As a fragile ceasefire holds, displaced Palestinian residents of Gaza City have returned to their homes only to find rubble, with many of them forced to camp out in makeshift shelters.

In the northwest of the city, empty streets are lined with piles of concrete that once were apartment buildings before the Israel-Hamas war, with some structures completely collapsed.

Hossam Majed discovered his home reduced to rubble. Amid the ruins, the 31-year-old salvaged a few belongings, including some furniture and -- crucially given the shortages -- a large water tank.

Ikram Aioua has seen her 12-year-old son rushed to the hospital three times in the past weeks for gas poisoning.

Like thousands who have turned out to protest in her southern Tunisian city of Gabes, Aioua is demanding the closure of a nearby chemical factory, blaming it for a range of serious health issues.

"I was in the classroom when I felt my throat burning and my head getting heavy, then I fainted," said Ahmed, Aioua's son.

The factory "is deadly poison", his 40-year-old mother cried. "It must be dismantled."

ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece said on Thursday it had agreed with Egypt on the future of St Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Egypt's Mount Sinai, one of the world's oldest sites of Christian worship whose status had led to a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

Athens had expressed concern about plans by Egypt to develop a tourism project around the site, where by Biblical tradition Moses received the Ten Commandments. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is still houses Greek Orthodox monks.

After two agonising years of uncertainty following their son's abduction to Gaza, Israeli soldier Tamir Nimrodi's parents finally laid him to rest Thursday, after his body was returned under a ceasefire with Hamas.

Nimrodi, 18 at the time of Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, was doing his military service at a base near the Erez Crossing into Gaza when he was seized.

Since then, he was one of the few hostages for whom no proof of life had been given.

By John Irish

PARIS (Reuters) -France condemned on Thursday the lengthy prison sentencesgiven to two of its citizens for espionage, saying the charges were unfounded and the punishment arbitrary.

Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been detained since 2022, among dozens of foreign and dual nationals held by Iran in recent years, often on spy-related charges.

Rights groups and Western nations say they are being used as bargaining chips, which Iran denies.

The lives of a French couple held by Iran for more than three years and who this week were handed lengthy jail sentences for espionage are at risk, their families warned Thursday, as France condemned their conviction on "baseless" charges.

Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, were arrested in May 2022 and have been detained ever since. Their current location is unknown after they were moved from Tehran's Evin prison in the wake of the Israeli strike on the facility in the June war.

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain is facing an escalating threat from hostile states such as Russia, Iran, and China while the terrorism risk is "huge" with al Qaeda and Islamic State seeking to incite would-be attackers, the UK's domestic spy chief said on Thursday.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said there had been a 35% increase in the number of people being investigated over state threat activity, saying hostile nations were consistently descending into the "ugly" methods usually employed by terrorists.

A former Israeli hostage has said that all Gaza captives could have returned home "a long time ago", as relatives of newly released hostages described the torment endured by their loved ones.

Arbel Yehud was held in captivity for nearly 500 days before being freed earlier this year under a previous Gaza truce.

She spoke on Wednesday at a press conference alongside families of newly freed hostages, including her partner Ariel Cunio, released this week along with the remaining living captives.

"We could have brought them back a long time ago," Yehud said.

By Saeed Shah

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Hanging over the recent eruption of fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the most serious clash between the neighbours in decades, is the spectre of a militant leader Islamabad accuses of directing near-daily attacks on its soil.

An uneasy ceasefire took hold on Wednesday, but Pakistan’s main grievance endures: the presence of Noor Wali Mehsud in Afghanistan, along with his top lieutenants.

Hamas handed over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins after two years of war.

"Israel received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage who was returned" to its security forces in Gaza and would be identified at a medical analysis centre in Israel, the prime minister's office said in a statement.