By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Former Israeli hostage Noa Argamani — whose desperate cries on the back of a motorcycle became one of the most haunting images of the Hamas October 7, 2023, attack — was reunited on Monday with her newly freed boyfriend, Avinatan Or.

A government video showed Or, 32, first hugging and kissing his parents as his mother Ditza chants the Jewish "shehecheyanu" blessing voicing gratitude for new experiences on his return from two years of Hamas captivity in Gaza.

By Olivia Le Poidevin and Francois Murphy

GENEVA/VIENNA (Reuters) -Eurovision Song Contest organisers will no longer meet online in November to vote on Israel's participation in the competition, following Middle East "developments", the European Broadcasting Union said on Monday in an apparent reference to the Gaza ceasefire.

Austria had appealed to countries not to boycott next year's contest - due to be held in Vienna - over Israel's participation and concerns about the two-year-old Gaza conflict.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump a document on the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The document was signed during the international summit hosted by Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on the deal.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Jaidaa Taha; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

As Donald Trump savoured the cheers of Israeli lawmakers it was a moment of triumph for the US president -- and as usual he made the most of it.

The 79-year-old hailed a "historic dawn" for the Middle East and declared the end of a "painful nightmare" with the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal he helped broker.

But Trump also let no one forget that the deal is the high watermark so far for his own turbulent second term in the White House.

Thousands of Palestinians erupted with joy in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Monday, as Red Cross buses brought back nearly 1,700 former prisoners.

Some climbed the sides of the slowly-moving buses as they weaved their way through the dense crowds gathered at Nasser Hospital, to hug or kiss a loved one they recognised.

By Howard Goller

(Reuters) -President Donald Trump, in a speech to Israel’s parliament, spotlighted mega-donor Miriam Adelson’s outsized influence on U.S. policy toward Israel, recalling her frequent White House visits with her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, assembled the world's largest casino empire as head of Las Vegas Sands Corp and put much of his fortune into nurturing conservative politicians and policies in the United States and Israel.

By Jana Choukeir and Ahmed Elimam

(Reuters) -The United States is prepared to make a deal with Iran when Tehran is ready, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday.

Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks, prior to a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June, which Washington joined by striking key Iranian nuclear sites.

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, during an address to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.

During a more than one-hour speech, Trump said:

"Hey, I have an idea. Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon? Cigars and some champagne — who the hell cares?" referring to the fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges, which Netanyahu denies.

By Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi

RAMALLAH/CAIRO (Reuters) -Joyous Palestinians rushed to embrace prisoners freed under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement as they arrived by bus to the occupied West Bank and Gaza on Monday.

The prisoners were released after the Hamas militant group freed the last 20 living hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump on Monday told the Israeli parliament that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases, should be pardoned.

Netanyahu and his wife Sara are accused in one case of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.

"Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that?" Trump joked, declaring his ally Netanyahu's one of Israel's greatest wartime leaders.