Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the militant group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it.

Palestinian rescuers reported more than 100 people killed Thursday in Israeli strikes on blockaded Gaza, where a US-backed organisation said it intends to begin distributing aid by the end of the month.

Gaza rescuers said at least 80 people were killed in Israeli bombardment across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US envoy Steve Witkoff about the release of hostages.

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Egypt along with Qatar and the United States, have been deadlocked for weeks following the expiry in early March of the first phase of a January 19 ceasefire.

Trump said that by the time of the handover, Palestinians "would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities". Israel's defense minister meanwhile ordered the army to prepare for "voluntary" departures from Gaza, following Trump's remarks.

"When Gallant adopts the anti-Israel narrative, he harms the chances of reaching a hostage release deal," Netanyahu said, adding that Hamas supremo Yahya Sinwar is the one "who has been and remains the only obstacle to a hostage deal."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned "anyone who harms us will pay a very heavy price", after Friday's drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian. But Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti swiftly threatened to "meet escalation with escalation", in a social media post.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel said Friday that "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release but that it will send a delegation for fresh talks with Qatari mediators next week. The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman came after a delegation led by the...

Biden urged Netanyahu "to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country"

The British government on Friday called for "utmost transparency" and a "wholly independent review" into the killing of seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip. The deaths have also heaped pressure on the UK government to suspend arms export licenses to Israel.

"The demands ... are complete ceasefire, withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza, the return of the displaced to their residential areas, freedom of movement of the people, offering them aid, shelter, and a serious hostage exchange deal," Hamas said. Its insistence came as US President Joe Biden urged an...

US, Egypt and Qatar have been engaged in weeks of behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to secure a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip. Biden, in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, "made clear that everything must be done to secure the release of hostages, including...

Reports of the new talks in Cairo came as protesters in Israel's biggest city blocked a major road Saturday following demonstrations calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza. A key element of the ceasefire negotiations has been an agreement on releasing the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners...

On Saturday, UN chief Guterres plans to meet with aid workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, just across the border from the Gazan city where 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge. International efforts to pause the almost six months of fighting have grown increasingly desperate, with the Hamas-run health...

The move is one of the clearest attempts yet by Biden to rein in the key US ally, amid fears that the already huge death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza could be drastically worsened by a full attack on Rafah. Roughly 1.5 million people are sheltering in Rafah, most...

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the military's "plans for action in Rafah", according to a statement Friday, which gave no details or a timeline. The United Nations and the United States have also repeatedly warned against such a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu "approved the plans for action in Rafah," his office said in a statement, without giving details or a timeline. Rafah is the last major population center yet to be subjected to a ground assault during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which was triggered by the fighters' unprecedented attack...

With Gaza's humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden's left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a "red line" over Israel's threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. Netanyahu "has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,"...

Palestinian Territories - Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said on Thursday that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks. Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized...

Taking an unusually sharp tone, Harris demanded Israel "do more to significantly increase the flow of aid" into Gaza, where she said people are starving and the conditions "inhumane". Pressure for a truce has mounted after attempted aid deliveries have descended into scenes of tragedy, and convoys have failed to...

As the peaceful demonstration was underway in Jerusalem, a senior US official said a truce deal which may see hostages freed could be within reach. Mediators from many countries have scrambled to lock in a new truce before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins later this month.

The Palestinian leadership has been divided since 2007, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited power in the West Bank. Blinken has called for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to exert control over the Gaza Strip after the war, an idea that has not been met with enthusiasm from Israeli Prime Minister...

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Antonio Guterres said that Gaza's southernmost city, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded together in tent cities, was "the core of the humanitarian aid operation" in the Palestinian territory. Guterres stressed Monday that "nothing can justify Hamas's deliberate killing,...

Fearing the potential for mass casualties, foreign governments and aid organizations have repeatedly urged Israel to spare Rafah, the last major Gazan city not invaded by ground troops during the four-month-old war. Despite the mounting international pressure, including a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

Algeria has requested a UN Security Council vote on Tuesday, but Washington signaled it is likely to veto the measure. US President Joe Biden is working with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar on a hostage deal that would bring about six weeks of...

Truce efforts intensified this week as Qatar and fellow mediators Egypt and the US scrambled to secure a ceasefire before Israeli troops enter Rafah, the last major population center in Gaza untouched by Israeli ground troops. Despite a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden earlier this week, Netanyahu insisted...

Palestinian Territories - Israel faced renewed calls from key ally the United States on Friday against launching a large-scale attack on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted he would push ahead with a "powerful" operation in the...

The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand on Thursday warned Israel against a potentially "catastrophic" ground offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, amplifying a growing chorus of international concern. Urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "not to go down this path", the trio of Commonwealth nations issued a...

Talks have been underway for weeks to secure a second truce in the four-month war, which would see more hostages freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Amir-Abdollahian met top officials in Beirut including Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful ally of the group. He also met Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, and deputy chief of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mazhar,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go in to the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel. The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States...

New defense technologies including artificial intelligence-powered gunsights and robotic drones form a bright spot in an otherwise dire period for Israel's tech industry. Over 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying "serious challenges and concerns" in new military tech, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems."

Rafah is the southernmost city in the Palestinian enclave that has been hit by a fierce Israeli offensive since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Many of the population of 2.2 million have taken refuge there. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told officials to "submit to the cabinet...

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted" after a week-long truce in November, he said. The US top envoy, on his fifth Middle East tour since...

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, a Hamas ally. Hizbollah claimed responsibility Monday for at least 12 attacks on Israeli army positions near the border, using...

The firebrand politician Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel should "encourage voluntary emigration" of Palestinians from Gaza, echoing past remarks that drew sharp rebuke from close ally the United States and the wider international community. Several participants carried guns, while outside the convention center vendors sold t-shirts that read: "Gaza is part...

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich commented after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught on tape allegedly telling hostages' families this week that Qatar's mediation was "problematic" when it came to resolving the hostage crisis. Smotrich accused Western governments of being "hypocritical" in maintaining close relations with Doha.

The deadly incident came after the Israeli army said it had encircled the city, where footage released by the military showed soldiers engaged in urban combat amid ruined buildings. Hamas's press office also reported fierce clashes in the center and west of Khan Yunis, while its health ministry counted multiple...

Israeli prime minister accused Qatar of financing Hamas at a meeting this week with the families of hostages held in Gaza. Making his annoyance with the country known, he said he was upset at a US decision to extend the presence of a military base in the Gulf state, according...

"Heavy fighting is reported in proximity to hospitals in Khan Yunis, including Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Al-Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee to the southern town of Rafah," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said. "No-one can enter or exit (Nasser Hospital) due to ongoing bombardments," OCHA said citing medics...

Demonstrators marched through the city's Habima Square, a frequent protest site, with some carrying signs calling Netanyahu "the face of evil" and demanding "elections now". Protesters demanding the return of hostages also gathered in Haifa and outside the premier's Jerusalem residence.

A senior Hamas official dismissed comments by US President Joe Biden about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Biden said it was still possible that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could agree to some form of Palestinian state after the two leaders spoke by...

Netanyahu has said Israel expects the war to continue for months, but his comments on Thursday rejecting a so-called two-state solution suggested a rift with key backer the United States. Biden said after Friday's call with Netanyahu, with whom he has had a complicated relationship over some 40 years, it...

Hamas was created in December 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories by a group of fighters claiming to be from the Muslim Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week said Israel would not get "genuine security" without a "pathway to a Palestinian state." Israel's relentless air and ground offensive has killed at least 24,762 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, young children and...

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a relentless bombardment that has killed at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children. After the ICJ heard arguments this week that accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, Netanyahu insisted no court or military foe could stop Israel from achieving its...

Saturday's marches held particular significance given US and British air strikes in Yemen this week against Houthi bases, after the Iran-backed fighters attacked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza. The day of action, called by a British organizing coalition, involved protests in 30 countries.

Peace Now said in the report published on Thursday there had been an increase in the activities of some settlers who are "marginalizing" the Palestinians in the territory, noting a "record" number of new settlements since the outbreak of fighting. Acts of violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West...

The unveiling of Gallant's plan comes on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is travelling to the Middle East to press for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and to stave off any regional escalation of the conflict.