Children and families in Gaza scooped muddy water from their tents on Tuesday, trying to protect the few belongings that remain after two years of war.

Winter's heavy rains have left displaced Palestinians splashing in water that reaches their ankles, and blaming both Israel and Hamas for the misery that remains despite a ceasefire.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza began Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 26 hostages. But the return of the last two hostages under the agreement's terms is progressing slowly.

Hamas says it has not been able to reach all of the remains because they are buried under rubble left by Israel's two-year offensive in Gaza. Israel has accused the militants of stalling and threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid if all remains are not returned.

Israel's military on Wednesday launched a new operation against Palestinian armed groups in the occupied West Bank, where a local governor told AFP that Israeli forces had raided several towns.

The Israeli military and internal security service said in a brief joint statement that they had begun "a broad counter-terrorism operation" in the north of the Palestinian territory.

An explosion at a weapons depot in northwest Syria's Idlib province killed five people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, security forces said in a statement.

The Idlib region was a bastion of rebel and jihadist groups including foreign fighters before Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December in a lightning offensive.

Hospital officials in Gaza said Wednesday that Israel handed over 15 more Palestinian bodies, completing the latest swap of the ceasefire as the first phase of the agreement nears a conclusion and officials convened to discuss moving to the second.

It came a day after Palestinian militants returned the remains of Israeli hostage Dror Or, who the Israeli military says was killed by the militants in their Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Israel has agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage returned.

Several hundred people protested on Tuesday in Syria's coastal city of Latakia in the country's Alawite heartland to protest recent attacks against the minority community, AFP correspondents said.

Since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad -- himself an Alawite -- was toppled by an Islamist alliance last December, the community has been the target of attacks, and hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March.

Israel's military said Tuesday its forces shot dead a Palestinian man they said had killed an Israeli, with the Palestinian health ministry confirming the death near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

In a joint statement, the military and the Shin Bet internal security service said forces near Jenin "eliminated the terrorist... who carried out the terror attack against Gideon Perry".

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they would hand over the remains of a Gaza hostage at 1400 GMT on Tuesday, under the terms of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel.

"The al-Quds Brigades and the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the body of an Israeli captive found in the central Gaza Strip at 4:00 pm Gaza time (1400 GMT)," the groups said in a joint statement, referring to their armed wings.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was meeting with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi, U.S. and British media reported Tuesday, days after talks with Ukraine in Geneva aimed at ending the conflict.

Driscoll met the Russian delegation on Monday with talks due to continue on Tuesday, ABC News and the Financial Times reported, citing a U.S. official.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to begin the process of designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group, as foreign terrorist organizations.

The order made specific mention of chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.