Spotlight
Iran on Thursday welcomed a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Hamas and Israel as a "victory" for Palestinians and a "defeat" for Israel.

The leader of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Harakat al-Nujaba, Akram al-Kaabi, announced Thursday the suspension of the group’s operations against Israel following the declaration of a Gaza ceasefire agreement but warned they could start again if there were violations of the truce.
In a statement, al-Kaabi congratulated the Palestinian people and “freedom-loving” individuals worldwide on “this important development.”

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday there was "no basis" to Israeli allegations the Palestinian militant group was backtracking on elements of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal announced the day before.
"There is no basis to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's claims about the movement backtracking from terms in the ceasefire agreement," Abu Zuhri told AFP.

Gaza's civil defense agency said Thursday that Israel has pounded several areas of the Palestinian territory since the announcement of a ceasefire deal, killing at least 73 people and wounding hundreds.
"Since the ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli occupation forces have killed 73 people, including 20 children and 25 women," agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, adding that another 230 people were wounded in the "bombardments that are continuing", a day after the truce announcement.

Mediators said Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause the fighting in Gaza starting Sunday after 15 months of war and to begin exchanging dozens of hostages held there for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to confirm on Tuesday that the deal had been finalized. But the ceasefire could eventually bring an end to the bloodiest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, one that transformed the wider region and leaves the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of the turmoil unresolved.

The Israel-Hamas deal was made possible by 18-hour days and a "remarkable" partnership between Joe Biden and Donald Trump's Mideast envoys -- but even then it seemed it might come apart at the last minute.
In the final four days of talks, Biden's pointman Brett McGurk was joined in the region by Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, to get the deal over the line, U.S. officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a "last minute crisis" with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited agreement to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. Israeli airstrikes meanwhile killed dozens of people across the war-ravaged territory.
Netanyahu's office said his Cabinet won't meet to approve the agreement until Hamas backs down, accusing it of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions, without elaborating.

Qatar's prime minister announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed Wednesday to a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza, adding he hoped the deal would pave the way for a permanent end to the fighting.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump hailed a hostage release and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday, agreed just five days before he returns to power.

An Israeli air strike for the first time hit a military target belonging to Syria's new Islamist-led authorities on Wednesday, killing three people, a war monitor and a medical source said.
"An Israeli drone launched an attack targeting a military convoy... killing two members of the Military Operations Department, and injuring another person" in southern Syria's Quneitra region, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A medical source told AFP a local official was among the three killed in the strike.
