Israel-Gaza live updates: Bodies of 3 hostages recovered in Gaza
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.
Click here for updates from previous days.
Latest Developments
Dec 15, 1:19 PM
Lufthansa to resume flights to Israel
Lufthansa plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv in the new year, the airline confirmed Friday.
Lufthansa said it will offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich starting Jan. 8.
Austrian Airlines and SWISS — subsidiaries of Lufthansa — will also resume some flights.
Flights to Beirut, which had also been suspended, resumed service on Friday, the airline said.
Dec 15, 12:01 PM
Bodies of 3 hostages recovered in Gaza, returned to Israel
The bodies of three hostages — two Israeli soldiers and one civilian kidnapped from the Supernova music festival — have been recovered in Gaza and returned to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The civilian was identified as 28-year-old Ella Toledano and the soldiers were identified as Cpl. Nik Beizer and Sgt. Ron Sherman, the IDF said.
Dec 15, 11:40 AM
IDF strikes Hamas infrastructure on Gaza-Egypt border
The Israeli Air Force “targeted and destroyed” Hamas military sites, weapons storage facilities and command and control centers along the Gaza-Egypt border, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“The sites that were struck in the Rafah area, where Hamas terrorists were operating, facilitated the smuggling efforts led by the Hamas terrorist organization, including the smuggling of weapons that endanger Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
Dec 15, 11:32 AM
44 killed from air strikes in Khan Younis in last 24 hours: Gaza Health Ministry
Forty-four people were killed over the last 24 hours from Israeli air strikes in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
A picture taken from Rafah shows flares lighting the skies over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli strikes, Dec. 14, 2023.
Dec 15, 11:42 AM
Sullivan: Israel allowing direct delivery of Gaza aid via Kerem Shalom crossing is a ‘significant step’
The Kerem Shalom crossing at the Israel-Gaza-Egypt border opened for inspections of humanitarian aid on Tuesday, and Israel is now taking the “significant step” to allow the direct delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Humanitarian aid trucks wait in line to be inspected at the Kerem Shalom crossing, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, on the border between Israel, Gaza and Egypt, December 12, 2023.
Sullivan said he learned of Israel’s decision just before he departed Israel on Friday.
Up to 200 trucks per day will be allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
“President [Joe] Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days,” Sullivan said in a statement Friday.
“The United States remains committed to expanding and sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. We will continue to work closely with Egypt and other partners on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance through Rafah crossing, and we hope that this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance to those who need it urgently in Gaza,” Sullivan added.
A Palestinian child waits to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid shortages in food supplies, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Dec. 14, 2023.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Dec 15, 9:29 AM
Sullivan: IDF’s long-term goal isn’t to occupy Gaza, but fight will take months
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Friday that it doesn’t make sense for Israel to occupy Gaza and that Israel has indicated it does not have long term plans to do so.
Sullivan said the fight against Hamas could take months, but he didn’t offer up any details about if the war’s intensity will shift gears.
Palestinians gather around a destroyed family home following Israeli bombardment of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 14, 2023.
As for the war’s impact on civilians in Gaza, Sullivan said, “The terrorists chose to embed themselves among civilians — and that creates an incredible burden on the IDF.”
“That burden does not lessen the IDF’s responsibility to weigh the distinguishes between terrorist targets and innocent people and to take every precaution to protect civilians and loss of life,” he continued. “It also doesn’t lessen the burden, by the way, to ensure that humanitarian assistance flows in sufficient quantities that the Palestinian people have access to the food, water, medicine, sanitation, that they don’t just need, that they deserve, as a basic matter of dignity, of human beings.”
A Palestinian girl wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrives at a hospital in Rafah, Dec.13, 2023.
“Israel has the right to go after Hamas in these difficult circumstances, and also has a responsibility to do so in a way that comports with our values, with international humanitarian law, and with the strategic necessity to see the fundamental difference between innocent Palestinian people and these evil terrorists of Hamas,” he said.
Video: Former US ambassador to Israel on the conflict in Gaza
-ABC News’ Britt Clennett
Dec 14, 5:23 PM
Biden speaks with Turkish president about Israel-Hamas conflict
President Joe Biden spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan Thursday on a wide variety of topics including the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the White House.
“President Biden reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself. The leaders also discussed efforts to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza and protect civilians and the need for a political horizon for the Palestinian people,” the White House said in a readout of the conversation.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Dec 14, 5:09 PM
Israeli health minister meets with ICRC to discuss hostage conditions
Israeli Minister of Health Uriel Buso and Director-General of the Ministry of Health Moshe Bar Siman Tov met Thursday with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to stress that the health of the hostages in Gaza is deteriorating by the day.
Israeli officials said they’re calling for the ICRC to visit the hostages held by Hamas immediately to ensure they receive life-saving medical care.
People attend a rally calling for the release of hostages kidnapped on the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jerusalem, Dec. 12, 2023.
“Hamas has already proven to the world that [it] does not hesitate to commit crimes against humanity, including against the elderly, women and children,” Buso said. “We expect the president and the organization to do everything possible to end the suffering of the hostages and their families immediately.”
There are 114 hostages believed to be alive or unaccounted for in Gaza, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Twenty-one hostages were believed to have been killed in captivity and their bodies remain in Gaza, the government said.
People attend a rally calling for the release of hostages kidnapped on the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jerusalem, Dec. 12, 2023.
Dec 14, 4:18 PM
Woman released by Hamas desperate to reunite with husband who’s still held hostage
Raz Ben Ami was released from Hamas captivity two weeks ago, but her pain is far from over as her husband, Ohad, is still being held hostage.
“I’m not OK,” she told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
“How can I be OK when he is there and I’m here?” she said. “We want our family back together.”
Former hostage Raz Ben Ami was released from captivity two weeks ago, but she said in an interview with ABC News that her pain is far from over as her husband Ohad is still being held hostage.
Ben Ami and her husband were kidnapped separately from Kibbutz Be’eri. She said she tried to hide when she heard militants storming into her home and kidnapping her husband, but they found her and took her to Gaza on the back of a motorcycle.
She hasn’t shared the details of her time in captivity with her two daughters.
“She’s very afraid,” said one of her daughters, Ella Ben Ami. “I can just imagine what Hamas did to her.”
The mother and daughters said they will keep fighting for Ohad’s return by joining rallies and speaking to government officials.
“We’re here every night. That’s all we can do. What else can we do? Wait and hope,” Raz Ben Ami said.
A person takes a picture of images of Israeli hostages who are being held in the Gaza Strip, displayed at a table with the colors of the Israeli flag, as the country observes Hanukkah, in Tel Aviv, Israel Dec. 12, 2023.
-ABC News’ Ines De La Cuetara
Dec 14, 4:10 PM
Biden: Israel should focus on ‘how to save civilian lives’ and ‘be more careful’ in Gaza
President Joe Biden said he wants Israel to “be more careful” with its attacks in Gaza and focus on “how to save civilian lives” as casualties continue to climb.
A Palestinian woman reacts following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 14, 2023.
“I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives. Not stop going after a Hamas, but be more careful,” Biden said Thursday during an event at the National Institute of Health.
The president was asked if he wanted Israel to scale back its assault on Gaza by the end of the year and transition to a “lower intensity” phase, but he did not address the question.
A Palestinian inspects the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 14, 2023.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
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