Tens of thousands of Lebanese are expected to arrive from abroad to celebrate Christmas with their family and friends.
The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to the fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops must return to their side of the border.
Britain's defense ministry said about 1,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and about 3,000 more had been wounded fighting against Ukraine.
JERUSALEM/CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -The Palestinian militant movement Hamas released four female Israeli soldier hostages on Saturday, in return for some 200 Palestinian prisoners, in keeping with a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the 15-month-old war in Gaza. The four hostages were led onto a podium in Gaza City amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrounded by dozens of armed Hamas men. The four soldiers - Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag - were all stationed at an observation post on the edge of Gaza and abducted by Hamas fighters who overran their base during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
A survivor of the 7 October Hamas attack has been chosen to represent Israel at Eurovision. Yuval Raphael was at the Nova music festival when Hamas led a cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel. The amateur singer was there with friends and later told Israel's parliament she hid under dead bodies for eight hours.
Israeli soldiers have been filmed firing out of their vehicles at apparent improvised explosive devices as part of a security sweep in the West Bank.
Four Israeli soldiers held by Hamas have been released as part of a ceasefire deal that has brought an end to 15 months of brutal fighting in Gaza. Hostages Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, all aged 20, and 19-year-old Liri Albag, were all serving with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) when they were captured. Surrounded by armed Hamas fighters, the women waved and smiled as they were led on to a podium in Gaza City before being guided to Red Cross vehicles waiting to take them to a border point to be handed to the IDF.
The deal, brokered by the United States and France, ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be flying high. Israel’s enemies across the region have been badly weakened during 15 months of war. Israeli hostages have begun to come home from captivity in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s good friend, Donald Trump, is back in the White House.
China says it ‘strongly’ condemns attack on its national
The Israeli government says its military will not withdraw from Lebanon by Sunday’s deadline, in violation of a deadline set in a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
Hamas on Friday said it would release the following day four Israeli women soldiers held hostage since October 7, 2023, in a second exchange under a ceasefire deal that has halted the Gaza war.The exchange is part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war, which took effect on Sunday and saw three women hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners freed.
STORY: :: Drone footage shows mosques in Gaza City and Khan Younis before and after the war:: Al Hassaina Mosque, Gaza:: Great Omari Mosque, Gaza City Old Town:: Great Mosque, Khan YounisPalestinian data shows that at least 823 mosques and three churches, over 200 government facilities and 136 schools and universities were destroyed in a 15-month Israeli military offensive that laid waste to the enclave.A ceasefire took effect on Sunday (January 19) with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails.Now attention is starting to shift to the rebuilding of the coastal enclave which the Israeli military has demolished in retaliation for a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.More than 47,000 Gazans have been killed. Rebuilding Gaza's shattered homes will take at least until 2040, but could drag on for many decades, according to a U.N. report released last year.
Israel has reportedly asked the US for more time to withdraw from southern Lebanon - only days before the deadline to do so is up. Hezbollah says this is unacceptable, and support for Lebanon from major international players is on display.View on euronews
People planning return to neighbourhoods to search for loved ones and assess damage to homes this weekend
When Palestinian activist Bushra Al-Tahil was released from an Israeli prison in exchange for hostages held by Hamas earlier this week, many media reports referred to her as a prisoner — or worse, a terrorist.This was despite the fact that no Israeli court had convicted her of a crime, nor charged her, nor presented her with any evidence about why she was incarcerated for more than 10 months.Nonetheless, in the eyes of the world, Al-Tahil says she was made to look guilty."They are only trying to
Hamas announced Friday that it would release four female soldiers held hostage for 15 months in Gaza, as part of an exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners laid out in its ceasefire agreement with Israel. An advocacy group representing the families of hostages confirmed the identities of the captive Israelis to be released on Saturday.
RAMALLAH (Reuters) -Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city. The operation, involving large columns of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a ceasefire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023. Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.
The Sudanese army broke a paramilitary siege on one of its key Khartoum-area bases on Friday, paving the way to also freeing the besieged military headquarters, a military source said."Our forces were able to lift the siege on the Signal Corps," the source in the Sudanese army told AFP. With a months-long communications blackout in place, AFP was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground.
The Lebanese army on Saturday said it was ready to deploy its forces in the country's south, accusing Israel of "procrastination" in its withdrawal in time for a deadline the following day.Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period that ends Sunday.
Humanitarian aid groups are working to surge food and supplies to the war-ravaged territory as Palestinians scour through mountains of rubble looking for bodies of those killed by Israeli bombardments during the 15-month war. More than 120 corpses were recovered and brought to hospitals across the Gaza Strip over the past day, the Health Ministry said. It said the overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza exceeds 47,000 people.
The DR Congo army and M23 fighters clashed outside Goma on Friday as the UK, US and France urged citizens to leave the main city in the country's volatile east, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.US, British and French nationals were urged to leave Goma while airports and borders were still open, in online statements or in messages sent directly by email or text.
