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Israel says Hamas used N.Korea, Iran weapons in attack

The Israeli military said Thursday that a portion of the weapons used by Hamas in its October 7 attacks were manufactured in Iran or North Korea.

The military made the statement during an official media tour in which it displayed a variety of weapons recovered from communities in southern Israel attacked by the militants.

A range of landmines, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and homemade drones were part of the haul displayed.

Part of the arsenal included Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean RPGs.

The Israeli military displays weapons recovered from Hamas militants after the bloody attacks of October 7, including some it says were manufactured in Iran or North Korea

Displaced Gazans head back north after finding south no safer

When Israel warned civilians to leave northern Gaza, Rahma Saqallah and her family fled south. But after Israeli bombs killed her huband and three of her children, she is heading back home.

"Wherever we go, we will die," Saqallah said, as she prepared to leave the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the territory to return to Gaza City with her surviving child.

She is among roughly 600,000 Palestinians UN officials have said fled south in response to Israel's warning to evacuate "for your own safety".

Gaza is under daily bombardment by Israel following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli communities

Palestinian top diplomat calls Israel offensive 'war of revenge'

The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister on Thursday said Israel's offensive in Gaza was a "war of revenge", as he called for a ceasefire in the conflict.

The visit of Riyad al-Maliki to the Hague comes as Israel said a column of tanks and infantry had launched an overnight raid into Hamas-controlled Gaza.

It also comes as European Union officials in Brussels debated the situation and were set to call for "humanitarian pauses" in Israel's war with Hamas.

Protesters demonstrated in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague last week in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

EU urges 'corridors and pauses' as UN warns 'nowhere' safe in Gaza

EU leaders have demanded "humanitarian corridors and pauses" in Israel's war against Hamas, urging aid access for civilians trapped in besieged Gaza, where the United Nations says "nowhere is safe."

Concern is growing about the regional fallout from the conflict, with Washington warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and others.

An injured man sits in front of a smouldering building in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Thursday

Sudan peace talks resume in Jeddah with limited goals

Sudan's warring parties resumed talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday aimed at ending a conflict that has raged for over six months and left thousands dead, the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Since April, the war between regular forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed more than 9,000 people and displaced over 5.6 million.

This combination of pictures shows army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (L) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (R)

Latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war

Fighting in the war-torn Gaza Strip raged for a 20th day Thursday after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Since the October 7 attack, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardments, mostly civilians and many of them children.

Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:

- EU calls for 'pause' -

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardments

'The war room': Israeli tech workers band together in hostage search

It looks like any other scrappy Tel Aviv tech start-up, with staff in hip clothing huddled around laptops and downing espressos, but they are the volunteers in a "war room" assembled to help Israel bring home the hostages.

Gunmen from the Islamist Hamas seized more than 220 people -- including Israelis, foreigners and dual-nationals -- when they stormed across Gaza's border with Israel on October 7 and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people.

Shay Wenkert, the father of Israeli hostage Omer Wenkert who Hamas gunmen abducted from a music festival, shows an image of his son on a phone

'Our lives stopped': Relatives plead for Israel hostages

Moran Betzer Tayar, wracked by anguish about the kidnapping of her nephew and his wife by Hamas fighters on October 7, summed up her feelings during a press conference: "On Saturday morning, our lives stopped."

The 54-year-old, speaking in Paris on Wednesday, is on a European tour with other relatives of hostages snatched by the Palestinian militant group during a raid that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Israel's retaliation has so far killed more than 6,500 people, including 2,704 children, Hamas says.

Families of some of the Israeli hostages taken to Gaza give a press conference in Paris

EU calls for 'corridors and pauses' for Gaza aid

EU leaders on Thursday called for "humanitarian corridors and pauses" in Israel's war with Hamas to get aid into Gaza, after hours of negotiations at a summit of the bloc in Brussels.

The European Union has struggled for both unity and influence in the face of the crisis that has engulfed the Middle East since Hamas launched its bloody attack on Israel on October 7.

The surge in bloodshed has divided Europe's attention at a time of rising doubts about the West's ability to keep supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Gaza is under daily bombardment by Israel following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli communities

'Too hot outside': Saudis take to walking, jogging in malls

The shops have not yet opened, but the air-conditioned concourse of a Riyadh shopping mall is crowded anyway -- a haven for walkers and joggers grateful for somewhere cool to exercise.

The early-morning crowd includes 55-year-old engineer Mohammed Sultan, in a white T-shirt and black trainers, doing laps around the mall trailed by his niqab-wearing wife.

Women exercising in a mall in Riyadh