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A bus carrying a group of Palestinian detainees released by Israel under the Gaza ceasefire deal arrived to a cheering crowd in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.

A Hamas official told AFP the group had handed over the bodies of four hostages held in Gaza since its October 7, 2023 attack in exchange.

Wearing traditional keffiyeh scarves and jackets, the freed prisoners descended from the bus before a compact and jubilant crowd, then headed to a quick health checkup.

Young and old chanted "Allahu Akbar" and "the people want the (Hamas military wing) Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades", as Ramallah's governor Leila Ghannam saw them off the bus.

Live footage has shown a bus carrying Palestinian detainees leaving an Israeli jail in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reported.

An Israel security official has said that Hamas has handed over the remains of four captives to the Red Cross, AFP reported.

The UN Human Rights Chief accused Israel on Wednesday of showing an unprecedented disregard for human rights in its military actions in Gaza and said Hamas had violated international law.

"Nothing justifies the appalling manner in which Israel has conducted its military operations in Gaza which consistently breached international law", said Volker Turk, while presenting a new report on the human rights situation in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

US news website Axios quoted an Israeli official as saying that the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will issue a decision on whether to send a negotiation team to Doha or Cairo after completing the prisoner exchange process.
 

The Prisoners' Media Office reported that buses and vehicles belonging to the Red Cross were heading to the Karem Abu Salem checkpoint in the Gaza Strip in preparation for receiving the released Palestinian detainees.

Hamas will forgo its usual handover ceremony when it returns the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Wednesday night, with Israel expected to free more than 600 Palestinian prisoners in exchange, the militant group said.

The swap will be the final one under the first phase of a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal that went into effect on January 19.

Lebanon's government of new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam won a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, with 95 votes in the 128-seat chamber.

The Israel Prison Service said Wednesday it was making preparation for the process of releasing Palestinian detainees in exchange for the return of hostages as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal.

"The Israel Prison Service is making preparations for the process of releasing imprisoned terrorists in accordance with the agreement for the return of the hostages," it said in a statement, adding it had received the list of prisoners to be released.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday a decision on how to move forward with the Gaza ceasefire has to be made by Israel. 

The UN rights chief on Wednesday rejected as "unlawful" proposals for the annexation of or forced transfer from Palestinian territories, warning they posed a threat to the entire region.

"We must resist any normalisation of unlawful conduct, including proposals for annexation or forced transfer," Volker Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Such proposals "could threaten the peace and security of Palestinians and Israelis, and of the wider region", he warned, insisting that "this is the moment for voices of reason to prevail".

Hamas will forgo its usual handover ceremony when it returns the bodies of four Israeli captives on Wednesday night, with Israel expected to free more than 600 Palestinian prisoners in exchange, the militant group said.

The swap will be the final one under the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal that went into effect on 19 January.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel would receive the bodies the four captives without any ceremonies like those previously held by Hamas.

"In accordance with Israeli demands, an agreement was reached with the mediators: our four fallen hostages will be returned tonight as part of phase A (of the ceasefire deal), in an agreed-upon procedure and without Hamas ceremonies," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Egypt rejected on Wednesday an Israeli opposition leader's proposal that it take over the administration of Gaza, calling the idea "unacceptable" and contrary to the longstanding Egyptian and Arab position on the Palestinian cause.

"Any notions or proposals that circumvent the constants of the Egyptian and Arab stance (on Gaza)... are rejected and unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tamim Khalaf was quoted as saying by the state news agency MENA, a day after Israel's Yair Lapid floated the idea.

The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike on Wednesday targeting a "significant" Hezbollah militant in Lebanon.

"A short while ago, the IAF (air force) conducted a precise and intelligence-based strike on a significant Hezbollah terrorist in the 4400 Unit in the area of Qasr in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

Preparations have begun at Gaza's European Hospital in Khan Younis to receive Palestinian prisoners to be freed later on Wednesday after their release was delayed from Saturday, the Hamas media office for prisoners said.

It said the prisoners would be released Wednesday night between 10:00 pm and midnight.

(Reuters)

Jordan's King Abdullah told Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa after a meeting in Amman on Wednesday he condemned Israeli attacks on Syria, a palace statement said.

The two neighbours agreed that coordination was crucial for border security and curbing arms and rampant drug smuggling that Jordan struggled to contain along its border during former Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule, the palace added.

(Reuters)

Jordan's King Abdullah II and Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed on Wednesday to work together to secure their common border against arms and drug trafficking, officials said.

At a meeting with Sharaa in Amman, the Jordanian monarch also condemned Israel's strikes late on Tuesday on southern Damascus and in southern Syria near the Jordan border, the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on Syrian military targets.

The leaders agreed that coordination was crucial for border security and for curbing arms and drug smuggling, a phenomenon that Jordan struggled to contain along its border during the rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, the palace added.

Jordan has blamed the rampant drug and weapons smuggling on pro-Iranian militias that held sway in southern Syria during Assad's time. Sharaa pledged to stamp it out.

The visit is the new interim leader's third foreign trip along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey since he came to power after leading the rebel offensive that ousted Iran-backed Assad.

(Reuters)

US President Donald Trump's official social media accounts posted an apparent AI-generated video depicting war-ravaged Gaza rebuilt into a seaside resort, replete with a towering golden statue of himself, bellydancers believed to be Hamas and Elon Musk.

The video, which had over 10.5 million views on Instagram and had been shared 2,400 times on Trump's Truth Social network by Wednesday morning, prompted some commenters to question whether the president's accounts had been hacked.

The 33-second clip remained on Trump's accounts without denial or retraction hours after the initial posting on Tuesday night.

The video "Gaza 2025 What's Next?" opens with people on a rubble-strewn street emerging from a tunnel onto a beach with palm trees and yachts.

A Gaza reconstruction plan cannot happen without a clear path to a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to UAE's president, said on Wednesday.

"Gaza does need a reconstruction plan, a massive one, but that reconstruction plan cannot really take place without a clear path to a two-state solution. So, clearly here, you need political stability of a roadmap in order for these big investments to come to place," Gargash said in remarks to the Investopia 2025 conference in Abu Dhabi.

Arab states are weighing a post-war plan for Gaza to counter US President Donald Trump's proposal to redevelop the strip under US control and expel the Palestinians, a prospect that has angered regional leaders.

The mainly Egyptian proposal may include up to $20 billion in funding over three years from the region, sources familiar with the discussions have said.

"You know, you can't just go and sort of invest billions without that political clarity and come back to see yet another conflict. I think that position is very clear," Gargash said.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said it had detected a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday but it fell short inside the Palestinian territory.

"A short while ago, one projectile was identified from the Gaza Strip that fell within the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.

(AFP)

Israel's Bibas family called on all Israeli officials on Wednesday to take responsibility for the deaths of their loved ones in captivity in Gaza, saying they could have been saved.

"This disaster should not have happened. You should not have been taken, and you should have returned alive," Ofri Bibas said at the funeral of her sister-in-law, Shiri Bibas, and her two nephews.

"There is no meaning to forgiveness before the failures are investigated and all officials take responsibility.

"Our disaster as a nation and as a family should not have happened, and must never happen again. They could have saved you but preferred revenge."

Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of Israeli captives would take place through "a new mechanism" that guaranteed Israel's compliance.

The date for the exchange would be announced at the right time, a Hamas statement added.

Hamas also said it had not received a proposal about the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal despite its readiness to proceed with it to complete all the phases.

An Egyptian source had said on Wednesday mediators have reached a deal to release Palestinian prisoners who were originally set to be freed by Israeli authorities last Saturday, along with the handover of Israeli hostages' bodies by Hamas.

(Reuters) 

Israel has reached an agreement with mediators for the return of the bodies of four Israeli captives held in Gaza, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

When asked if such a deal had been reached, the spokesman for the PM's office said "Yes", without providing immediate details. Another Israeli official confirmed the news, while two Hamas officials earlier told AFP the remains of the captives would be handed over on Thursday.

Resettling the Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip to other regions would be a time bomb for the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday in Qatar.

US President Donald Trump has announced a plan to permanently resettle the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and to turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East" under US control.

(Reuters)

Two senior Hamas officials said it would hand over the bodies of four Israeli captives on Thursday in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners under the Gaza ceasefire deal.

"Mediators have informed Hamas that the (hostage-prisoner) exchange will take place on Thursday...Hamas and other resistance factions will hand over four bodies of Israeli captives, and in return, Israel will release more than 600 Palestinian detainees," a Hamas official told AFP on Wednesday. Another senior Hamas official said the "exchange will happen simultaneously".

A Malaysian court sentenced an Israeli man to seven years in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to carrying six guns and dozens of bullets, his lawyer said.

Shalom Avitan, 39, was arrested last March at a hotel in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and later charged with unauthorised trafficking and possession of firearms, while a married Malaysian couple was charged with supplying him the weapons.

Authorities said Avitan claimed to be in Malaysia to hunt down another Israeli citizen over a family dispute.

(Reuters)

Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to UAE's president, said on Wednesday that a reconstruction plan for Gaza cannot take place without a clear path to a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

Arab countries are rushing to formulate an alternative to US President Donald Trump's proposal to redevelop the tiny enclave.

(Reuters)

At least two people were killed by Israeli air strikes on a military position south of the Syrian capital on Tuesday night, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths were caused by Israeli strikes at a "military unit's headquarter southwest of Damascus", but that it could not confirm if they were civilians or military personnel.

Thousands of mourners, carrying flags and orange balloons, gathered Wednesday for the funeral procession of Shiri Bibas and her sons, who were killed in Gaza captivity.

The bodies of Shiri Bibas and her children, Kfir and Ariel, were returned to Israel last week by Hamas as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal.

Israel's national anthem was played as the black vehicle convoy passed through the crowd of mourners in the central city of Rishon LeZion, where the remains of the three hostages had been prepared for burial.

Israel has agreed to release Palestinian prisoners who were due to be freed last week in exchange for the bodies of four Israeli captives, Egyptian state-linked media reported, as Washington's top Middle East envoy said talks for a second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal remained on track.

Hamas late Tuesday confirmed the release agreement, negotiated under Egyptian supervision.

In Washington, US President Donald Trump's point person on the Middle East said Israeli representatives were already en route to talks on the next phase of the ceasefire deal.

"We're making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak," Steve Witkoff told an event for the American Jewish Committee.

"It's either going to be in Doha or Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris," he said.