The results of Syria's parliamentary elections, announced Thursday, showed that President Bashar Assad's Baath Party has won a majority of seats, as expected.

The elections for 250 parliamentary seats were held Monday at 8,151 centers in government-held areas of the country, but the voting was repeated in several districts -- including Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Daraa -- after election officials said there had been irregularities, including voters casting ballots twice.

The U.S. military's pier to get humanitarian aid into Gaza has come to an end after a series of problems.

The pier was pulled from the Gaza shore on June 28 due to rough seas, and bad weather prevented troops from reinstalling it. Now, it's being dismantled and brought home.

Nabila Hamada gave birth to twin boys in Gaza early in the war, in a hospital reeking of decaying bodies and full of displaced people. When Israeli forces threatened the hospital, she and her husband fled with only one of the babies, as medical staff said the other was too weak to leave. Soon after, Israeli forces raided the hospital, Gaza's largest, and she never saw the boy again.

The trauma of losing one twin left the 40-year-old Hamada so scared of losing the other that she became frozen and ill-equipped to deal with the daily burden of survival.

Israel's far-right national security minister visited Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site on Thursday, threatening to disrupt Gaza cease-fire talks.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader, said he had gone up to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of the hostages "but without a reckless deal, without surrendering."

An Israeli delegation has arrived in Egypt to continue cease-fire talks as Israel and Hamas consider the latest proposal, three Egyptian airport officials said.

International mediators continue to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday that "the bloodshed in Gaza must stop now", adding that too many civilians in the Palestinian territory "have lost their lives as a result of Israel's response to Hamas brutal terror".

"The people of Gaza cannot bear any more, and humanity cannot bear any more," she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. "We need an immediate and enduring ceasefire. We need the release of Israeli hostages, and we need to prepare for the day after."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to step up pressure on Hamas in war-torn Gaza, after the United States criticized the high civilian death toll in recent attacks.

Netanyahu, in remarks during a state commemorative event, defended Israel's approach during the more than nine-month war, saying "Hamas is under pressure."

Authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed Tuesday in three separate strikes, as Israel pounded the territory despite renewed U.S. criticism of the high civilian toll.

Israel's deadly strike on Al-Mawasi, one of the bloodiest attacks in more than nine months of war in Gaza, used massive payload bombs provided by the United States, according to weapons experts.

The bombing of the Israeli-declared "safe zone" transformed the tent city on the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland, with nearby hospitals overrun with casualties.

Israeli police said officers shot and killed a Palestinian after he stabbed a police officer Tuesday in the occupied West Bank.

Police said the officer was lightly wounded in the attack and identified the Palestinian as a 19-year-old from the Gaza Strip. It wasn’t immediately clear what he was doing in the West Bank.