JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s military aid agency COGAT said on Thursday preparations are ongoing with Egypt to open the major Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the movement of people, with the date to be announced at a later stage.

Israel had earlier warned it could keep Rafah shut and reduce aid into the Palestinian enclave as Hamas, it said, was returning the bodies of dead hostages too slowly, underlining the risks to a ceasefire that halted two years of devastating war and saw all living hostages held by Hamas released.

By Steve Holland and Costas Pitas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is looking to establish a basic stabilization of Gaza and planning is underway for an international force to go into the Palestinian enclave, said a senior U.S. adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday.

"Right now what we're looking to accomplish is just a basic stabilization of the situation. The international stabilization force is starting to be constructed," said the senior U.S. adviser.

Syria is in a hurry to rebuild its war-torn economy and will not wait for the international community to begin making those changes, the country's finance minister said Wednesday.

Mohammed Yisr Barnieh, who spoke at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, was part of Syria's first delegation to the Fund and the World Bank's semi-annual gathering of central bank governors and finance ministers since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.

By Pesha Magid

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (Reuters) -Shadi Abu Sido’s world shattered in Israeli detention when guards told him his wife and two children had been killed.

“I got hysterical,” the Gaza Palestinian photographer said.

It wasn’t until his release on Monday, part of the U.S.-mediated ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that halted two years of war, that he discovered his loved ones were alive.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -The United Nations is seeking a dramatic boost in humanitarian aid for Gaza, saying the hundreds of relief trucks cleared to enter the devastated enclave under a ceasefire were nowhere near the thousands needed to ease a humanitarian disaster.

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and its top emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters in an interview that thousands of humanitarian vehicles must enter weekly to avert further catastrophe.

By Bhargav Acharya

(Reuters) -The U.S. military's Middle East command on Wednesday called on Hamas to stop its violence against civilians in Gaza and disarm "without delay" as the militant group reasserts itself by deploying security forces and executing those it deems collaborators with Israel.

Hamas, which has not publicly committed to disarming and cedingpower, has gradually sent its men back into the streets of Gaza since the ceasefire began on Friday.

Pope Leo XIV will carry a message of peace to Lebanon and the Christians of the Middle East when he visits next month, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai told AFP on Wednesday.

The Vatican said last week that Pope Leo will travel to Turkey and Lebanon in a six-day trip beginning late November, his first since becoming head of the Catholic Church.

Rai, who heads the Maronite Church, religiously diverse Lebanon's most influential Christian sect, hailed the pontiff's visit at a time of truce in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, as well as the war in Gaza.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is expected to reopen to allow people to cross on Thursday with an EU mission set to deploy there, two sources told Reuters.

The sources did not specify what restrictions might be applied to those seeking to cross. The Israeli military and the office of the Israeli prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Ali SawaftaWriting by Tom Perry and Peter Graff)

(Reuters) -Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban administration have agreed to a temporary ceasefire for 48 hours starting 6:00 p.m. Pakistan local time (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after fresh fighting erupted between the neighbours.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan will make sincere efforts, through dialogue, to find a positive solution to the complex yet resolvable issue, Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

(Writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by YP Rajesh)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel expects Palestinian militant group Hamas to return the remaining hostages to Israel, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Under a U.S.-brokered plan, Hamas released all 20 hostages still alive to Israel on Monday but so far has returned just seven of an expected 28 dead captives.

"Hamas ... is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return all of our hostages as part of the implementation of this agreement," the spokeswoman said in a news conference.