Crowds of people rallied in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, waving flags and holding posters of president Mahmud Abbas to celebrate the wave of recognition by Western powers of a Palestinian state.

Nationalist slogans blared from loudspeakers across the central square in the city of Ramallah, where a crowd of more than 100 clutched Palestinian and European flags alongside signs reading "stop the genocide".

High-ranking officials from Abbas's political movement, Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority -- which exerts limited control in the West Bank -- shook hands and smiled.

GENEVA (Reuters) -The Israeli government has shown a clear intent to establish permanent control over Gaza and to ensure a Jewish majority in the occupied West Bank, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry said on Tuesday.

The U.N. report details Israeli authorities' extensive, systematic demolition of civilian infrastructure in Gaza's corridors and buffer zone - resulting in Israel expanding control to 75% of the Gaza strip by July this year.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Matthias Williams)

NEW YORK, September 23 (Reuters) -Recognition of a Palestinian state would be too great a reward for Hamas, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, repeating his call for the release of hostages - dead or alive - still held by the militant group in Gaza.

Trump called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza. Those who supported peace should united in demanding the release of the hostages, he said in a speech at the United Nations.

Iran has executed at least 1,000 people so far in 2025, the highest such figure in some three decades, an NGO said Tuesday, denouncing the "mass killing campaign" in prisons as a crime against humanity.

At least 64 people were hanged in the past week alone, an average of more than nine per day, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, which counts and verifies executions in Iran daily.

With more than three months of 2025 still to go, the figure is already the highest since IHR began keeping records in 2008, topping the 975 executions recorded last year.

European powers seeking to soon reimpose tough sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program met Tuesday with Tehran's top diplomat, but there were no signs of compromise.

There was however an agreement to continue talks as the clock ticks on the reimposition of deep sanctions on Iran's economy, even as Iran's supreme leader resisted European pressure.

"Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon," German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters before the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel plans to close the Allenby crossing, the sole gateway between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan, starting on Wednesday until further notice, The Palestinian General Authority for Borders and Crossings said on Tuesday.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Airports Authority, which manages the crossing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment during a public holiday in Israel.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Alexander Cornwell, Writing by Ahmed Elimam; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria is preparing to establish the first parliament since Bashar al-Assad was toppled, a milestone in the transition from his rule but one that has stirred new concerns about political inclusivity under President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Regional committees have selected electoral colleges that will elect two-thirds of the 210-member People's Assembly, on October 5. Sharaa appoints the remaining third.

The authorities say they resorted to this system rather than universal suffrage due to a lack of reliable population data and displacement after years of war.

KABUL (Reuters) -In a dim home used as a small business in Afghanistan, women bent over bright cloth use needles to form intricate embroidery. But their fibre-optic network in Kandahar - their primary link to buyers - has now gone dark.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israel's military pushed deeper towards the most populated areas of Gaza City on Tuesday, a painful reminder for Gazans that Western powers' recognition of a Palestinian state does not mean an end to the horrors of war as tanks approach.

Israel pressed on with its Gaza offensive a day after dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations to embrace a Palestinian state, a landmark diplomatic shift after nearly two years of war that faces fierce resistance from Israel and its close ally the United States.

Prominent Egyptian-British human rights defender Alaa Abdel Fattah was released from prison after years behind bars and reunited with his family in an emotional celebration following a long-awaited pardon by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A key figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising, Abdel Fattah, 43, was released after years of advocacy efforts by family members, rights groups and the British government, with his mother, Laila Soueif, going on hunger strike.