More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, the Israeli army continues to bomb the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring parties since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up anytime soon and the brief ceasefire that saw the release of more than 100 Gaza hostages remains a distant memory.
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Latest developments
February 25 at 7:06 p.m.
Netanyahu’s office presents plan to evacuate Gazans from ‘combat zones’ to war cabinet
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office presented Israel’s war cabinet with a “plan to evacuate the population from combat areas in the Gaza Strip,” according to a statement from the office on Monday morning local time.
“In addition, the plan to provide humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a way that prevents the looting that has occurred in the north of the Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement added.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
February 24 at 16:34
Israel agrees to updated framework for ceasefire and hostage agreement
Israel agreed to an updated framework that would establish a six-week ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, an Israeli source told ABC News. The development follows talks in Paris, which include officials from the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
While Israel says it is waiting to hear from Hamas on whether it will accept the updated language from this weekend’s talks, Israel is pressing ahead with its plans to enter Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published in X that the operational and evacuation plans in Rafah are ready to be approved by his cabinet.
As part of the proposed deal, Israel agreed to release imprisoned Palestinians at a higher ratio than in the previous deal, which was 3 to 1. Up to 400 Palestinian prisoners could be released under this new deal.
The Israel Defense Forces will redeploy but will not withdraw from Gaza.
-Marcus Moore of ABC News
February 23 at 1:23 p.m.
Blinken calls Israeli settlement expansion “incompatible with international law”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is signaling a possible return to a long-standing US policy that rejects Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling it “inconsistent with international law.”
Asked at a news conference in Argentina for his response to Israel’s alleged plans to build thousands of new settlement homes in the area, Blinken responded: “We have seen the reports and I must say that we are disappointed with the announcement.”
“It has been a long-standing policy of the United States, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, that new settlements are counterproductive to achieving lasting peace. They are also inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said. “Our administration remains firmly opposed to settlement expansion and, in our view, this only weakens, not strengthens, Israel’s security.”
The Biden administration has condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank for years, but the State Department had not yet gone so far as to say they violated international law after Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, said in 2019 that the United States already would not see Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as violations.
But before delivering his rebuke, Blinken took note of what he called a “horrible terrorist attack” against a Jewish settlement in the West Bank this week and said the United States would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people.
-Shannon Crawford of ABC News