The conflict between Israel and Hamas has led to accusations of war crimes on both sides, as combatants are bound by international humanitarian law to minimize the impact on civilians.

The president's high-stakes visit served simultaneously to show the limits and the strengths of U.S. influence in the region, and the importance of America's longstanding relationship with Israel.

President Biden is the latest in a long line of presidents to place himself in the middle of a Middle East conflict. U.S. efforts have seen failed starts, wrong turns and dead ends, but some progress.

The surprise attack on Israel has brought the militant group back into the spotlight. A Hamas official tells NPR the attack was meant in part to lead to the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

With high poverty and unemployment and severe restrictions on movement, life in the Gaza Strip was already difficult before Israel's retaliatory offensive began this week in response to Hamas attacks.

Analysts have long accused Iran of backing militant groups in the region to counter Israel.

The group, founded in 1987, has vowed to annihilate Israel. Before this past weekend's attack, it was responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military said it has largely regained control of areas in the south that had been attacked by militants from Hamas. The announcement came on the fourth day of war with Hamas.

There are still a number of unaccounted-for U.S. citizens, U.S. officials said, as the fighting entered its third day.

A surge in violence this year has killed 128 Palestinians and 24 people on the Israeli side so far, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months, amid nightly raids in the West Bank prompted by a spate of attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring.

The Gaza Strip needs major reconstruction after the Israeli military hit buildings and infrastructure. Experts say the U.N.-backed process of vetting projects ends up increasing costs and delays.

Attacks have broken out in communities across the country, leaving officials in law enforcement and government scrambling to confront the ripple effects of recent violence between Israel and Hamas.

As Israel's military strikes Gaza, Palestinian families across the territory huddle in their buildings' stairwells or rooms that put the most walls between them and the offensive outside.