had been taken by motorcycle on Oct. 7, carried away through fields while her captors struck her with sticks and removed her watch and jewellery, she said. She was made to walk a few kilometers to the entrance of one of the many tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
She said she was kept during her captivity in a “clean” location, where doctors visited every few days. Medicine was available, she said.
She slept on a mattress on one of the tunnel’s floors. She ate white cheese, cucumbers and pita bread, she said.
Oct 24, 1:06 AM EDT
Three Hamas deputy commanders killed: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday morning that three Hamas deputy commanders were killed Monday night.
“During the night, IDF aircraft also attacked operational headquarters used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas and assembly points of the terrorist organization located inside mosques,” the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The deputy commander of the Nusirat battalion, the deputy commander of the Shati battalion and the deputy commander of the Alfurkan battalion of Hamas were killed, the IDF said in the post.
Oct 23, 10:27 PM EDT
Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages’ release, humanitarian assistance for Gaza
President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, once again addressing his commitment to efforts to “secure the release of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas – including Americans – and to provide for safe passage for U.S. citizens and other civilians in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call. Biden welcomed the news of the two hostages who were released earlier on Monday, per the readout.
During the call, Biden also “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” according to the readout.
Biden also spoke with Netanyahu about U.S. support for Israel and what the White House said was “ongoing efforts at regional deterrence, to include new U.S. military deployments.”
Oct 23, 6:06 PM EDT
Kirby warns of uptick in Iran-linked attacks
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that in recent days there had been “an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups against military bases housing U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
“We know Iran continues to support Hamas and Hezbollah, and we know Iran is closely monitoring these events and in some cases, actively facilitating attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit for their own good, or for that of Iran,” Kirby said.
Kirby said Iran tries to “maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that.”
He added that there is still no direct evidence that Iran was involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 25, 5:35 AM EDT
IDF says it targeted Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian military in ‘wide-scale strikes’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that it has carried out “wide-scale strikes” in the neighboring Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
The Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, military headquarters and weapons warehouses, as well as “several terrorists,” including a Hamas commander, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it also killed five Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon who tried to launch missiles and rockets against Israeli forces in the last day.
Two rockets were fired into Israel from neighboring Syria and the IDF said it responded by attacking infrastructure and positions of the Syrian military.
Oct 24, 7:28 PM EDT
US intelligence assess ‘with high confidence’ that Israel was not responsible for Gaza hospital explosion
An official with the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence told reporters Tuesday that the office has updated its assessment of last week’s explosion of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds, and stated “with high confidence that Israel was not responsible for the explosion.”
The official added, “We assess with low confidence that Palestine Islamic Jihad, PIJ, was responsible for launching the rocket that landed on the hospital,” the official added, noting that they suspect based on their analysis that the rocket responsible likely suffered a “catastrophic motor failure.”
The intelligence official said they were drawing on “intelligence, missile activity, open-source video and images of the incident,” including an examination of the blast effects.
“If an Israeli munition was responsible for this blast, we would expect that Palestinian militants would be very directly and clearly showing what they thought was an Israeli munition,” the official said. “We’ve looked at all of the images and in none of them do we assess that there are remnants, Israeli munitions.”
Oct 24, 5:45 PM EDT
US engaging in ongoing talks to release a number of hostages: Source
Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and regional partners, including Israel, Egypt, and Qatar to secure the release of a large number of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, a source with knowledge told ABC News.
The U.S. is still advising for a delay to have more time for the hostages to be released and for aid to get out, but does not want to appear to be dictating what to do to the Israelis, according to the source.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 4:12 PM EDT
Blinken updates number of Americans killed
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that 33 Americans were confirmed dead after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 3:39 PM EDT
How the ‘law of war’ could apply to an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
With Israel appearing to be on the cusp of a ground invasion into Gaza, President Joe Biden and other world leaders this week said the Jewish state has the right to defend itself against the recent brutal attacks by Hamas.
At the same time, they warned, Israel must abide by the “law of war” in protecting innocent Palestinians living in Gaza.
But with the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands more Palestinian civilians killed, can Israel do both? And could either Israel or Hamas be prosecuted for war crimes?
Click here to read what you need to know about international humanitarian laws and how they apply in the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Oct 24, 3:28 PM EDT
Kirby: Israel needs to ‘consider possibility of humanitarian pause’
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday a “ceasefire right now really only benefits Hamas.”
When asked if the U.S. has set or discussed any red lines with the Israelis, he said simply, “No.”
But when pressed to elaborate on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that “humanitarian pauses must be considered,” he said, “pauses in operation is a tool and a tactic” that can protect civilians for temporary periods of time.
Later when asked, Kirby said Blinken talked about the need to “consider the possibility of a humanitarian pause, to allow aid to get in — and get in unfettered — and to allow for the safe movement of people out.”
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Oct 24, 2:12 PM EDT
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip as of tomorrow night,” the agency said.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said, “We know for sure that there’s plenty of fuel in Gaza. Hamas has stored fuel in advance, and is stealing fuel from both civilians and the U.N. to power its war machine against Israel.”
Oct 24, 1:45 PM EDT
20 more aid trucks cross Rafah: Egyptian officials
Twenty more aid trucks crossed the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border on Tuesday and are now headed to the Israel-Egypt Nitzana Border Crossing for inspection, according to Egyptian officials.
It is not clear if the trucks have reached Gaza yet, where humanitarian conditions are worsening by the day, but these new trucks will bring the total to 74 aid trucks crossing through over the last four days.
The Rafah border crossing was shut on Oct. 10 after it was hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times on Oct. 9 and 10.
The crossing has briefly opened each day since Saturday, permitting a small amount of aid to enter Gaza.
Asked by a reporter if humanitarian aid is getting to Gaza fast enough, President Joe Biden said Tuesday, “Not fast enough.”
Oct 24, 1:26 PM EDT
Israeli, Palestinian Authority foreign ministers speak out at UN Security Council meeting
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, gave long, impassioned speeches at the United Nations Security Council meeting about the suffering their people are experiencing.
Cohen began by holding up photographs of the Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas, reading out their names and ages.
“They are just a few the many children and babies that have not seen evil. They have not caused evil. But they are victims of evil,” he said.
Cohen described Hamas as “the new Nazis” and said Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel should serve as “a wakeup call against extremism.”
Al-Maliki purported that Israel’s retaliation had equated to “ongoing massacres being deliberately, systematically, and savagely” perpetrated against Palestinians civilians.
“The Security Council has a duty to stop them,” he said. “It is our collective human duty to stop them now.”
He suggested that Israel’s campaign would ultimately lead to more conflict, saying “more injustice and more killing will not make Israel safer.”
The foreign minister argued that everyone on the council should be united behind one goal.
“We should be on the same side — all of us who believe in justice and peace,” he said. “We should stand shoulder to shoulder in these moments. But that is only possible if everyone recognizes the value of Palestinian life — the need to uphold Palestinian rights.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 1:17 PM EDT
Blinken backs Israel but says ‘humanitarian pauses must be considered’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a forceful defense of Israel’s military actions at the United Nations Security Council, but Blinken said “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to protect civilians in Gaza — the administration’s strongest statement of a support for any type of halt in Israel’s efforts to vanquish Hamas.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such heart from repeating itself. No member of this council, no nation in this entire body. could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
The secretary said every member of the U.N. has a “responsibility to denounce the member states that arm, fund and train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts,” reminding them that many other foreign nationals were also killed and kidnapped in its attacks.”
Blinken then turned to ongoing efforts to protect civilian lives, first emphasizing that Hamas is responsible for putting the innocent in harm’s way, before shifting to Israel’s responsibilities.
“Hamas must cease using them as human shields,” he said. “Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. It means means food, medicine and water and other assistance must flow into Gaza and to the areas people need them. It means civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
Previously, the State Department and other U.S. officials flatly rejected calls for any kind of ceasefir, arguing, as State Department spokesperson Matt Miller did Monday, that it would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit and to get ready to continue watching terrorist attacks against Israel.”
In his remarks, Blinken also detailed the administration’s efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East, but emphasized the threat posed by Iran and promised the U.S. would not allow attacks on Americans to go unanswered.
“We do not want this war to widen, but if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake — we will defend our people, we will defend our security–swiftly and decisively,” he vowed.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Oct 24, 11:54 AM EDT
784 slain in Israel identified, Israeli police say
The Israeli police said they’ve identified at least 784 people killed by Hamas.
Police said some bodies were in such bad condition that they have not yet been identified.
At least 1,400 people have died and 4,629 others have been injured in Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Oct 24, 11:35 AM EDT
US sends 3-star Marine general to advise Israel
The Biden administration has sent Lt. Gen. James Glynn, a three-star Marine general who is currently serving as the head of Marine personnel, to Israel to advise the country on its military operations, according to a U.S. official.
The news was first reported by Axios on Monday.
Glynn is “not directing operations” but rather is “purely there to provide military advice and pose hard questions to help [the Israel Defense Forces] think through various scenarios,” the U.S. official told ABC News.
The official said Glynn was in Israel “temporarily” and was not expected to still be there when a ground operation starts.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Oct 24, 11:30 AM EDT
Fuel ‘most vital commodity’ in Gaza, WHO says
Fuel is now the “most vital commodity” in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
The limited aid trucks trickling into Gaza have not included any fuel, the organization said. Before Oct. 7, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza every day, including about 45 trucks bringing fuel, said Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees.
Without fuel, “trucks can’t move and generators can’t produce electricity for hospitals, bakeries and water desalination plants,” said Alrifai.
Alrifai said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency would be responsible for delivering the fuel to hospitals and water desalination plants and keeping it out of Hamas’ hands.
The WHO said one in three hospitals in Gaza and two in three clinics are not functioning, with the health system overwhelmed by more than 16,000 injured people.
Dr. Rick Brennan, WHO emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, said he’s begging “all those in a situation to make a decision or influence decision makers, to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe.”
Oct 24, 11:03 AM EDT
Underground hospital prepares to treat wounded IDF soldiers
In just two weeks, the space below Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital has been converted into an underground hospital, bracing for an influx of war casualties.
Rows of hospital beds and medical equipment have been set up in what was meant to be used as a parking garage.
“We have up to 130 beds here, including intensive care beds,” Dr. Tamar Elram, director of the Hadassha Mount Scopus Hospital, told ABC News. “Everything that we do here is in total cooperation and agreement with the army and with police and all the other security forces.”
The hospital has also been treating civilian victims, like Michal Alon, who was shot in the hand and chest by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and is now embarking on the long road to recovery, both physically and emotionally.
Israeli hospital prepares for war casualties
“We’ve already got soldiers and civilians who are turning to our ERs, two and a half weeks after the terror attack, starting to suffer from acute post-traumatic syndrome,” Elram said.
Elram says one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced in preparing for what’s to come includes manpower. Some staffers are leaving the hospital to go serve in the Israeli military.
ABC News’ Guy Davies and Ines De La Cuetara
Oct 24, 9:07 AM EDT
Hostages influencing Israeli military’s operational plans, spokesperson says
Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner confirmed that hostages are influencing the plans of Israel’s forces.
“Of course the presence of the hostages is at the top of our priority list,” Lerner told ABC News. “It is obviously influencing our operational capabilities, operational plans.”
Lerner said that while the military has been given the “green light” to go into Gaza, they have not officially been given the command to “go” from the government.
Asked if the window for an operation into Gaza will close, Lerner responded, “There is no choice for Israel.”
Learner also said Israeli forces are actively trying to assassinate Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahye Sinwar, but they haven’t found him yet.
As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.
“Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza — they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals,” he said.
Oct 24, 8:29 AM EDT
Parents describe watching video of Hamas taking son hostage
The father of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas at the Supernova music festival, said he has gained some “strength” from seeing a video of his son on the day of the attack.
“No parent should ever be subjected to this sight,” Jon Polin said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday.
Polin and Rachel Goldberg’s son was wounded in the Oct. 7 attack. He had been hiding with a group in a bomb shelter and witnesses saw him being loaded into the back of a Hamas pickup truck, his parents told ABC News earlier this month.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents said on Tuesday they have since seen a video in which their son leaves the bomb shelter.
“Knowing he spent an hour to an hour and a half being subjected to this massacre and he then gets up with an arm freshly blown off and walks on his own two feet, under his own strength, towards this truck and uses his weak hand, his only hand now, to pull himself onto the truck while bloodied, but looking sort of composed,” Polin said. “It gives me a sense of, he’s got a perseverance and fortitude that we hope carries him through this.”
Oct 24, 8:25 AM EDT
Gaza hospitals as ‘dire as it can be’
Hospitals in Gaza are “horrific scenes,” filled with killed and injured children and “medical staff working 24/7 with almost nothing in terms of resources and equipment,” said Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Seventy-percent of the victims are children, women and the elderly, according to the health ministry.
The ministry said 12 hospitals and 32 health centers are out of service, with those numbers expected to rise as airstrikes continue and Gaza runs out of fuel.
“It’s dire as it can be. The scenes inside the hospital are almost indescribable — one of our doctors recently had to do an operation on the floor, in the corridor of the hospital, because there was nowhere to do it. The situation is untenable, absolutely horrific,” al-Qudra said.
Oct 24, 6:52 AM EDT
‘Through hell,’ released Hamas hostage says of days in captivity
After Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, was taken hostage by Hamas militants, she was brought into a “huge network” of underground tunnels, which she described on Tuesday as being “like a spider’s web.”
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifschitz told gathered reporters in the lobby of the Tel Aviv hospital where she’s being treated.
As Lifschitz spoke in Hebrew, her daughter translated her words into English.
The 85-year-old had been taken by motorcycle on Oct. 7, carried away through fields while her captors struck her with sticks and removed her watch and jewellery, she said. She was made to walk a few kilometers to the entrance of one of the many tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
She said she was kept during her captivity in a “clean” location, where doctors visited every few days. Medicine was available, she said.
She slept on a mattress on one of the tunnel’s floors. She ate white cheese, cucumbers and pita bread, she said.
Oct 24, 1:06 AM EDT
Three Hamas deputy commanders killed: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday morning that three Hamas deputy commanders were killed Monday night.
“During the night, IDF aircraft also attacked operational headquarters used by operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas and assembly points of the terrorist organization located inside mosques,” the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The deputy commander of the Nusirat battalion, the deputy commander of the Shati battalion and the deputy commander of the Alfurkan battalion of Hamas were killed, the IDF said in the post.
Oct 23, 10:27 PM EDT
Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages’ release, humanitarian assistance for Gaza
President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, once again addressing his commitment to efforts to “secure the release of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas – including Americans – and to provide for safe passage for U.S. citizens and other civilians in Gaza,” according to a White House readout of the call. Biden welcomed the news of the two hostages who were released earlier on Monday, per the readout.
During the call, Biden also “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” according to the readout.
Biden also spoke with Netanyahu about U.S. support for Israel and what the White House said was “ongoing efforts at regional deterrence, to include new U.S. military deployments.”
Oct 23, 6:06 PM EDT
Kirby warns of uptick in Iran-linked attacks
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that in recent days there had been “an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups against military bases housing U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria.”
“We know Iran continues to support Hamas and Hezbollah, and we know Iran is closely monitoring these events and in some cases, actively facilitating attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit for their own good, or for that of Iran,” Kirby said.
Kirby said Iran tries to “maintain some level of deniability here, but we’re not going to allow them to do that.”
He added that there is still no direct evidence that Iran was involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Otis strengthened on Wednesday to a Category 5 storm as it made landfall in Mexico, where it’s likely to bring “catastrophic damage,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane, which had been a tropical storm as of Tuesday morning, rapidly intensified within 24 hours.
Wind speeds approached 165 mph on Wednesday as the storm approached Acapulco, a Mexican resort town, at about 1 a.m. local time, according to a bulletin.
Flash flooding is also possible with up to 20 inches of rain expected through Thursday in areas including Guerrero and the western coastal sections of Oaxaca, officials said.
“This rainfall will produce flash and urban flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm was expected to remain at Category 5 hurricane through landfall before weakening as it moves over “the higher terrain of Mexico,” the center said.
“Otis will likely dissipate over southern Mexico on Wednesday night,” the bulletin said.
(LONDON) — United Nations Humanitarian and Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths has said half-a-year of war has plunged Sudan into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history.”
As battles continue between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, up to 9,000 people have been killed and over 5.6 million people have been displaced both within and outside national borders.
“For six months, civilians – particularly in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan – have known no respite from bloodshed and terror,” Griffiths said. “Horrific reports of rape and sexual violence continue to emerge, and clashes are increasingly taking place along ethnic lines, particularly in Darfur. This cannot go on.”
The U.S. State Department this week said it is “deeply concerned by credible reports” that the Rapid Support Forces have “intensified” shelling around Nyala, South Darfur and Karari Omdurman — a move the State Department says has “deepened” the suffering of the Sudanese people.
Six months on, Sudan’s paramilitary RSF has advanced to Khartoum, seeking to consolidate their reach in the capital with exception of some SAF strongholds. The SAF is reported to have secured bases in Eastern Sudan “headquartered at port Sudan along the Red Sea coast,” according to the United States Institute for Peace.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has called on shelling of civilian neighborhoods to be immediately ceased, saying “There is no acceptable military solution to this conflict – ‘victory’ by either side would exact an intolerable toll on the Sudanese people and their nation.”
Fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15, a culmination of weeks of tensions linked to a planned transition to civilian rule. General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces — once allies who jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 — are now engaged in a vicious power struggle.
But millions have since been caught in the middle as Sudan has now become the “largest internal displacement crisis in the world,” according to the U.N.
“The situation now is the worst-case scenario,” Jon Temin, vice president of policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C., told ABC News in May. “The two generals seem pretty set on fighting it out and seeing who wins, and an incredible number of people are going to suffer along the way.”
But as war rages on in the country, Sudan’s health system is struggling and has been pushed to its breaking point.
“Emergency rooms are congested, and many hospitals have closed completely. In the capital, Khartoum, MSF medical teams are witnessing one of the most intense urban conflicts currently taking place worldwide,” says the MSF. “Large numbers of injured people are arriving at the hospitals with life threatening wounds, often leaving medical staff with no choice but to amputate.”
The MSF announced this week that it has had “no choice” but to suspend surgery in Khartoum’s Bashair Teaching Hospital as military authorities suspend the transport of surgical materials from Wad Madani to south Khartoum.
“Despite repeated engagements with the health authorities since, these critical supplies remain blocked and stocks in the hospital are now depleted,” said Michiel Hofman, MSF’s operations coordinator for Sudan.
In a joint statement, the Federal Ministry of Health and state ministries of health in Sudan, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) warn further disruptions on health services could cost over 10,000 young lives by the end of the year, saying “About 70% of hospitals in conflict-affected states are not functional. WHO has verified 58 attacks on health care to date, with 31 deaths and 38 injuries of health workers and patients.”
Elsewhere, the U.S. has called on warring parties to oblige by their commitments under the Jeddah Declaration of Principles to Protect Civilians, “including by allowing unhindered humanitarian access, protecting civilians and their humanitarian rights, and upholding international humanitarian law,” said Matthew Miller. “It is time for this conflict and the suffering of the Sudanese people to end.”
