VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo will travel to Turkey and Lebanon in late November, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, in the first visit outside Italy by the new leader of the 1.4-billion-member global Catholic Church.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, will visit Turkey from November 27-30 before heading to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, where he is expected to speak about the plight of Christians in the Middle East and to make appeals for peace across the region.

Two years after Hamas gunmen attacked the Nova festival in southern Israel, the desert site stands as both grave and shrine, where the living come to mourn the dead.

More than 370 revellers were massacred when Palestinian militants crossed from Gaza into Israel in the early hours of October 7, 2023, attacking the music festival and several nearby communities.

On Tuesday at dawn, dozens of relatives returned to the site, embracing one another and mourning the dead, an AFP correspondent reported.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -Israeli tanks, boats and jets pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to two years of war and underlining the challenges at talks on Donald Trump's plan to halt the conflict.

Israel pressed on with its offensive, residents said, after Hamas and Israel began indirect negotiations on Monday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on sensitive issues such as Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas' disarmament.

(Reuters) -Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of Palestinian militant group Hamas' attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Following are reactions from world leaders and others:

EU COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN:

"We will never forget the horror of the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the pain they caused to innocent victims, their families and the entire people of Israel, two years ago.

GAZA, October 7 (Reuters) -Two years of Israeli bombardment of Gaza has piled grief upon grief for displaced Palestinian Inas Abu Maamar.

In the first days of the war, a Reuters photograph showed Abu Maamar stricken in a hospital morgue, cradling the shrouded body of her five-year-old niece Saly.

Since then, Israeli airstrikes and tank shells have killed many of her close relatives and left her bereaved, hungry and homeless, caring for her orphaned young nephew.

GENEVA (Reuters) -Israel's offensive in Gaza, launched in response to the Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and laid waste to swathes of territory.

Below is a summary of the extent of the death and damage during the Gaza war, with much of the data drawn from reports released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

DEATHS IN GAZA

US President Donald Trump voiced optimism that there was a "real chance" to end the war in Gaza, as Israel remembered victims of the October 7 attacks two years ago on Tuesday.

In his message marking the anniversary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to achieve all the goals of the war, including crushing the Palestinian militant group Hamas which waged the attacks.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -A crew member of the Dutch cargo ship that was attacked by Houthis in the Gulf of Aden last week has died of his injuries, the vessel's Amsterdam-based operator Spliethoff said in a statement Monday evening.

The company did not release further details about the deceased crew member, but a spokesperson told a Dutch broadcaster they were Filipino.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will meet Edan Alexander, who was believed to be the last surviving U.S. hostage held by Palestinian militants in Gaza when the Israeli-American was handed over by Hamas in May, the White House said on Monday.

Israel marks the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack on Tuesday, as Hamas and Israeli negotiators hold indirect talks to end the two-year war in Gaza under a US proposed peace plan.

Two years ago to the day, at the close of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Hamas-led militants launched a surprise assault on Israel, making it the deadliest day in the country's history.

Palestinian fighters breached the Gaza-Israel border, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.