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ABC News

Israel-Gaza updates: Harris to meet with Israeli war Cabinet member on Monday

PHOTO: Vice President Kamala Harris meets with voting rights leaders in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, D.C., Feb. 27, 2024.
2:42
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
US military conducts airdrop of food aid over Gaza
By ABC NEWS
Last Updated: March 3, 2024, 7:09 PM

More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.

The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel's founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.

Click here for updates from previous days.

Latest headlines:

  • Netanyahu adviser says Israel helped coordinate US airdrops in Gaza
  • VP Harris to hold White House meeting with Israeli war Cabinet member: Official
  • Malnutrition reportedly kills at least 10 children in northern Gaza: UNICEF
  • Ceasefire deal talks underway amid plans for future Gaza aid
  • Food drop part of ‘sustained effort’ to get more aid into Gaza: CENTCOM
  • US dropped aid into Gaza, two officials confirm
Here's how the news is developing.

Pinned
Mar 01, 2024 11:03 AM

What we know about the conflict

The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.


Pinned
Mar 01, 2024 8:44 PM

Biden says US to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza in coming days

President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.

PHOTO: Aid is air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 27, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Aid is air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 27, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

"We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said. "In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies."

He said the U.S. is also looking at the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver "large amounts of humanitarian assistance," in addition to expanding land deliveries.

PHOTO: Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip Feb. 27, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip Feb. 27, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

"We're gonna insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need," Biden said.

"Innocent lives are on the line, and children's lives on the line," he said.

PHOTO: Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City, Mar. 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
AFP via Getty Images
Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City, Mar. 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
AFP via Getty Images

Biden called Thursday's killing of over 100 civilians waiting for aid "tragic and alarming," adding that the "loss of life is heartbreaking."

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the airdrops will not be a "one and done" operation and will be the start of a "sustained effort" over the coming weeks.

"With each one, I think we'll learn more and we'll get better at them," Kirby said.

PHOTO: A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Rafah in the skies of the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Rafah in the skies of the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Kirby explained that it will be "extremely difficult" to conduct airdrops in a densely populated environment like Gaza.

"The biggest risk is making sure that nobody gets hurt on the ground. And so, you got to locate out areas to drop that you know will be safe for people so that they don't become victims of the drop itself," he said.

Kirby also noted that the airdrops are "not a replacement for moving things in by ground."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez


Mar 03, 2024 7:09 PM

Netanyahu adviser says Israel helped coordinate US airdrops in Gaza

An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the US airdrops of aid in Gaza are a sign the Biden administration has lost confidence in the Israeli government’s ability or willingness to get a grip on the humanitarian crisis there.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Netanyahu advisor Ophir Falk said the U.S. airdrops on Saturday were "fully coordinated with Israel."

Falk pushed back on any suggestion Israel was not letting enough aid into Gaza while children were starving to death, saying Israel "is enabling thousands of trucks to get into Gaza."

Falk denied that people are dying of starvation in Gaza, despite a statement Sunday from a UNICEF official that at least 10 children have reportedly died of malnutrition recently at a northern Gaza hospital. Some doctors working in Gaza have also reported the deaths of children as a result of malnutrition.

Falk said "maybe tens of thousands" of aid trucks have gone into Gaza since the beginning of the war in October.

"No other country would do that," Falk said.

Israel has said it is trying to prevent aid from ending up in the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization.

"We have to verify it’s not being stolen by Hamas," Falk said, something he claimed is happening "on a daily basis."

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge


Mar 03, 2024 5:09 PM

VP Harris to hold White House meeting with Israeli war Cabinet member: Official

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz at the White House on Monday as part of an ongoing effort to engage with a wide range of Israeli officials on the war in Gaza, a White House official has confirmed to ABC News.

During the meeting, Harris is expected to reiterate Israel's right to defend itself in the face of threats by Hamas and the urgency of securing a hostage deal, the White House official said. Harris and Gantz are also planning to discuss the dire need to increase the aid flow into Gaza through continued U.S. airdrops and work on a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly by sea, according to the official.

PHOTO: Families and supporters of hostages held in Gaza protest in-front of the U.S. embassy as they are calling for the help of President Joe Biden, to reach a hostage deal, Mar. 1, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
Families and supporters of hostages held in Gaza protest in-front of the U.S. embassy as they are calling for the help of President Joe Biden, to reach a hostage deal, Mar. 1, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Amir Levy/Getty Images

While reiterating the need to reduce civilian casualties, Harris is expected to express the Biden administration's concern for the safety of the 1.5 million people reportedly taking shelter in the city of Rafah, the official said.

In their discussion of the ongoing war, Harris and Gantz are also expected to focus on "the day after the fighting ends" and plans to eventually rebuild Gaza and the Palestinian Authority so that it may govern a unified Gaza and West Bank in creating a "hopeful political horizon for the Palestinian people," the official said.

Harris previously met Gantz in 2022 at the Munich Security Conference. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will also meet with Gantz separately, according to the White House.

-ABC News' Noah Minnie


Mar 03, 2024 4:31 PM

Malnutrition reportedly kills at least 10 children in northern Gaza: UNICEF

At least 10 children have reportedly died in recent days from dehydration and malnutrition while at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, a UNICEF official said Sunday.

The children died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Adele Khodr, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians gather for food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images
Displaced Palestinians gather for food in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images

"These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable," Khodr said in the statement. "The widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, a direct consequence of the impediments to access and multiple dangers facing U.N. humanitarian operations, is impacting children and mothers, hindering their ability to breastfeed their babies, especially in the northern Gaza Strip."

Khodr said the disparity in conditions in Gaza's north and south "is clear evidence that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives."

Nearly 16% of children, or one in six, under the age of 2 in the northern Gaza Strip are acutely malnourished, said Khordr, citing malnutrition screenings in January by UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Program.

Khodr said similar screenings conducted in southern Gaza found that 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished.

"Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved," Khodr said.

PHOTO: Children sit in a destroyed car in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images
Children sit in a destroyed car in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
AFP via Getty Images

Khodr's statement came a day after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop across Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

About one-quarter of Gaza's population -- 576,000 people -- are "one step away from famine" and facing a "grave situation," Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said last week..

-ABC News Nadine Shubailat



Mar 02, 2024 7:35 PM

Ceasefire deal talks underway amid plans for future Gaza aid

Hours after the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first combined humanitarian assistance airdrop in Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, senior administration officials asserted this would be part of a sustained effort to scale up life-saving aid into Gaza and confirmed significant progress on a six-week hostage ceasefire deal currently in the hands of Hamas.

Senior administration officials said they are exploring every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza and that the Department of Defense is currently planning additional drops. However, they say their biggest obstacle is opening more avenues to get aid into Gaza, including a martine route that would deliver assistance directly by sea.

"We're looking at the land routes, we're looking at the sea route, we're looking at the air route, to really ensure that we're exploring every opportunity to get assistance in," officials said Saturday.

PHOTO: In this image obtained from the US Department of Defense, a US Air Force loadmaster releases humanitarian aid pallets of food and water over Gaza, March 2, 2024.
Christopher Hubenthal/US Department of Defense/AFP via Getty Images
In this image obtained from the US Department of Defense, a US Air Force loadmaster releases humanitarian aid pallets of food and water over Gaza, March 2, 2024.
Christopher Hubenthal/US Department of Defense/AFP via Getty Images

Officials confirmed this was the first U.S. airdrop conducted in Gaza since the war began and that U.S. and Jordanian C-130 aircraft were operated jointly out of Jordan to distribute aid.

Administration officials suggested the removal of police from the U.N. and other humanitarian convoys has exacerbated the lawlessness already prevalent in the region as gangs allegedly take and resell aid. Officials said the way to address this problem is by flooding the market with aid to discourage the commercialization of assistance.

Officials said a ceasefire is essential for the distribution of life-saving aid throughout Gaza. A deal is on the table and in the hands of Hamas, according to officials.

Senior administration officials told reporters there would be a six-week ceasefire as soon as today if Hamas agreed to release a defined category of vulnerable hostages, which include the sick, elderly, and women.

When asked about the specifics of these progressions towards a ceasefire hostage deal, admin officials said they'd worked hard with the Israelis to develop a framework which the admin believes is now "in the zone of a compromise amongst all the positions that had been on the table," after several meeting in Israel last week.

Admin officials hope to have this deal in place by Ramadan, confirming significant progress has been made over the last few weeks.

"The onus right now is on Hamas, their talks still underway," a senior admin official said Saturday.

They continued, "There has been significant progress over the last few weeks. But like all things, until the deal is actually done, It's not done. The Israelis have basically signed on to the elements of the arrangement. And right now, the ball is in the court of Hamas, and we are continuing to push this as hard as we possibly can."

-ABC News' Noah Minnie


Mar 01, 2024 8:44 PM

Biden says US to carry out airdrops of aid into Gaza in coming days

President Joe Biden on Friday said the U.S. would carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.

PHOTO: Aid is air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 27, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Aid is air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 27, 2024.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

"We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said. "In the coming days we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies."

He said the U.S. is also looking at the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver "large amounts of humanitarian assistance," in addition to expanding land deliveries.

PHOTO: Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip Feb. 27, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip Feb. 27, 2024.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters

"We're gonna insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need," Biden said.

"Innocent lives are on the line, and children's lives on the line," he said.

PHOTO: Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City, Mar. 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
AFP via Getty Images
Palestinians gather in a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City, Mar. 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
AFP via Getty Images

Biden called Thursday's killing of over 100 civilians waiting for aid "tragic and alarming," adding that the "loss of life is heartbreaking."

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the airdrops will not be a "one and done" operation and will be the start of a "sustained effort" over the coming weeks.

"With each one, I think we'll learn more and we'll get better at them," Kirby said.

PHOTO: A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Rafah in the skies of the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images
A Jordanian military aircraft drops humanitarian aid over Rafah in the skies of the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Kirby explained that it will be "extremely difficult" to conduct airdrops in a densely populated environment like Gaza.

"The biggest risk is making sure that nobody gets hurt on the ground. And so, you got to locate out areas to drop that you know will be safe for people so that they don't become victims of the drop itself," he said.

Kirby also noted that the airdrops are "not a replacement for moving things in by ground."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez


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