(Reuters) -A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that negotiators from his Palestinian militant group and Israel had exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages who would be released should a deal be reached during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt.

Israel hopes the talks will lead to the release and recovery of the remaining 48 hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

By Saeed Shah

(Reuters) -Afghanistan's regional neighbors, including American allies, appeared to unite against U.S. President Donald Trump's stated aim of taking over the Bagram military base near Kabul, according to a statement released after they met in Moscow.

The "Moscow Format" meeting on Afghanistan - the seventh such event hosted by Russia but attended for the first time by the Taliban administration's foreignminister - included U.S. partners India and Pakistan. The 10 nations also included Russia, China and Iran as well as Central Asian countries.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that negotiators from his Palestinian militant group and Israel had exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages who would be released should a deal be reached during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt.

Israel hopes the talks will lead to the release or the recovery of the bodies of the remaining 48 hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said he was hopeful that his meeting last month with U.S. President Donald Trump would help lift sanctions blocking Turkey's purchase of F-35 jets, and also help resolve a legal case against state lender Halkbank.

The U.S. CAATSA sanctions, applied in 2020 over Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defences, and the U.S. charges that Halkbank helped Iran skirt separate sanctions emerged as key issues in the White House talks two weeks ago.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir prayed at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue "complete victory" over Hamas in Gaza.

In a video on the edge of one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, Ben-Gvir said that two years after the October 7 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war, Israel was "winning" at the Jerusalem compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

The agreement, which follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, is to be signed Thursday in Egypt, and calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

A new documentary tells the story of AFP journalists who were trapped in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of the Israeli offensive, witnessing the destruction of their own reality through a lens.

Independent journalist Helene Lam Trong's documentary "Inside Gaza" will be screened at the Bayeux prize for war reporters on Thursday in the presence of six of the seven permanent AFP journalists who covered the beginning of the Gaza conflict.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey is explaining to Palestinian militant group Hamas what the best approach is for the future of a Palestinian state, as part of a plan by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

In comments to reporters on a flight back from Azerbaijan, Erdogan said Turkish officials were involved in negotiations in Egypt and that Ankara supports peace efforts by Trump, whom he added had asked Turkey to convince Hamas to accept the proposal.

By Tala Ramadan, Jana Choukeir and Nidal al-Mughrabi

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) -Hamas said on Wednesday it had exchanged a list of the names of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be released under a swap deal and that it was optimistic about talks in Egypt on U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza.

Negotiations are focused on the mechanisms to halt the conflict, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the swap deal, the Palestinian militant group added.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey on Wednesday slammed an intervention by Israeli forces against a flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as an act of piracy and a violation of international law.

Turkey's foreign ministry said the intervention against the Freedom Flotilla, including Turkish nationals and lawmakers, showed that the "genocidal" Israeli government targeted all peaceful measures and heightened tensions in the region while damaging peace efforts.