Day 90 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Jan. 4

US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein's visit, planned weeks ahead of time, came just two days after Hamas senior official Saleh al-Arouri was killed in Beirut in an aerial attack attributed to Israel.

Rina Bassist, Ezgi Akin, Beatrice Farhat, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Adam Lucente, Jack Dutton, Jared Szuba and Al-Monitor’s contributors on the ground in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel contributed to this blog.

Click here for our most recent updates.

Live updates (all times EDT):

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024

1:01 pm: 'Quietly complicit': second US official quits over Biden’s Gaza war handling

A US official in the Department of Education became the second in the Biden administration to publicly resign over the president’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American policy adviser in the Department of Education’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, said he could no longer represent an administration that “does not value all human life equally.” Read Al-Monitor's report.

11:43 am: What we know about US strike that killed Iraqi militia leader in Baghdad

A high-ranking Iraqi militia commander was killed in a suspected US military strike on Thursday as the regional conflict related to the Gaza war continues to heat up.

Reuters and Fox News confirmed that the US military carried out a strike on a vehicle in Baghdad carrying Harakat al-Nujaba figures in response to attacks on US forces in the country. The strike killed the leader of the group and another person, a US official told Reuters, without naming the target. Adam Lucente reports.

9:15 am: Over 1 million people displaced to Gaza’s Rafah since war began

The United Nations said Wednesday that more than 1 million displaced Palestinians have arrived in the southern border town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, when the war with Israel started.

The situation continues to deteriorate in the Palestinian enclave as the devastating war enters its 90th day and amid growing concerns that the violence will spill into a wider regional conflict. Beatrice Farhat reports.

Click here for our most recent updates.