Israel-Gaza live updates: 14 killed in IDF strikes on 2 Gaza schools, Gaza officials say

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, negotiations have stalled to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization, and Israeli forces continue to launch incursions in the southern Gazan town of Rafah ahead of a possible large-scale invasion.


Latest Developments


Jun 25, 11:54 AM

Over 10,000 people need medical evacuation out of Gaza

Over 10,000 people need to be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical care due to the deteriorating conditions at hospitals in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.

Among them are five children -- four cancer patients and one child with second-degree burns -- who were transferred Monday from Al-Ahli Hospital to Nasser Medical Complex, where they will stay for treatment until they’re able to leave Gaza, the WHO said.


Jun 25, 10:49 AM

Israel's top court rules state must draft ultra-Orthodox into IDF

Israel’s top court has ruled the state must draft the ultra-Orthodox into the Israel Defense Forces.

The move is a blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said, "Draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox are illegal. The defense minister must uphold the law and issue conscription orders to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox youth who have so far evaded military service."


Jun 25, 6:25 AM

14 killed in IDF strikes on 2 Gaza schools, Gaza officials say

The Israel Defense Forces overnight conducted airstrikes on two schools where internally displaced people were sheltering in Gaza City, killing 14 people according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

The IDF said the strikes were on "terrorists operating inside two structures" and that the targets were "terrorists involved in holding hostages.”

PHOTO: Men and children search through debris in the yard of the Asma school run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, in the Shati camp for Palestinian refugees, in the aftermath of overnight Israeli bombardment on June 25, 2024. (Omar Al-qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: Men and children search through debris in the yard of the Asma school run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, in the Shati camp for Palestinian refugees, in the aftermath of overnight Israeli bombardment on June 25, 2024. (Omar Al-qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

An IDF statement said that "aerial surveillance checks, precise munitions, and additional intelligence measures were all used in order to mitigate harm to civilians."

Video filmed by a civil defense first responder at the Abdel Fattah Hamoud school in central Gaza City appears to show an unconscious girl being pulled from flaming rubble at one school. Burns appear to cover much of her body.

According to the Ministry of Health, eight people were killed in that strike, including five children.

-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule


Jun 24, 4:38 PM

Netanyahu says he’s committed to Israeli deal proposal that Biden presented

While addressing Israel's parliament on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he remains "committed" to the Israeli hostage/cease-fire proposal that President Joe Biden had presented.

"Will not end the war until we return all the abductees -- 120 abductees -- both the living and the dead. We are committed to the Israeli proposal that President Biden welcomed. Our position has not changed," Netanyahu said.

PHOTO: A Palestinian child walks with a stuffed bear recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building following Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis, June 21, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: A Palestinian child walks with a stuffed bear recovered from the rubble of a destroyed building following Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis, June 21, 2024. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

He added, "We will not end the war until we eliminate Hamas and until we return the residents of the south and the north safely to their homes. … [And] we will thwart Iran's intentions to destroy us."

Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera on Monday evening that "Netanyahu's statements confirmed our view that he does not want a cease-fire or the return of [Israeli] prisoners. … Netanyahu's real stance is that he wants to retrieve his prisoners and continue the war."

"We are ready for genuine negotiations if Netanyahu adheres to the principles outlined by President Biden," he said. "We are ready for negotiations that achieve a cessation of aggression and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip."

PHOTO: A Palestinian walks among the rubble of damaged buildings, which were destroyed during Israel's military offensive, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 12, 2024.  (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)
PHOTO: A Palestinian walks among the rubble of damaged buildings, which were destroyed during Israel's military offensive, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 12, 2024. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky


Jun 24, 4:25 PM

Number of children missing, separated from families in Gaza may be as high as 21,000: Report

The number of children who are missing or separated from their families in Gaza may be as many as 21,000, according to humanitarian aid group Save the Children.

PHOTO: A Palestinian boy carrying his prayer mat, walks to join the morning the Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on the first day of the Muslim holiday marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, on June 16, 2024.  (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: A Palestinian boy carrying his prayer mat, walks to join the morning the Eid al-Adha prayer in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on the first day of the Muslim holiday marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, on June 16, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

This organization -- which has been providing support for Palestinian children in the region since 1953 -- reports that likely 17,000 children are unaccompanied and separated, and another 4,000 children are likely buried under the rubble based on data from the United Nations and the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

"Children who are missing but living are vulnerable, face grave protection risks and must be found. They must be protected and reunited with their families," said Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East Jeremy Stoner. "For the children who have been killed, their deaths must be formally marked, their families informed, burial rites respected, and accountability sought."

Click here to read more.

PHOTO: A Palestinian boy sits as people search the rubble of the Harb family home destroyed in overnight Israeli strikes in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, June 18, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: A Palestinian boy sits as people search the rubble of the Harb family home destroyed in overnight Israeli strikes in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, June 18, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

-ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca


Jun 24, 4:13 PM

Blinken meets with Israel’s defense minister

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken is emphasizing several points in his ongoing meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday afternoon.

PHOTO: Israeli medics attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Omer Smadja, 25, killed amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at a military cemetery in Netanya, June 21, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: Israeli medics attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Omer Smadja, 25, killed amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at a military cemetery in Netanya, June 21, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

"No. 1, our ongoing commitment to Israel's security," Miller said. "No. 2, the importance of Israel developing robust, realistic plans for the day after the conflict, plans that include a path towards governance, towards security, towards reconstruction."

"He's going to emphasize the need to avoid further escalation of the conflict, and then he will, as always, emphasize the need to improve humanitarian access [in Gaza], where we have seen somewhat of a slowdown in access in the south," Miller continued, adding that Blinken hoped to hear "concrete commitments from [Gallant] to work on that problem."

PHOTO: Palestinians ride in the back of a pickup truck in a displacement area the al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, June 20, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: Palestinians ride in the back of a pickup truck in a displacement area the al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, June 20, 2024. (Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford


Jun 24, 2:28 PM

Pentagon: Only the 1 shipment of 2,000-pound bombs has been delayed

Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments alleging a U.S. slowdown in military aid to Israel, the Pentagon continues to say that only the one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs has been suspended.

"Again, just to clarify, we have paused one shipment to Israel," Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Monday.

PHOTO: An Israeli military armored vehicle rolls in an area bordering the Gaza Strip, June 9, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
PHOTO: An Israeli military armored vehicle rolls in an area bordering the Gaza Strip, June 9, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

"Everything else continues to flow on schedule as normal. It is not diminished," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is in Washington, D.C., for meetings with U.S. officials, will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Ryder said.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez


Jun 24, 12:09 PM

IDF 'approaching the point' of dismantling Hamas' Rafah Brigade

The Israeli military said it is winding down the intensity of fighting in the Rafah area of Gaza.

"We are clearly approaching the point where we can say we have dismantled [Hamas’] Rafah Brigade, that it is defeated not in the sense that there are no more terrorists, but in the sense that it can no longer function as a fighting unit," the IDF chief of the general staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Sunday night. "It has suffered many casualties, and you will ensure until the completion of the mission here, to eliminate as many terrorists and destroy as much terrorist infrastructure as possible going forward."

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky


Jun 24, 11:32 AM

Looting, smuggling hindering delivery of aid in Gaza: UNRWA chief

"Gaza has been decimated" and life there is a "living hell," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said in an address to other U.N. officials on Monday.

PHOTO: A Palestinian woman stands near the damaged windows of a classroom in a UNRWA school, after the air strike on a neighboring house to the school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
PHOTO: A Palestinian woman stands near the damaged windows of a classroom in a UNRWA school, after the air strike on a neighboring house to the school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

He said the breakdown of civil order and "catastrophic levels of hunger" have caused looting and smuggling that are hindering the delivery of aid.

"Children are dying of malnutrition and dehydration, while food and clean water wait in trucks," he said.

PHOTO: A woman and a girl react following an Israeli strike that hit a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Al-Mawasi area in western Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
PHOTO: A woman and a girl react following an Israeli strike that hit a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Al-Mawasi area in western Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Lazzarini also provided an update on the allegations that UNRWA staff members were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.

He said out of 19 cases assigned to be investigated: one has been closed and the staffer was reinstated; four were suspended due to insufficient evidence; and 14 investigations are ongoing.

-ABC News’ Guy Davies


Jun 23, 6:41 PM

Israeli airstrike kills 8 people in Gaza City: Gaza Ministry of Health

Eight people were killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

The IDF said they were targeting Hamas infrastructure and took measures to reduce risk to civilians.

Witnesses told Reuters that the site was used to distribute coupons for aid and distribute water. Video shows a destroyed building and people moving bodies away from the rubble.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule, Jordana Miller and Sami Zyara

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