Hamas said that seven more hostages seized during its unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 had died because of Israeli military operations in Gaza. Meanwhile, four more children have died of "malnutrition and dehydration" in war-torn Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry said, the latest such reported deaths...

A deal between Hamas and Israel could include the exchange of dozens of hostages for several hundred Palestinian civilians held by Israel. Top officials from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and elsewhere have acted as mediators, seeking a halt to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and the release...

"Representatives of Israel, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar met in Paris and came to an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for temporary ceasefire would look like," White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN. "It is still under...

According to local media reports, the country's war cabinet endorsed the decision to dispatch negotiators to Qatar to continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war against Hamas and the return of hostages being held in Gaza. Pressure has mounted on Israeli PM to strike a deal to...

Speaking at a televised news conference, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that critics exhorting Israel not to lauch offensive in Rafah were telling the Jewish country to "lose the war" against Hamas. He suggested that troops would go in regardless of whether a hostage release is reached.

The UN and many governments across the world have expressed alarm about the possible civilian toll of an Israeli assault against the southern city of Rafah. The negotiations, which also involved Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian officials, were part of an intensifying effort to secure a ceasefire.

Sheikh Mohammed confirmed that the framework -- which he said might lead to a permanent ceasefire -- includes a phased truce that would see women and children hostages released first, with aid also entering besieged Gaza. A senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, said it wanted a "complete and comprehensive ceasefire,...

Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, said his group wanted a "complete and comprehensive ceasefire, and not a temporary truce." Speaking to AFP, he said that once the fighting stopped "the rest of the details can be discussed" including a hostage release. Qatar, Egypt and the US have led mediation...

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...

The US news site Axios reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials, that the deal would take place in multiple stages, the first of which would see the release of women, men over 60 and those in critical medical condition. Later phases would involve the release of soldiers, younger civilian men, and...

The group admitted in a 16-page report justifying the attack that "some faults happened... due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza". The document was the group's first public report released in English and Arabic explaining...

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari told QNA "the medications and aid will leave Doha tomorrow to the city of Al-Arish in the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt, on board two Qatari Armed Forces aircrafts, in preparation for their transport into the Gaza Strip".

Tel Aviv, Israel--Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv late Saturday calling for the release of hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas fighters, on the eve of the 100th day of their captivity. The protests came after families unveiled a replica of the tunnels in the besieged Palestinian territory where...

In a video posted online and broadcast at a meeting in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages, Emmanuel Macron said that France does not abandon its children and "that is why we have to resume negotiations again and again for their release." He said that France is determined that...

The prime minister of Israel told a news conference that the war will continue for many months "until Hamas is eliminated and the hostages are returned." He vowed to bring home all Israelis still held hostage in Gaza, while saying the military was involved in a "complex fight" and needed...

Tel Aviv, Israel - Israel is negotiating the release of hostages held by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the relatives of the hostages, The Jerusalem Post reported. According to the publication, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel is working to get all the hostages...

Alon Shamriz, 26, was one of the three Israeli hostages shot dead by soldiers during an operation in the Gaza City suburb of Shejaiya, even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew. Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer El-Talalqa were killed when troops mistook them for...

The Israeli army said that it had mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat, and fired, killing three of them. It added that "immediate lessons" have been learnt from the event, which have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field," it added, expressing "deep remorse over...

Carrying placards with messages like "bring them home now", hundreds of Israelis took to streets in Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for the release of nearly 140 people still being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas took 240 hostages back to Gaza during its bloody October...

The hostages, most of whom were freed during a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas, spoke in a video broadcast before a crowd of thousands at a rally in central Tel Aviv. In the brief interviews, four women who were held by Hamas related the fear, hunger, and sleeplessness of...

The truce agreement between Israel and Hamas stipulates that a minimum of 10 Israeli hostages should be released alive each day. But a source close to Hamas told AFP that two Russian-Israeli women freed on Wednesday in addition to 10 others made up for only eight Israelis being released on...

The overnight releases, which came after a sixth batch of hostages were freed from Gaza, bring the number of Palestinian civilians freed by Israel under a truce deal to 210. Hamas and other fighters in Gaza have released 70 Israelis under the deal, along with nearly 30 hostages of other...

The meeting came after the world's richest person visited a kibbutz community devastated in attacks by Hamas fighters on October 7, and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense officials. Musk has been criticized over what critics say is a proliferation of hate speech on X, formerly Twitter, since...

The pause that began Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with over 100 Palestinian civilians released by Israel in return. Attention now has turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning.

A third group of Israeli hostages will be set free by Hamas fighters in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a day after after freeing captives including a young woman snatched from a desert rave. The Israeli prime minister's office said it had since received a list of hostages due to be...

Eleven ambulances, three coaches and a flatbed were delivered to Al-Shifa hospital, which had seen heavy fighting in recent days, "to assist with evacuations," the UN said. The day prior, when a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas began in order to facilitate the hostage exchange, a total of 137...

Carrying placards and waving Palestinian flags, thousands of protestors chanted slogans before Canada's Parliament in Ottawa, demanding a permanent ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Among the protestors were people from diverse backgrounds: Arabs, Muslims, Jews, anti-war, labor and social justice organizations.

Weeks of talks involving Israel, Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and the US saw three girls and a boy, aged from two to nine besides six women aged over 70 arrive in Israeli territory.

After tedious days marked by idle chitchat and dreary diets of beans and instant coffee, the men, all Egyptians, took some comfort in news that more fuel and other essentials may soon be allowed in as part of a four-day truce that could begin as soon as Friday. But it...

US President Joe Biden thanked the leaders of Qatar and Egypt for their "critical leadership" in reaching the deal. "I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls… will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented," Biden said, referring to the hostages.

Qatar's foreign ministry confirmed the deal, saying that "a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons" would be released in exchange for the hostages. "The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension," the...

Around 160 children are killed every day in Gaza and UNICEF has warned that the number could skyrocket. More than 900,000 displaced Gazans are staying in overcrowded shelters run by UNRWA.

Qatar's prime minister said that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on "minor" practical issues. Under the tentative deal, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel. In exchange, about 300 Palestinians would...

Washington, United States - Israel and the Hamas are close to reaching agreements that will make possible to free the majority of Israeli women and children captured on October 7, a columnist of The Washington Post (WP) David Ignatius wrote in his op-ed, citing sources in the Israeli government. The agreement can...

"We heard that there was an impending deal of this kind or of that kind and then we learned that it was all hokum. But the minute we started the ground operation, that began to change," Netanyahu told NBC show "Meet the Press."

Geneva, Switzerland - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has described hostage-taking by Palestinian armed groups and Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians as war crimes. "The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were heinous, brutal and shocking, they were war crimes - as is...

Tehran, Iran--Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday accused the United States of "encouraging" Israel to kill and carry out "cruel acts" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Gunmen from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas stormed across Gaza's border with Israel on October 7, killing about 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and...

Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the ICRC spoke of her shock at the " intolerable level of human suffering" and called for a de-escalation. She said that it is a "catastrophic failing" that the world must not tolerate as Israel said its war on Hamas had entered a new phase.

The French head of state was also due to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog, as well as opposition leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in Jerusalem. And in Tel Aviv, he was due to meet the families of French and French-Israeli nationals killed in the Hamas attack or being held...

Many states including Jordan on behalf of an Arab group of nations, Russia, Syria, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Combodia formally requested General Assembly president to schedule the meeting. The UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rejected a Russian draft resolution last week calling for a "humanitarian pause."

Berlin, Germany--Qatar, a key power in the efforts to release hostages seized by Hamas from Israel, believes they can be released "very soon" thanks to ongoing discussions, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman told the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper Saturday. Doha's mediation played a key role in the release on Friday...

Jerusalem, Undefined - The Israeli military on Monday raised the figure to 199 people confirmed to have been abducted by Hamas to the Gaza Strip in the militants' cross-border attacks which sparked a devastating war. "We have updated the families of 199 hostages," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a media briefing,...

With Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip showing no sign of any let up, and death toll touching 1,900 people, Russia has called for a "humanitarian cease-fire" in the Gaza Strip. Its ambassador to the UN blamed the US for the conflict. The draft resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire...

Caught unawares by the surprise attack, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israelis to prepare for a "long and difficult war" with Hamas, raising concerns of a much wider conflict.

World calls for restraint as Palestinian death toll reaches 232 and Israeli casualties cross 200, prompting a vow of retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Passengers on BA flight 149 were taken off the Kuala Lumpur-bound plane when it landed in the Gulf state on 2 Aug. 1990, hours after Saddam Hussein's troops swept in.