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Israel's Netanyahu sends Mossad director to Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar in sign of progress

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  • Mysterious airstrip appears on a Yemeni island as Houthi rebel attacks threaten region

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A mysterious airstrip being built on a remote island in Yemen is nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show, one of several built in a nation mired in a stalemated war threatening to reignite.

  • Middle East latest: Netanyahu says deal to return hostages from Gaza reached after last snags

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached. The announcement came a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

  • North Korea stands to lose all 12,000 of its troops in Kursk by mid-April if its casualty rate holds, analysts say

    A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

  • Hope fades into anguish as deadly airstrikes hit Gaza after ceasefire news

    Just as Palestinians in Gaza were reinvigorated with a sense of hope Wednesday after news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, deadly Israeli airstrikes rained down on people, turning celebration into anguish.Families wept as they saw their loved ones' bodies wrapped in white shrouds and carried out in Khan Younis outside Nasser Hospital Friday — their names written in blue ink in Arabic, on each one. Jomaa Abdel-Aal said two of his nephews — Mohammed Asaad Jarghoun, 28, and Mohammed Mahmoud

  • Israel's Cabinet approves a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages

    JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet approved a deal early Saturday for a ceasefire in Gaza that would release dozens of hostages held there and pause the 15-month war with Hamas, bringing the sides a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever.

  • International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor meets with Syrian leader in Damascus

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan made an unannounced visit Friday to Damascus to confer with the leader of Syria’s de facto government on how to ensure accountability for alleged crimes committed in the country.

  • Gaza is in ruins, and it's unclear how it will be rebuilt

    Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited ceasefire agreement halts the Israel-Hamas war, but many will find there is nothing left and no way to rebuild.

  • The key Israel-Hamas ceasefire conditions, in brief

    The deal is split into three phases, each of which will last for 42 days. The first, expected to begin on Sunday, includes the release of 33 hostages from Gaza.

  • How Syria’s Tishrin Dam has become a focal point of fighting between rebel groups

    Several Syrian civilians were killed during a pro-Kurdish protest near Tishrin Dam on January 8. The dam, which sits on the Euphrates River in northern Syria and is an important source of water and power for local communities, has become a focal point of fighting between Kurdish rebel groups and Turkish-backed rebels from the Syrian National Army. Both sides are also carrying out the battle online, where they both have been claiming to control this strategic crossing site. Tishrin Dam has become

  • Sirens sound in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem after projectiles launched from Yemen

    The Iran-backed Houthis have stepped up their missile attacks, in recent weeks. The group says the attacks are part of their campaign aimed at pressuring Israel and the West over the war in Gaza.

  • Israeli government approves Hamas hostage release cease-fire deal

    The Israeli government on Friday approved a cease-fire deal with Hamas that will see the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian group after more than seven hours of debate, local media reported.

  • Middle East latest: Gaza ceasefire set to start 8:30 am Sunday after 15 months of war

    The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Sunday, mediator Qatar said.

  • Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will go into effect Sunday morning, officials say

    CAIRO (AP) — The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will go into effect Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT), mediator Qatar announced Saturday, as families of hostages held in Gaza braced for news of loved ones, Palestinians prepared to receive freed detainees and humanitarian groups rushed to set up a surge of aid.

  • Israel approves Gaza ceasefire, carries out more attacks

    TEL AVIV/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel approved a ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday that involves releasing hostages in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli forces carried out new attacks in the enclave before the agreement's scheduled start on Sunday. The three-phased agreement is set to halt a 15-month-old war between Israel and Gaza's rulers Hamas that has decimated the Gaza Strip, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destabilised the Middle East. The war was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

  • Daughter of one of the oldest Israeli hostages hopes for answers in ceasefire deal

    LONDON (AP) — Sharone Lifschitz is well aware that the odds are against her 84-year-old father. As one of the oldest hostages taken by Hamas, Oded Lifshitz would be among the first to be released under a ceasefire deal expected to begin Sunday.

  • Lebanon's new president stresses urgency of Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

    Lebanon's new president Joseph Aoun stressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday the urgency of an Israeli military withdrawal as stipulated by a ceasefire deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November. According to a statement by the Lebanese presidency on X, Aoun told Guterres during a meeting in Beirut that continued Israeli breaches were a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the agreed ceasefire deal.

  • Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebel group again after violence in northeastern region

    BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia on Friday suspended for second time in less than a year peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, after blaming the rebel group of the violence that has been affecting a northeastern region of the country in recent days.

  • Biden says Netanyahu should accommodate 'legitimate concerns' of Palestinians

    Outgoing Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns" of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. "And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question ... It's not going to happen," Biden, who hands over to Republican President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, said in an interview on MSNBC. "And I kept reminding my friend, and he is a friend, although we don't agree a whole lot lately, Bibi Netanyahu, that he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of a large group of people called Palestinians, who have no place to live independently."

  • Sudanese Military Chief Hit With US Sanctions Over Civil War

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  • How the deal to pause the Israel-Hamas war could unfold

    The Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreemen t is expected to take effect as soon as Sunday. But the most significant diplomatic breakthrough in over a year of brutal war between Israel and Hamas is rife with risks and raises more questions than it answers.