US President Donald Trump set a Saturday deadline for all hostages to be released from Gaza, saying that otherwise "all hell" would break out and he would call for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to be canceled.
Trump's latest extraordinary intervention in the Middle East came after Hamas threatened to postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges, placing the fragile six-week truce that took effect on January 19 at risk.
Dozens of Palestinian families fled on Monday from the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel pushed on with a sweeping military operation.
"We hear explosions and bombings as well as bulldozers. It's a tragedy. They are doing here what they did in Gaza," said Ahmed Ezza, a resident.
Ahmed Abu Zahra, another resident of the camp which is on the outskirts of Tulkarem, said he was forced to leave his home.
"The (Israeli) army came and we were forced to leave after they started destroying our homes".
At the key intersection of Gaza's Netzarim Corridor and the Salaheddin Road, US and Egyptian security personnel, armed and wearing military fatigues, inspected vehicles carrying Palestinians, many of them displaced by the war.
On Monday morning, traffic moved slowly to the checkpoint at the crossing, which Palestinians call Martyrs Intersection, and from which Israeli forces withdrew a day earlier.
Ahmed al-Rai said the US and Egyptian officers were "respectful" even if their checks on vehicles were "slow and trying".
Israel threatened Tuesday to resume "intense fighting" in Gaza if hostages were not released this weekend, while Hamas insisted it remained committed to the ceasefire deal and accused Israel of violations.
Under the terms of the truce, which has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, captives were to be released in batches in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. So far, Israel and Hamas have completed five hostage-prisoner swaps.
Having lost a third of her body weight during a 134-day hunger strike, a "weak" Laila Soueif on Monday urged UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to secure her son's release from an Egyptian jail, warning "I don't have time".
Soueif, 68, has lived on coffee, tea and rehydration sachets since September 29, 2024, the date that marked five years of imprisonment, when pre-trial detention is taken into account, for her UK-Egyptian son Alaa Abdel Fattah.
Syrians are once again picnicking and smoking shisha amid the ruins of ancient Palmyra, once desecrated by jihadists but still awe-inspiring, and open to the public following the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad.
The city's renowned ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were twice overrun by the Islamic State group, which proceeded to destroy many of the most famed structures.
Although they were driven out, the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia and Iran, then set up military bases nearby, effectively barring public access.
President Donald Trump said Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his US takeover plan, describing his proposal in excerpts of an interview released Monday as a "real estate development for the future."
Trump told Fox News Channel's Bret Baier that "I would own it" and that there could be as many as six different sites for Palestinians to live outside Gaza under the plan, which the Arab world and others in the international community have rejected.
Iran's president accused his US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday of seeking to bring the Islamic republic "to its knees" as the country marked the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah.
The revolution removed a pro-US government in Iran, and the subsequent hostage-taking of American diplomats in Tehran ushered in decades of hostility between the United States and Iran.
This year's celebrations carry additional weight following Trump's return to the White House. During his first term, Trump he pursued a policy of "maximum pressure" against the Islamic republic.
A Tunisian man went on trial Monday accused of stabbing to death three people in a church in the southern French city of Nice in 2020, but his insistence that he had no recollection of the events provoked anger among relatives of the victims.
Brahim Aouissaoui, 25, is being tried at a special court in Paris and faces life in jail if convicted. The murderous rampage on October 29, 2020 was one of a number of deadly incidents in France blamed on Islamist radicals since 2015.
A trio of top Trump administration officials will make separate trips to Europe this week, with security and Washington's commitment to Ukraine expected to be at the heart of their discussions.
President Donald Trump -- pushing his "America First" agenda -- has questioned US security commitments in Europe and called on allies to drastically boost their defense spending, while his administration has been largely quiet so far on his plans for future Ukraine aid.
