By Cordelia Hsu

SYDNEY, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Christmas celebrations were muted at Sydney's famed Bondi Beach on Thursday in the aftermath of a terror attack that killed 15 people there more than a week ago, as the community continued to grapple with the country's deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades.

Police patrolled across the beachfront in Bondi, a traditional Christmas destination, as hundreds of people, many wearing Santa hats, gathered on the sands.

Turkish democracy has taken a heavy beating since the jailing of Istanbul's popular opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, his wife told AFP, saying it has been painful for his family but that the ordeal has made them stronger.

"It's an extremely difficult time for our children and for me... but we hold onto one another," Dilek Kaya Imamoglu, 51, told AFP in her first interview with foreign media.

LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.

"We call on Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements," said a joint statement released by Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Israel's parliament gave the initial go-ahead on Wednesday for a government-empowered inquiry into the surprise October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel rather than the expected independent investigation demanded by families of the victims.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls to establish a state commission to investigate Israel's failures in the run-up to its deadliest day and has taken no responsibility for the attack that sparked the two-year Gaza war.

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Wednesday of violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a military officer was wounded by an explosive device in Rafah and Israel vowed retaliation.

His office said in a statement that Hamas must fully uphold the October agreement, noting that it envisaged the militant group being removed from power in Gaza as well as demilitarisation and deradicalisation of the territory.

"Israel will respond accordingly," the statement added.

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday urged Russia and Ukraine to find the "courage" to hold direct talks and spoke of the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza in his first Christmas message.

The US pope, who was elected by fellow cardinals in May after the death of his predecessor pope Francis, also condemned the "senselessness" of war and the "rubble and open wounds" it leaves behind.

ANKARA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday met with Hamas political bureau officials in Ankara to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and advancing the agreement to its second phase, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.

The source said the Hamas officials told Fidan that they had fulfilled their requirements as part of the ceasefire deal, but that Israel's continued targeting of Gaza aimed to prevent the agreement from moving to the next phase.

Turkish authorities on Wednesday found the cockpit voice recorder and black box from a private jet that crashed killing the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides.

The Falcon 50 aircraft requested an emergency landing because of electrical failure minutes after it took off from the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday, but contact was lost, Turkish officials said. The plane was returning to Tripoli.

The wreckage was located by Turkish security personnel in the Haymana district near Ankara.

Christmas lights illuminate Damascus's Old City while government forces patrol its shadows as security fears haunt Syria's Christian community.

They recall the shooting and suicide attack in June at the Saint Elias church in the Syrian capital that killed 25 people and wounded dozens more.

"People are going home early, and are afraid," said Tala Shamoun, 26, a university student who was visiting a Christmas market with family and friends.

By Pesha Magid

DEIR DIBWAN, WEST BANK, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The Jewish settler outpost of Or Meir is small. A handful of prefabricated white shelters, it sits at the end of a short dirt track on a hill leading up from Road 60, a major route that dissects the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Over time, similar modest dwellings have turned into sprawling Israeli housing developments, part of a plan that members of Israel's cabinet acknowledge they have implemented to prevent the birth of a Palestinian state.