Israel-Gaza live updates: Israel readying for full-scale response
At least 900 people have died and 2,600 others have been injured in Israel after the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented incursion from air, land and sea on Saturday, Israeli authorities said.
Hamas fired thousands of rockets toward Israel and an estimated 1,000 fighters crossed into the country from the neighboring Gaza Strip. Israeli officials said at least 100 civilians and soldiers have been taken hostage.
The Israel Defense Forces has since declared "a state of alert for war" and launched retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by neighboring Israel and Egypt since Hamas seized power in 2007. Palestinian authorities said at least 900 died and another 4,500 were wounded in Gaza since Saturday. Unlike Israel, the Gaza Strip has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Latest Developments
Oct 10, 6:11 PM
WHO calls for access to health and humanitarian assistance
The World Health Organization repeated its call to end hostilities in the Israel-Gaza region and offered assistance to health officials in both countries.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi agreed to a WHO request to facilitate the delivery of health and other humanitarian supplies from WHO to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the organization said.
"In the Gaza Strip, hospitals are running on back-up generators with fuel likely to run out in the coming days. They have exhausted the supplies WHO pre-positioned before the escalation," the organization said in a statement. "The life-saving health response is now dependent on getting new supplies and fuel to health care facilities as fast as possible."
-ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud
Oct 10, 5:51 PM
'Hamas was always an obstacle to peace': Former Israeli FM
Former Israeli Foreign Minister and former Knesset member Tzipi Livni spoke with ABC News Live about the recent Hamas attacks on Israel and argued the group is "not just an Israeli problem."
Livni said, "Hamas was always an obstacle to peace," and called on the entire international community to stand against them.
"They don't represent the Palestinian people," Livni said about Hamas. "They represent this extreme religious ideology that does not accept not only Israel, [but also] the U.S., or our liberal values, [and] democratic ideas."
She thanked President Joe Biden for his support of Israel shortly after he delivered remarks, and said that for Israelis listening it was "the first light in dark days."
-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart
Oct 10, 5:03 PM
First plane with US ammunition lands in Israel
The IDF said the first plane bringing U.S. ammunition landed in Israel Tuesday.
"We are grateful for the American backing and assistance to the IDF in particular, and to the State of Israel in general, during this challenging period," the IDF said in a statement.
-ABC News' Will Gretsky
Oct 10, 4:54 PM
US intelligence 'did not see anything' suggesting this scale of attack
U.S. intelligence "did not see anything that suggested an attack of this type was going to unfold" in Israel, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.
Sullivan wouldn't tell reporters if President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed on their Tuesday call the possibility of an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, and how that might affect American hostages.
Sullivan did defend Israel's targeting of Hamas sites in Gaza after being asked how long the U.S. would support the airstrikes, saying this is "not retaliation," but instead it’s "Israel standing up to defend itself.”
Sullivan also said that "at this point" there is no plan for the U.S. to put American troops on the ground to help Israel.
He added, "The president was very clear today that we will be making a request to the Congress, and it will include a request for funding for support to Israel. And he has also been equally clear that we are going to renew our request to the Congress for aid to Ukraine."
-ABC News' Justin Gomez
Oct 10, 4:18 PM
Netanyahu: 'Barbarism that has not been seen since the Holocaust'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in his conversation with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, he called Hamas' attack on Israel "barbarism that has not been seen since the Holocaust."
"Hundreds of people were slaughtered," including soldiers whose heads were cut off, Netanyahu said.
"Entire families were murdered in their beds and homes, women were brutally raped and murdered, [and] more than a hundred were kidnapped, including children," he said.
Netanyahu said he told Biden that "Hamas is worse than ISIS -- and that they should be treated that way."
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said Israeli soldiers have gained control of Israel's southern border "and are now moving on to a full-scale response."
"Anyone who decapitates citizens, or murders women and Holocaust survivors, will be eliminated. We will use all our force," Gallant said.
To the soldiers, Gallant said, "We have full confidence in you. It is thanks to the IDF that Israel exists."
The IDF said Israeli soldiers exchanged gunfire with terrorists in the Ashkelon industrial area in the last hour, killing at least three terrorists.
-ABC News' Will Gretsky
Oct 10, 3:50 PM
About 20 Americans missing in Israel: State Department
The United States is tracking about 20 Americans who are still missing in Israel, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Tuesday.
Miller said that doesn't necessarily mean they are being held by Hamas.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel this week to work with Israeli partners directly to determine "how we can continue to best support them," Miller said.
Blinken will most likely leave on Wednesday to arrive in Israel on Thursday, he said.
Biden has not spoken with the families of the 14 Americans killed in Israel, but the State Department has been in constant contact with their families, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.
"The president has been making this his highest priority as he receives briefings each day about what we are doing to try to determine both what’s happening with the missing and also to ensure that we can secure the bodies of those that have perished and ensure that they get returned to their loved ones," he said.
-ABC News' Shannon Crawford and Mary Bruce
Oct 10, 3:49 PM
Death toll mounts on both sides
The death toll has been mounting on both sides since Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, launched an unprecedented incursion into Israel over the weekend, prompting Israeli forces to retaliate.
In Israel, more than 900 people have died and 2,600 others have been injured since Saturday, according to the latest numbers from Israeli authorities.
In Gaza, at least 900 have died -- among them 260 children and 230 women -- and another 4,500 have been wounded since Saturday, according to the latest numbers from Palestinian officials.
Oct 10, 3:23 PM
American Airlines suspends flights through Dec. 4
American Airlines said it will suspend flights to and from Tel Aviv through Dec. 4.
Delta suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until the end of October, while United said its flights to and from Tel Aviv are suspended "until conditions allow them to resume."
Oct 10, 3:29 PM
'We stand with Israel,' Biden says
President Joe Biden said Tuesday in an address to the American people, "We stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens -- defend itself and respond to this attack."
Biden stressed, "Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people's right to dignity and self-determination. Their state of purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel on the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed, with no regard to who pays the price."
Biden said among the horrors were "parents butchered, using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach churning reports of being babies being killed. Entire families slain. ... Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies."
"There's still so many families desperately waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones, not knowing if they're alive or dead or hostages," Biden said. "Infants in their mother’s arms, grandparents in wheelchairs, Holocaust survivors abducted and held hostage. Hostages whom Hamas has now threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality."
"It's abhorrent," Biden said, adding that Hamas' "brutality ... brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS. This is terrorism. But sadly, for the Jewish people, it's not new."
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Biden said, "We're surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors, to replenish Iron Dome. We're going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend its cities and its citizens. My administration has consulted closely with Congress throughout this crisis, and when Congress returns, we're going to ask them to take urgent action to fund the national security requirements of our critical partners."
"This is a moment for the United States to come together, to grieve with those who are mourning," Biden said, adding, "There is no place for hate in America -- not against Jews, not against Muslims, not against anybody."
Oct 10, 2:40 PM
Biden: 14 Americans killed in 'act of sheer evil'
At least 14 Americans have been killed in the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, President Joe Biden said Tuesday in an address to the American people.
He condemned Hamas' incursion as an "act of sheer evil."
Biden confirmed that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas.
He said he's directed his "team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts."
