Yahoo News Israel-Gaza live updates: IDF finds 1,500 tunnel shafts, underground passages
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 19, 8:49 PM
Palestinian Islamic Jihad releases video of 2 Israeli hostages
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video on Tuesday of two Israeli hostages pleading for their release.
The men -- who identified themselves as Gadi Moses and Elad Katzir -- spoke as they appeared in front of a plain background in the nearly 2 1/2-minute video.
"I want to convey to my friends and supporters that we must increase the pressure so that the government understands what we want," Moses said in the video provided by the hostage-takers. "We want every effort to be made so that we will soon arrive back home to our friends, our family, to our home."
Addressing Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces Commander Hertzi Halevi, Moses said he feared being killed by an Israeli bomb.
"This situation where we could die at any moment is an unbearable situation; there is a reasonable chance that we will also be killed tonight," he said.
Katzir, 47, also said the bombings "endanger our lives" and urged Israeli leaders to make a prisoner exchange deal.
"We don't want to die in Gaza," he said. "We want them to do whatever it takes to bring us home."
It is unclear when the video was recorded and if the men were told what to say.
The hostages' families gave ABC News permission to use stills from the video.
Dec 19, 2:54 PM
1,500 tunnel shafts, underground passages found in Gaza since start of war
The Israel Defense Forces said it’s found about 1,500 tunnel shafts and underground passages in Gaza since the start of the war.
The IDF -- which has consistently accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields -- said most tunnels were under schools, hospitals, mosques, United Nations facilities and civilian institutions.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Dec 19, 2:31 PM
40 trucks carrying commercial goods cross into Gaza for 1st time since war began
Forty trucks carrying commercial goods crossed into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday -- the first time commercial goods entered since the war began, Palestinian border crossing spokesman Wael Abu Omar told ABC News.
The trucks -- carrying items including flour, oil and salt -- entered through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the spokesman said.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Dec 19, 3:38 PM
Israeli president: ‘Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Tuesday that “Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages.”
Herzog said to achieve this, “the responsibility lies fully with [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas.”
“It is really important for us to reiterate -- we are not fighting the people of Gaza. They are not our enemies,” the president said. “We are fighting Hamas, they are the enemy. And in this respect, we are taking all possible humanitarian steps according to international humanitarian law.”
Herzog said the amount of humanitarian aid for hard-hit Gaza “can be tripled instantaneously.”
“For the last two weeks, Israel has operated new scanning equipment in [the Israeli city of] Nitzana enabling the entry of 350 trucks a day. For the last two weeks there was a failure by the United Nations predominantly, and other partners, in the inflow of trucks into Gaza -- only about 125 or 100 trucks a day,” he said. “You can triple the amount of trucks easily, if there was only an effort by the United Nations and its partners. The world has to know that you could have had tens of thousands of tons a day more going into Gaza.”
A UNRWA spokesperson disputed Herzog's claim, saying, "That’s not at all accurate."
Dec 19, 12:31 PM
IDF will still operate deep in Gaza during ‘next stage in the fighting’
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said Tuesday that even when Israel moves "to the next stage in the fighting, the [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers will continue to operate deep in the [Gaza] Strip until we achieve all our goals.”
“We will continue to hold territory in the [Gaza] Strip in order to provide security to the Israeli settlements,” Gantz said. “Our operational plan is still long."
Dec 19, 12:19 PM
IDF says it found explosive device in Gaza medical clinic near school
The Israel Defense Forces said it found an “explosive device planted” in a medical clinic near a school in Shejaiya, Gaza.
The IDF said it also found "numerous weapons, including AK-47s, vests and cartridges."
Dec 19, 11:57 AM
27 killed near Gaza refugee camp: Gaza Ministry of Health
Twenty-seven people were killed and at least 10 were injured after Israeli forces targeted the block 2 area in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Two journalists were among the injured, the Ministry of Health said.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Dec 19, 11:36 AM
355,000 cases of skin and infectious diseases detected in Gaza
Health teams have detected 355,000 cases of skin and infectious diseases in Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Tuesday, adding that the number of cases is likely much higher than what has been detected.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Dec 18, 4:30 PM
Hamas releases video of 3 elderly Israeli hostages
Hamas posted a video message on Monday showing three elderly Israeli hostages pleading for their release.
"I am here with a group of very old people, all with prior medical conditions, who are suffering here in very hard conditions," one hostage said in the video.
Kibbutz Nir Oz identified the hostages as: 85-year-old Amiram Cooper, a father of three and grandfather of nine whose wife was abducted and later released; 79-year-old Chaim Peri, a father of five and grandfather of 13; and 80-year-old Yoram Metzger, a father of three and grandfather of seven whose wife was taken to Gaza and later released.
"Time is running out," the kibbutz said in a statement. "Each passing day exacerbates their situation. … We urge the U.S. Defense Minister who is currently visiting Israel -- they must be returned to their families now, before it's too late."
The Israel Defense Forces said the video "testifies to Hamas' cruelty towards innocent, very elderly civilians who are in need of medical care."
"The world must act in order to deliver medical aid and check on the state of the hostages,” the IDF said. “Our heart is with all hostages and their families, all the time. ... Know that we are doing everything, everything in order to bring you back safely."
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Dec 18, 2:05 PM
Kirby on IDF killing of 3 hostages: 'No doubt' IDF will 'do the forensics' on rules of engagement
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the mistaken fatal shootings of three Israeli hostages by the Israel Defense Forces "tragic,” adding there’s “no doubt” the Israelis will be looking into their rules of engagement.
“I have no doubt that they will do the forensics on this to learn what happened and how to avoid it happening again,” Kirby said. “It's tragic. It's sad. And you can't imagine that those IDF soldiers who pulled that trigger and killed those hostages feel very good about what they did. Of course not. It's a traumatic event.”
Kirby said sometimes the rules of engagement isn’t the issue, but rather “just the way they're enforced, or the interpretation of it by a unit on the ground or by an individual soldier.”
“That's why doing the forensics on this is going to be so important for them to kind of figure out, is there a systemic issue … or was this an individual issue? Misunderstanding, miscalculation, fog of war? I mean, we just don't know,” Kirby said. “I think we should be careful at this early stage, and certainly from here from Washington, to point the fingers at the exact rules of engagement.”
The IDF said it mistakenly killed three hostages who were carrying a stick with a white cloth during combat in Gaza, in what the head of the military said was "against the rules of engagement." The IDF said the three hostages were "mistakenly identified" as a threat.
The three men were identified as 28-year-old Yotam Haim; 26-year-old Alon Shamriz; and 22-year-old Samer Talalka.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
