By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Milan Berckmans

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Around 80 colorful pride boats sailed through Amsterdam’s World Heritage canals on Saturday in the finale of a week-long celebration in the city that stood in stark contrast to recent crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights in fellow EU member state Hungary.

While the flotilla is not political, attendees used the occasion to criticise conflicts or world leaders for their stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

(Reuters) -Hamas said on Saturday that it would not lay down arms unless an independent Palestinian state is established.

In a statement, the Palestinian militant faction said its "armed resistance ... cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza war and deal for the release of hostages ended last week in deadlock.

US envoy Steve Witkoff met anguished relatives of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza on Saturday, as fears for the captives' survival mounted almost 22 months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

Witkoff was greeted with some applause and pleas for assistance from hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, before going into a closed meeting with the families.

Videos shared online showed him arriving to meet the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, as families chanted "Bring them home!" and "We need your help."

Turkey on Saturday turned on a supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria, whose infrastructure was ravaged by civil war, with annual deliveries expected to reach up to two billion cubic metres.

Syria's Islamist authorities, who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, are seeking to rebuild the battered country where power cuts can last for more than 20 hours a day.

Hundreds of thousands of young faithful feted Pope Leo XIV like a rock star Saturday at an open-air prayer vigil outside Rome, after the head of the Catholic Church made a dramatic entrance by helicopter.

Pilgrims began crying and cheering when the white military helicopter descended over the sprawling, open-air site in Rome's eastern outskirts;

Organisers said as more than 800,000 young pilgrims from 146 countries around the world had assembled there as part of a "Jubilee of Youth" -- and perhaps as many as a million.

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.

As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump's first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after U.S. mediation.

By David Ljunggren, Michel Rose and Alistair Smout

OTTAWA/PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) -When Spain, Ireland and Norway announced in May 2024 that they would recognise a Palestinian state, Israel's closer allies dismissed the move as unhelpful to solving the crisis in Gaza.

While France, Britain and Canada stressed their support for establishing two states with recognised borders as the long-term solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they were wary of being seen to reward Hamas, of damaging relations with Israel and Washington, and of squandering diplomatic capital.

ANKARA (Reuters) -The migration route from Libya across the Mediterranean, used by thousands seeking a way to get to Europe, was a top issue at a meeting on Friday between the leaders of Turkey, Italy and Libya in Istanbul, Turkey's presidency said.

President Tayyip Erdogan met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah to discuss migration and other potential cooperation areas.

France said Friday it would suspend a programme receiving Palestinians from conflict-torn Gaza until an investigation into how a student accused of sharing antisemitic posts was allowed into the country was concluded.

The move comes after officials said the female student from Gaza would have to leave France after the Sciences Po university in the northern city of Lille revoked her accreditation over the online posts.

"No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn conclusions from this investigation," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told Franceinfo radio.

GAZA CITY (Reuters) -Stroking the hair of her emaciated daughter on a hospital bed in Gaza City, Nasma Ayad fears time is running out for a medical evacuation of the malnourished eight-year-old to avoid the fate of her sister, who died last month.

"I feel I'm slowly losing my daughter, day after day - everything she's suffering from is multiplying," Ayad said.