Israel-Gaza updates: Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages' release, Gaza humanitarian assistance

The hostages are two elderly women who are both Israeli nationals.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: October 23, 2023, 4:29 PM EDT

Thousands of people have died and thousands more were injured after the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.

At least 1,400 people have died and 4,629 others have been injured in Israel, according to Israeli authorities. In Gaza, 5,087 people have died and 15,273 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Authority.

Aid workers and officials fear that Israel's call for an evacuation of the northern part of Gaza is precipitating a humanitarian disaster as electricity and other supplies have been cut off in preparation for what appears to be an imminent ground offensive.

Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to call off the evacuation and agree to a cease-fire, even as the country has asserted a right to defend itself -- a right the United States endorses.

Click here for previous updates.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 20, 2023, 10:29 AM EDT

High-tech expert talks efforts to track down hostages

A team of high-tech experts is helping track down the people who were taken hostage or have disappeared in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Photographs of the missing are seen as a "Shabbat Dinner" table is prepared at the Tel Aviv museum plaza, with 200 empty seats, representing the hostages and missing people on Oct. 20, 2023 in Tel Aviv Israel.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

"In the last two weeks, we were really working around the clock," one of the experts, Karine Nahon, told ABC News in a telephone interview on Friday.

Currently, there are about 100 people whose whereabouts remain unknown, according to Nahon. Various experts, government agencies and volunteers have joined forces in an effort to locate them. The team is using "an array" of methods and technologies, from creating new algorithms to matching photos of the missing with videos taken by Hamas, Nahon said.

"We combine them in one space and, together, we're actually able to identify hundreds of people and what’s their status," she added.

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, James Longman and Morgan Winsor

Oct 20, 2023, 10:26 AM EDT

Aid convoys still waiting to enter Gaza from Egypt

More than 200 trucks and over 4,000 tons of supplies are now stockpiled at the Egypt-Gaza border, according to an Egyptian official.

But the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing remained closed.

PHOTO: An Egyptian volunteer walks next to trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egyptian NGOs for Palestinians, as they await for the reopening of the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian side to enter Gaza, in Rafah, Egypt, Oct. 19, 2023.
An Egyptian volunteer walks next to trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egyptian NGOs for Palestinians, as they await for the reopening of the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian side to enter Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt, Oct. 19, 2023.
Stringer/Reuters

The aid convoys will be allowed to start entering war-torn Gaza "in the next day or so," according to Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell reports on the contentious negotiations over the much-needed aid for people inside Gaza.
4:31
Aid trucks to be allowed into Gaza as humanitarian disaster deepensABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell reports on the contentious negotiations over the much-needed aid for people inside Gaza.
ABCNews.com

"We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation into Gaza starts as quickly as possible and with the right conditions," Laerke told reporters in Geneva. "We are encouraged by reports that the different sides are nearing an agreement on the modalities, and that a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so."

During a press briefing in Tel Aviv, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht could not say when aid would be allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt but confirmed that an agreement had not yet been reached and the border crossing was not open.

-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy, Jordana Miller, Emma Ogao and Morgan Winsor

Oct 20, 2023, 9:50 AM EDT

Humanitarian worker in Gaza talks dire wait for aid

It’s not money that people in the Gaza Strip need right now, but rather food, water, medicine and other basic necessities, according to a humanitarian worker there.

"If we have money, we can’t buy anything. There's nothing to buy in the stores, it’s empty shelves," Omar Alnajjar, project manager for nonprofit Save Your Future, told ABC News in a telephone interview from the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

U.S. Officials said they are still “hopeful” the Rafah gate will be opened, but a source familiar with the negotiations said efforts are now hitting multiple roadblocks.
2:42
The wait for help stretches into another day at the Rafah border crossing U.S. Officials said they are still “hopeful” the Rafah gate will be opened, but a source familiar with the negotiations said efforts are now hitting multiple roadblocks.
ABCNews.com

As Israeli forces continue to bomb "terror targets" in Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack carried out by the Hamas militant group that governs the territory, an estimated 1 million people are displaced there, including over 520,000 people staying in "emergency shelters in increasingly dire conditions," according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

That's why it's crucial Egypt allows humanitarian aid convoys parked at its northwestern border with Gaza to cross into the war-torn territory and deliver the lifesaving supplies as soon as possible, Alnajjar said. But as of Friday afternoon, the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing remains closed.

"People are just waiting," he added.

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, James Longman and Morgan Winsor

Oct 20, 2023, 6:37 AM EDT

'We appreciate President Biden's support,' Netanyahu's office says

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted to U.S. President Joe Biden's rare address to Americans on Thursday night.

"We appreciate President Biden's support and the strong bipartisan support in America," Netanyahu's office told ABC News in a statement on Friday, when asked for comment.

Biden's speech emphasized the need for both global and U.S. national security to assist Israel and Ukraine in their respective conflicts, which he said threaten broader disruptions in the Middle East and Europe.

It's the second time President Biden has addressed the nation from the oval office, using the magnitude to warn the world is at an inflection point and the U.S. must continue to defend democracy.
3:11
President Biden addresses US: We will not let terrorists winIt's the second time President Biden has addressed the nation from the oval office, using the magnitude to warn the world is at an inflection point and the U.S. must continue to defend democracy.
ABCNews.com

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Morgan Winsor

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