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