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(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.

The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Dec 29, 1:06 PM EST
Hamas leader will not travel to Cairo to discuss potential cease-fire deal

Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said he would not travel to Cairo on Friday to discuss its proposed cease-fire and hostage deal.

“There will be no visit by a Hamas delegation to Cairo today,” Hamdan said.

Another Hamas leader said the terror group would not negotiate while “under fire.”

“Any negotiations on the exchange of prisoners will take place after the cease-fire and the occupation’s withdrawal from Gaza,” Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk said. “We will not negotiate under fire.”

ABC News’ Nasser Atta

Dec 28, 3:44 PM EST
2 security personnel stabbed in Jerusalem

A man armed with a knife stabbed two officers working at the Mazmuria Crossing in southern Jerusalem on Thursday night, according to Israeli police.

The suspect stopped his car near the crossing’s inspection station and then got out and stabbed two security personnel who were on duty, police said.

One of the victims, as well as a border police officer, “confronted the terrorist, neutralizing him with gunfire,” police said.

The victims suffered “light to moderate injuries,” police said.

Dec 28, 3:13 PM EST
Refugee camp to be established in Khan Younis

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it’s working to establish the first organized camp for displaced people in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The camp would initially have 300 tents and later expand to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said.

Dec 28, 3:03 PM EST
Egypt puts forward proposal for new hostage, cease-fire deal

Egypt has put forward a new proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s state information service, said.

The proposal “aims to bring viewpoints closer between all sides involved, in an effort to stop the Palestinian bloodshed, end the aggression against the Gaza Strip and restore peace and stability in the region,” Rashwan said in a statement Thursday.

Egypt said it has not yet received any responses to the proposed framework.

-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy

Dec 28, 2:31 PM EST
American-Israeli-Canadian hostage confirmed dead

Judy Weinstein, a 70-year-old American-Israeli-Canadian hostage, was confirmed dead on Thursday, Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a statement.

Weinstein was fatally wounded during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and her body remains held in Gaza, the kibbutz said.

Her husband, American-Israeli Gad Haggai, was also killed on Oct. 7 and his body also remains in Gaza, the kibbutz said. His death was confirmed last week.

Weinstein, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, was an English teacher who specialized in helping children with special needs, Kibbutz Nir Oz said.

“For the past few years she has also taught Mindfulness to children and teenagers who suffered from anxiety caused by the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza,” the kibbutz said. “‎‏Judy was a poet, entrepreneur, and pursued many initiatives to advance peace in the region.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement that he’s “devastated” to learn of Weinstein’s death.

“We are holding Judith and Gad’s four children, seven grandchildren, and other loved ones close to our hearts,” Biden said. “I will never forget what their daughter, and the family members of other Americans held hostage in Gaza, have shared with me. They have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal. And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home.”

Weinstein was the last American woman being held hostage by Hamas who had not been released, according to the Hostage Families Forum.

Dec 28, 1:58 PM EST
Netanyahu to hostage families: ‘We are not giving up’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the families of hostages on Thursday and promised them, “We are not giving up.”

The families shared their concerns about the conditions of their loved ones and their questions about what will be done to promote their release.

“We are in contact, even at this moment,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the meeting.

“I cannot detail the status,” he said, adding, “We are working to return everyone — that is our goal.”

-ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 28, 1:50 PM EST
IDF publishes findings into investigation of accidental killing of 3 hostages

The Israel Defense Forces has published the findings of its investigation into the accidental killing of three hostages by IDF soldiers in the Shejaiya area of Gaza on Dec. 15.

The IDF Chief of the General Staff concluded that “the IDF failed in its mission to rescue” them and “the entire chain of command feels responsible.”

The three hostages — 28-year-old Yotam Haim, 26-year-old Alon Shamriz and 22-year-old Samer Talalka — were carrying a stick with a white cloth, and the IDF initially said its forces “mistakenly identified” the men as a threat. Soldiers opened fire, killing two of the men.

The third hostage, who was injured, ran back into the building where all three had emerged from, and someone cried “help” in Hebrew. The battalion commander ordered his troops to stop firing, but, despite the order, another burst was fired, killing the third hostage, according to the IDF.

The investigation “revealed that the command ranks had information about the presence of hostages in the Shejaiya area and even took actions to prevent strikes on locations suspected of having hostages inside,” the findings said.

But the probe also revealed that “IDF soldiers involved in the incident experienced complex combat situations in the days preceding the incident and were in a state of high alert for a threat,” the findings said. “During the battles, they encountered deceptions by the enemy and attempts to draw them into pits and buildings rigged with explosives.”

Days before Dec. 15, IDF soldiers heard cries for help in Hebrew.

“The forces interpreted this as a terrorist deception attempt,” the investigation said.

“Some of the forces heard the cries but suspected it was an attempt by the terrorists to draw the forces inside the building to harm them, as had happened in the past,” the investigation said.

-ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 28, 11:01 AM EST
American-Israeli-Canadian hostage confirmed dead

Judy Weinstein, a 70-year-old American-Israeli-Canadian hostage, was confirmed dead on Thursday, Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a statement.

Weinstein was fatally wounded during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and her body remains held in Gaza, the kibbutz said.

Her husband, American-Israeli Gad Haggai, was also killed on Oct. 7 and his body also remains in Gaza, the kibbutz said. His death was confirmed last week.

Weinstein, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, was an English teacher who specialized in helping children with special needs, Kibbutz Nir Oz said.

“For the past few years she has also taught Mindfulness to children and teenagers who suffered from anxiety caused by the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza,” the kibbutz said. “‎‏Judy was a poet, entrepreneur, and pursued many initiatives to advance peace in the region.”

Dec 27, 3:33 PM EST
Israeli forces destroy tunnel near Gaza hospital: IDF

Israeli forces have destroyed an underground tunnel near the Rantisi Hospital in northern Gaza, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a briefing.

The tunnel infrastructure, several kilometers long, “connected different locations in the Strip,” Hagari said. “[Israeli] forces uncovered three tunnel shafts in the area of ​​the hospital, with one of them coming out of a school.”

“The tunnel network included steel doors, command control rooms, emergency rooms, many weapons that were underground and other intelligence materials,” he said.

This comes as Israeli forces “are at a very high level of readiness for the expansion of the war” in northern Gaza, Hagari said.

“We are in the final stages of the attack in the Al Burj area in the northern Gaza Strip, where we killed many terrorists,” he said.

Hagari added that Israel is also “attacking all the infrastructure that Hezbollah has built near the [Lebanon-Israel] border.”

In southern Gaza, Israeli “forces are fighting in several areas,” Hagari said. “One in the area called Al Burj in the central [Gaza] camps, where we are attacking for a third day. The second is in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, a major terror center of Hamas. There we expanded the operation — today we added another division to this area and we continue to operate there with new combat methods above and below the ground.”

Dec 27, 1:54 PM EST
Egyptian president meets with King of Jordan, says ‘international community must push’ for cease-fire

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Egypt on Wednesday and said “the international community must push towards” a cease-fire.

“Both leaders affirmed their complete rejection of all attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue or to displace the Palestinians from their lands or their internal displacement, stressing that the only solution that the international community must push towards implementing is an immediate cease-fire, and the entry of relief aid in the necessary quantities and at the speed that will make a real difference in alleviating the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip,” according to a readout from the Egyptian spokesman for the Presidency Counselor Ahmed Fahmy.

“Talks also focused on regional developments, especially in the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian tragedy it faces, which resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries and the displacement of hundreds of thousands,” the readout added.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy

Dec 27, 1:43 PM EST
WHO delivers aid, supplies to Gaza hospitals

The World Health Organization said it delivered much-needed aid and supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza and the Palestine Red Crescent Society’s Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.

Palestinians mourn relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas.

Al-Shifa and Al-Amal hospitals are also operating as shelters for displaced residents, sheltering 50,000 people and 14,000 people respectively, according to the WHO.

Gaza has 13 partially functioning hospitals, two minimally functioning hospitals and 21 hospitals that are not functioning at all, causing the hospitals that are functioning to become overloaded with patients who need help, according to the WHO.

Displaced Palestinian children watch from inside a tent as a man mourns relatives, who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, during a mass funeral at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 25, 2023, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas.

“Today I repeat my call on the international community to take urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril facing the population of Gaza and jeopardizing the ability of humanitarian workers to help people with terrible injuries, acute hunger, and at severe risk of disease,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

Tedros said a cease-fire is needed “to spare civilians from further violence and begin the long road towards reconstruction and peace.”

Dec 27, 12:08 PM EST
20 killed in strike in Khan Younis

Twenty people have been killed in a strike on a building near the Red Cross Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The death toll is likely to rise, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.

ABC News Nasser Atta

Dec 27, 11:07 AM EST
At least 241 killed in Gaza in 24 hours

At least 241 people have been killed in Gaza in a 24-hour period, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

This comes as Israeli forces expand their ground offensive to central Gaza, launching over 200 rockets in one day, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Dec 26, 4:36 PM EST
Gaza faces another telecommunications blackout: PRCS

Gaza is facing another telecommunications blackout, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

“This presents a significant challenge for emergency medical teams in reaching the wounded and injured,” the organization warned.

Dec 26, 4:27 PM EST
Israel’s war cabinet meets about possible hostage deals: Source

Israel’s war cabinet is meeting to discuss operational issues of the war as well as the hostages, according to an Israeli political source.

There are several hostage deals being discussed, the Israeli source said, including a proposal from Egyptians that would involve a cease-fire in exchange for the release of more hostages and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent cease-fire, along with an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, according to an Egyptian source.

Dec 26, 3:00 PM EST
Israeli forces expand into central Gaza

Israeli forces have “expanded operations into central Gaza,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the Israelis “are fighting with new methods” and “constantly adjusting our tactics based on the needs of the military operations,” Hagari said.

And in northern Gaza, Israeli forces have “attacked an array of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon,” he said.

Dec 26, 12:41 PM EST
80,000 vials of vaccines delivered to Gaza

About 80,000 vials of the measles mumps and rubella vaccine, also called the MMR vaccine, have been delivered to Gaza, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The MMR vaccine is routinely given to children starting at 12 months old to 15 months old and again at 4 years old to 6 years old.

Dec 26, 11:47 AM EST
120 aid trucks enter Gaza on Monday

On Christmas Day, 60 trucks crossed into Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, and an additional 60 trucks entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, said Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah crossing.

On Christmas Eve, the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted its seventh airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the U.S. Embassy of Jordan said.

Dec 26, 11:35 AM EST
Israeli defense minister: Israel ‘under attack from 7 different sectors’

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a special discussion of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Israel is “under attack from seven different sectors: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.”

“We have already reacted and acted in six of them. And I say this in the most explicit way: Anyone who acts against us is a potential target,” Gallant warned. “There is no immunity for anyone.”

Dec 25, 4:36 PM EST
IDF says it found Hamas infrastructure in Indonesian Hospital in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers have discovered “evidence connecting Hamas’ terrorist activities” to northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital.

The IDF said a white Toyota truck “of the same type used by Hamas” in the Oct. 7 attack was found “in the inner compound of the hospital,” “along with additional weapons.”

The IDF also said that in the hospital’s inner compound was a Toyota Corolla belonging to the family of Samer Talalka, who was one of the three Israeli hostages held in Gaza who was mistakenly killed by the IDF. Bloodstains belonging to another hostage were found in the car, the IDF said.

“The finding of the vehicle directly links the hospital to the brutal events of October 7th,” the IDF said.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 3:34 PM EST
Netanyahu heckled by families of hostages: Report

Families of hostages reportedly heckled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he gave a speech in Parliament on Monday, according to Reuters.

The families, sitting in the chamber, held posters of their loved ones and interrupted Netanyahu as he spoke, per Reuters.

Netanyahu said in his address that military pressure is needed to free the remaining people being held hostage by Hamas, Reuters reported.

Dec 25, 11:11 AM EST
Lebanon carries out launches toward Israel, IDF says

Lebanon has carried out a number of launches toward several locations in northern Israel over the last few hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“A short while ago,” Israeli tanks hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Lebanon “used for directing terrorist activity,” according to the IDF.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 10:55 AM EST
Hamas, Islamic Jihad reject Egypt’s proposal for cease-fire, hostage release: Egyptian security source

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent cease-fire, an Egyptian security source confirmed to ABC News.

Egypt proposed a “vision,” also backed by Qatari mediators, that would involve a cease-fire in exchange for the release of more hostages and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent cease-fire, along with an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, the Egyptian security source said. However, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad rejected the proposal, the source said.

The Israeli War Cabinet was planning on meeting to discuss this proposal Monday evening local time. It is unclear if they will still discuss the proposal.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Jordana Miller

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KYIV and LONDON) — Russia’s military struck cities across Ukraine overnight, sending waves of missiles and drones in an hourslong attack that Ukrainian officials said may be among the biggest since the war began nearly two years ago.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it’s “never seen so many locations targeted simultaneously.”

The aerial attack began at about 11 p.m. on Thursday and lasted for several hours. It included at least 122 missiles and 36 drones, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

Civilian hubs, including Kyiv, were among the targets, military officials said. Deaths were reported in at least three cities, with many others injured, local officials said.

“We will surely respond to terrorist strikes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. “And we will continue to fight for the security of our entire country, every city, and every citizen. Russian terror must and will lose.”

The attack hit targets including a “maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, multi-story residential buildings and private homes, a commercial storage, and a parking lot,” Zelenskyy said.

Along with Kyiv, the cities Russia struck included Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, he said.

“Unfortunately, there have been fatalities and injuries as a result of the strikes,” he said. “All services are working around the clock and providing the necessary aid. My condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”

Last year, on Dec. 29, 2022, the Russian military had launched 70 missiles over Ukraine, marking one of the biggest missile attacks on Ukraine at the time. Ukrainian officials downed 58 of those missiles, they said at the time.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Rawan, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, said she is fearful living in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war. But she can find moments to be a kid again and cheer on others at her shelter school.

“We play to forget the pain we experienced,” Rawan, who lost a cousin in the war, told ABC News on Wednesday during a visit to a shelter school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Volunteers at the school organize things like soccer games, and children can play with toys like hula hoops and balls. Volunteer Filastin Zoroub said the children are thrilled to just hold a toy.

“They forgot the joy, they forgot the smile, they forgot that they could play with each other,” Zoroub told ABC News. “Their great reaction when they saw the toys is evidence that they miss them a lot, because they were only seeing missiles, seeing violence, always killing, death.”

In the Gaza Strip, at least 20,915 people have been killed and more than 54,900 others have been injured since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and Government Media Office. In Israel, more than 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured by the Hamas terrorist organization and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

About 70% of those killed amid Israel’s bombardment and ground operations in Gaza since Oct. 7 are reported to be women and children, according to the UNRWA.

Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.

The IDF has said it is only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.
MORE: Israel-Gaza live updates

Zoroub said the children at the shelter school are “exposed to great pressures: occupation, psychological pressure, fear and terror.”

“We do what we can to put a smile on their faces, take them out of the pressures and fear they are in, for a little while, so that they feel that they are living a little of their childhood that is already missing,” she said.

One young boy at the UNRWA shelter school told ABC News the staff focuses on trying to improve the lives of the children.

“There is a team that works to make the children happy here at school,” the boy, Karam, said.

 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.

The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Dec 26, 11:47 AM EST
120 aid trucks enter Gaza on Monday

On Christmas Day, 60 trucks crossed into Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, and an additional 60 trucks entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, said Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah crossing.

On Christmas Eve, the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted its seventh airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the U.S. Embassy of Jordan said.

Dec 26, 11:35 AM EST
Israeli defense minister: Israel ‘under attack from 7 different sectors’

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a special discussion of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Israel is “under attack from seven different sectors: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.”

“We have already reacted and acted in six of them. And I say this in the most explicit way: Anyone who acts against us is a potential target,” Gallant warned. “There is no immunity for anyone.”

Dec 25, 4:36 PM EST
IDF says it found Hamas infrastructure in Indonesian Hospital in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers have discovered “evidence connecting Hamas’ terrorist activities” to northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital.

The IDF said a white Toyota truck “of the same type used by Hamas” in the Oct. 7 attack was found “in the inner compound of the hospital,” “along with additional weapons.”

The IDF also said that in the hospital’s inner compound was a Toyota Corolla belonging to the family of Samer Talalka, who was one of the three Israeli hostages held in Gaza who was mistakenly killed by the IDF. Bloodstains belonging to another hostage were found in the car, the IDF said.

“The finding of the vehicle directly links the hospital to the brutal events of October 7th,” the IDF said.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 3:34 PM EST
Netanyahu heckled by families of hostages: Report

Families of hostages reportedly heckled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he gave a speech in Parliament on Monday, according to Reuters.

The families, sitting in the chamber, held posters of their loved ones and interrupted Netanyahu as he spoke, per Reuters.

Netanyahu said in his address that military pressure is needed to free the remaining people being held hostage by Hamas, Reuters reported.

Dec 25, 11:11 AM EST
Lebanon carries out launches toward Israel, IDF says

Lebanon has carried out a number of launches toward several locations in northern Israel over the last few hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“A short while ago,” Israeli tanks hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Lebanon “used for directing terrorist activity,” according to the IDF.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 10:55 AM EST
Hamas, Islamic Jihad reject Egypt’s proposal for cease-fire, hostage release: Egyptian security source

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent cease-fire, an Egyptian security source confirmed to ABC News.

Egypt proposed a “vision,” also backed by Qatari mediators, that would involve a cease-fire in exchange for the release of more hostages and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent cease-fire, along with an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, the Egyptian security source said. However, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad rejected the proposal, the source said.

The Israeli War Cabinet was planning on meeting to discuss this proposal Monday evening local time. It is unclear if they will still discuss the proposal.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Jordana Miller

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 1, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.

The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Dec 25, 4:36 PM EST
IDF says it found Hamas infrastructure in Indonesian Hospital in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers have discovered “evidence connecting Hamas’ terrorist activities” to northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital.

The IDF said a white Toyota truck “of the same type used by Hamas” in the Oct. 7 attack was found “in the inner compound of the hospital,” “along with additional weapons.”

The IDF also said that in the hospital’s inner compound was a Toyota Corolla belonging to the family of Samer Talalka, who was one of the three Israeli hostages held in Gaza who was mistakenly killed by the IDF. Bloodstains belonging to another hostage were found in the car, the IDF said.

“The finding of the vehicle directly links the hospital to the brutal events of October 7th,” the IDF said.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 3:34 PM EST
Netanyahu heckled by families of hostages: Report

Families of hostages reportedly heckled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he gave a speech in Parliament on Monday, according to Reuters.

The families, sitting in the chamber, held posters of their loved ones and interrupted Netanyahu as he spoke, per Reuters.

Netanyahu said in his address that military pressure is needed to free the remaining people being held hostage by Hamas, Reuters reported.

Dec 25, 11:11 AM EST
Lebanon carries out launches toward Israel, IDF says

Lebanon has carried out a number of launches toward several locations in northern Israel over the last few hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“A short while ago,” Israeli tanks hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites in Lebanon “used for directing terrorist activity,” according to the IDF.

ABC News’ Jordana Miller

Dec 25, 10:55 AM EST
Hamas, Islamic Jihad reject Egypt’s proposal for cease-fire, hostage release: Egyptian security source

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent cease-fire, an Egyptian security source confirmed to ABC News.

Egypt proposed a “vision,” also backed by Qatari mediators, that would involve a cease-fire in exchange for the release of more hostages and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent cease-fire, along with an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, the Egyptian security source said. However, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad rejected the proposal, the source said.

The Israeli War Cabinet was planning on meeting to discuss this proposal Monday evening local time. It is unclear if they will still discuss the proposal.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Jordana Miller

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — U.S. military forces carried out multiple airstrikes on facilities in Iraq used by Kataib Hezbollah — an Iraqi paramilitary group also known as the Hezbollah Brigades — and its affiliates on Christmas night, according to statements released by the Department of Defense.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden and in response to attacks carried out by the groups against coalition forces in the region. One of those attacks was on Erbil Air Base earlier on Dec. 25, which resulted in injuries to three U.S. personnel. One service member was left in critical condition as a result of the air base attack, according to a statement from the Defense secretary.

“My prayers are with the brave Americans who were injured,” Austin said in his statement.

“And let me be clear – the President and I will not hesitate to take necessary action to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests,” his statement continued. “There is no higher priority. While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities.”

According to early assessments by CENTCOM, the targeted facilities were destroyed, and there are no signs that any civilians were impacted.

“These strikes are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their ability to continue attacks,” General Michael Erik Kurilla, U.S. Central Command Commander, said in a statement. “We will always protect our forces.”

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the president was “immediately briefed on the attack this morning, and he ordered the Department of Defense to prepare response options against those responsible.”

On a call later with Sec. Austin, Biden ordered the strikes against three locations utilized by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, focused specifically on unmanned aerial drone activities, according to the statement.

“The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm’s way. The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue,” Watson’s statement read.

 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOSCOW) — Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been located in a remote penal colony in Siberia after his lawyers and associates have been unable to contact him for nearly three weeks, Navalny’s spokeswoman said Monday.

Navalny was located in IK-3 in the village of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug part of Russia, which is in Siberia, the spokeswoman, Kyra Yarmysh, said Monday.

“The lawyer saw him today. Alexei is fine,” Yarmysh wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Navalny was previously being held in Correctional Facility No. 6 in the Vladimir region, about 100 miles east of Moscow.

His lawyers tried to see Navalny earlier this month at the prison in the Vladimir region but were told he’s no longer listed there, Yarmysh previously said. They had tried to find him at two other nearby prison camps and were told he wasn’t there, either, she said Dec. 11.

The Kremlin had claimed it didn’t know where Navalny was currently held and said it had no intention of looking into his status.

Navalny, a lawyer-turned-politician, has been in jail since 2021 upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. In 2022, a Russian judge added another nine years to Navalny’s sentence of 2 1/2 years for embezzlement and other charges.

Earlier this year, Navalny’s team sounded the alarm over his deteriorating health while in solitary confinement, saying he has not received any treatment. They said he has been repeatedly put in solitary confinement for two-week stints for months.

ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — A suspect is in custody after a London stop sign that apparently featured the work of elusive street artist Banksy was removed on Friday, police said.

A man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of theft and criminal damage in connection with the removal of the road traffic sign in Peckham, in southeast London, Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday.

The piece — a red stop sign with three military drones on it — debuted at the corner of Commercial Way on Friday. Banksy posted photos of the work on his Instagram account with no caption.

Shortly after the work appeared, a man was captured on film and in photos removing the sign with bolt cutters and running from the scene.

“We are aware of footage being shared which shows the sign being removed,” police said.

The stop sign has since been replaced “to avoid endangering road users,” police said.

The whereabouts of the sign are currently unknown. Police asked anyone with information on the incident to contact them.

A gallery owner told the BBC the piece could be worth up to 500,000 pounds — roughly $635,000.

Jasmine Ali, deputy leader of the Southwark Council, which represents the region, called for the Banksy to be returned to Peckham.

“It’s a shame it’s been taken away because it belongs to all of us,” Ali said on social media on Friday. “We’d like it back so that everyone in the community can enjoy it.”

Beyond the Instagram post, Banksy has not publicly commented on the work or its removal.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — There are no more functioning hospitals in northern Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

During a briefing given to U.N. Geneva correspondents on Thursday, the WHO said that just nine out of 36 health facilities in Gaza are operating, all partially and all in the south.

“There are no functional hospitals left in the north,” Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in WHO’s office for the West Bank and Gaza, said in opening remarks. “Al Ahli was the last one but is now minimally functioning, i.e., still treating patients but not admitting new ones, along with Al-Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba hospitals. These hospitals are still sheltering thousands of displaced people.”

At Al Ahil, there are just 10 staff members remaining — all junior doctors and nurses — who are providing basic first aid and pain management, according to WHO. About 80 injured patients are currently sheltering in a church on the hospital grounds and in its orthopedic sedition, many of whom have been waiting for surgery or have undergone operations but risk infection due to a lack of antibiotics and other drugs, the WHO said.

The WHO and other U.N. partners said they recently delivered supplies, including medicine, IV fluids, surgical supplies, wound treatment and birthing supplies, to Al Ahli Arab hospital and Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.

The groups had also planned to deliver fuel, but were forced to abandon those plans due to lack of safety guarantees and clearance issues, according to the WHO.

“WHO had visited Al Ahli Arab hospital over a week ago and it already looked like utter chaos, completely congested and a disaster zone but it was still partly operational and there were still operating theatres and two health specialists were constantly managing surgeries,” Peeperkorn said. “Now, Al Ahli is a shell of a hospital.”

It was previously the only hospital in northern Gaza providing surgery. The theaters have since closed due to a lack of supplies, fuel, power and workers.

“WHO will keep striving to supply health facilities in northern Gaza. But without fuel, staff, and other essential needs, medicines won’t make a difference and all patients will die slowly and painfully,” Peeperkorn said at the briefing.

Of the hospitals in the south, just three have surgical capabilities, according to the WHO. Two hospitals are operating at three times their bed capacity.

Israel has bombed and raided hospitals in Gaza, claiming that tunnels shafts and underground passages used by Hamas fighters have been found underneath the hospitals and that civilians are being used as human shields. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied that they are targeting civilians.

“We want civilians not to be in the area where we are fighting,” Israeli Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus previously told ABC News. “We want to focus our firepower on Hamas and Hamas only.”

Meanwhile, nonprofit CARE International says 100% of the population in Gaza is experiencing a hunger crisis.

The organization’s Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) report released Thursday found Gazans are facing varying levels of hunger and that “virtually all households are skipping meals every day.”

More than a quarter of the population is classified as Phase 5, the highest stage of food insecurity equivalent to famine levels of starvation.

“The IPC reveals a dire situation in Gaza, where an alarming 576,600 individuals are currently experiencing catastrophic, famine-levels of starvation,” Dalmar Ainashe, CARE’s senior technical advisor for food security, livelihoods and nutrition, said in a statement.

“This figure is unparalleled in the IPC’s history, especially when contrasted with Gaza’s relatively small population,” the statement continued. “Prior to this current conflict, the worldwide count of people in IPC Phase 5 was only 128. This number is four times higher due to the dangerous conditions in Gaza.”

Since Hamas’s surprise attack on Oct. 7, more than 20,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry as of Friday, meanwhile there have been 1,200 killed in Israel, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Additionally, there have been 139 Israel Defense Forces casualties since the start of Israel’s ground operation and 471 since Oct. 7. Hamas is currently holding 129 hostages, but 20 of them are believed dead, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said.

It comes as the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Friday calling for urgent steps to allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access throughout Gaza. Both the U.S. and Russia abstained, allowing the resolution to pass.

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(NEW YORK) — For Michael Koubi, Yahya Sinwar has the eyes of a murderer.

Few Israelis know the leader of Hamas in Gaza as well as Koubi, who, as an officer in Israel’s internal security organization, Shin Bet, interrogated Sinwar for more than 150 hours when he was held in Israeli prisons.

Sinwar is accused by Israel of masterminding the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history on Oct. 7 of this year when 1,200 Israelis were killed. The Israeli military has dropped leaflets in Gaza offering a reward of $400,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Koubi remembers Sinwar as being “tough,” devoid of emotions but “not a psychopath.”

“He was a different type of detainee,” says the former Shin Bet officer who interrogated Sinwar in the late 80s and early 90s.

In 1989 an Israeli court sentenced Sinwar to four life sentences for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting to murder two Israeli soldiers.

Sinwar spent the following 22 years in prison and was one of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees who were released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.

At the time of his imprisonment, Sinwar was head of Hamas’ infamous internal security arm, Al-Majd and according to Israeli and Palestinian sources his job was to investigate members of Hamas who were potentially working with the Israelis.

Koubi says Sinwar boasted during his interrogations about killing suspected Palestinian informants with “a razor blade” and with “a machete.”

It is why, says Koubi, Sinwar was dubbed “the butcher of Khan Younis.”

In early December of this year the Israeli military said it had surrounded the home of Sinwar in his hometown of Khan Younis in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. They didn’t find him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Dec. 6 that it was “only a matter of time” before he was located. Israeli military leaders have described Sinwar as “a dead man walking.”

The precise whereabouts of Sinwar is still unknown. He is believed by Israeli officials and others to be hiding in Hamas’ vast network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip.

He has not been heard from since Oct. 7, when Hamas and affiliated groups massacred hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians and took around 240 people hostage.

“This offensive is the mission of his life,” says Dr. Michael Milshtein, whose job it was to study Hamas and key figures such as Sinwar when he worked in Israeli defense intelligence from 1993 until 2015.

In 2014, as chief of the Department for Palestinian Affairs, Milshtein claims he could see indications that Hamas’ leadership in Gaza was already working on something big.

At the time Yahya Sinwar was a leading figure in Hamas’ political leadership in Gaza. Three years later, in 2017, he was elected as the overall chief of Hamas in the Strip.

“When you’re trying to find the seeds of this brutality of Oct. 7 you must understand not only the ideology, but also the personality of Yahya Sinwar,” said Milshtein, who is now a senior analyst at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

According to Milshtein, Sinwar’s brutality against alleged defectors within Hamas was “spread” throughout the organization and directed against Jews and Israelis, culminating in the atrocities committed on Oct. 7.

In recent weeks it has become clear that multiple warning signs about Hamas’ plans for an attack were either missed or ignored by Israeli officials, however the attack still succeeded because the precise details about when the group would strike were kept secret.

“That’s the way Sinwar works,” said Ismat Mansour, a Palestinian writer and activist who spent 15 years inside the same detention facilities as the Hamas leader. Arrested at 16 for his part in the death of an Israeli settler in the West Bank, Mansour was released in 2013 ahead of resumed talks between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials.

Mansour said that, when in prison, Sinwar operated, for much of the time, “in the shadows … with a small and closed group that he trusts.”

He described the Hamas leader as a “tough” and “pragmatic” man who learnt fluent Hebrew and spent much of his time studying Israeli society and security matters, including Israel’s army, which is now hunting him down.

Both Sinwar’s former fellow inmate Mansour and his former interrogator Koubi agreed that he was not just widely respected by other prisoners but also by prison staff.

“He knew how to convince people to be with him,” said former Israeli security officer Koubi, who said Sinwar’s influence over prison officials earned him “the best” conditions.

Sinwar’s ideology and long-term hatred towards Israel was what motivated him to carry out the attack on Oct. 7, according to Milshtein and Koubi.

Milshtein said he believes the Hamas leader in Gaza was driven by “jihad” and a “vision” that Israelis and Jews are “germs” and their killing could be justified on religious terms.

Mansour, a Palestinian, said there were three factors which drove Sinwar to launch the attack on Oct. 7.

The first, he said, were the visits earlier this year by Israeli hard-right nationalists to the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem as well as raids on the mosque carried out by Israeli police.

The second, according to Mansour, was Sinwar’s rejection of Israel’s blockade on Gaza and the tight Israeli restrictions on goods and people leaving and entering the Strip.

Finally, as someone who spent much of his adult life behind bars, Sinwar had a “personal commitment,” said Mansour, to try and free as many of his close associates being held in Israeli prisons.

Despite multiple statements by Israeli officials clearly pinning the blame for Oct. 7 principally on Sinwar, some independent experts who study Hamas are not convinced he was the main architect of the attack.

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow on the Middle East at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said he believes Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, was the overall mastermind.

“Sinwar was certainly an important figure in terms of the planning of the attacks that took place on Oct 7. However, at least in my mind, he was not the ultimate architect of those attacks,” Lovatt said.

After the scale of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7, Israeli anger “needed to be directed at someone,” argued Lovatt, noting Sinwar became a “figure of hate” because he was well-known to Israelis.

In contrast, imagery and information on Deif is so sparse that he is more of “a ghost” figure, said Jennifer Jefferis, a Georgetown University professor and author of “Hamas: Terrorism, Governance and its Future in Middle East Politics.”

Jefferis said Israel “needs a win” in its war in Gaza and the emphasis on Sinwar is part of the Israeli government’s narrative in claiming that victory.

“Israel is saying to themselves, ‘How do we say that we have beaten Hamas?’ and I think this is a way they are doing it, by painting a target on this one guy,” she said.

Every source interviewed for this article agreed that Sinwar is probably still in Gaza.

His former interrogator, Koubi, predicted that the leader of Hamas in the densely populated Gaza Strip will go down fighting if he’s located.

“He wants to die a hero of the slum, as a hero of Hamas, as a hero of the Gaza people,” Koubi said.

Both Jefferis and Lovatt said Sinwar’s death would not signal the end of Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas is “a grass roots, bottom-up organization,” said Lovatt. Hamas “has consistently shown the ability to replace leaders when they are killed or captured.”

Jeffries added, “There will be Hamas 2.0 and resistance to whatever comes next.”

 

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