Hamas handed over the remains of a deceased hostage on Monday as the Palestinian group came under increasing pressure to return its remaining deceased captives as promised under the Gaza ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israeli forces had received a coffin containing what Hamas said was the sixteenth of 28 bodies of hostages taken in the October 7, 2023 attacks.
By Nafisa Eltahir
(Reuters) -A Sudanese paramilitary force is battling the last pockets of resistance in a Darfur city that has endured a brutal 18-month siege and where a full takeover would entrench a geographical division of the country between rival military factions.
The advance by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has also raised fears of reprisals against the estimated 250,000 people remaining in al-Fashir, the final holdout of the Sudanese army in the western Darfur region, and of an escalation of fighting elsewhere in Sudan.
Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti's son urged US President Donald Trump to "seize the opportunity" created by the Gaza truce to secure his father's release and revive the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
Sometimes dubbed the "Mandela of Palestine" by his supporters, Marwan Barghouti, 66, was one of the leaders of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, and is often cited as a possible successor to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo will visit eight towns and cities in Turkey and Lebanon later this year, the Vatican said on Monday, his first trip outside Italy as pontiff, and he is expected to make appeals for peace across the region.
Leo, the first U.S. pope, will visit Turkey from November 27 to 30 and then will be in Lebanon from November 30 to December 2.
PODGORICA (Reuters) -Police in Montenegro said on Monday they had detained dozens of Turkish and Azeri nationals after a weekend of violence triggered by the stabbing of a Montenegrin man in the capital Podgorica by a group of Turks.
President Jakov Milatovic has called for calm, while Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said his government would temporarily suspend a visa-free regime for Turkish nationals and seek "intensive discussions" with Ankara on future visa arrangements.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel won't accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a U.S. plan to end war in the Palestinian territory for good, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump's plan includes an international force in Gaza to help secure a fragile ceasefire which began this month, halting two years of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
BEIRUT (Reuters) -U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese officials on disarming militant group Hezbollah, sources familiar with her visit said, amid fears in Lebanon that Israel could launch a renewed air war on the group.
Those worries have been driven by days of intensifying Israeli strikes on Lebanon's south and east that have killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah members, according to Lebanese security sources.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. immigration authorities detained British commentator Sami Hamdi, revoked his visa and said he would be deported rather than allowed to complete his speaking tour in the United States, a Homeland Security official said on Sunday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has Hamdi in custody, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media site X. "Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country," she wrote.
The families of Israeli hostages Monday called for the next phase of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire to be delayed until Hamas returns the bodies of its remaining dead captives, even as Egyptian rescuers joined the hunt for them.
"Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
Sudan's army admitted on Monday it had withdrawn from the strategic hub of El-Fasher, while the United Nations issued a stark warning over reports of "atrocities" by the paramilitary group now in control of the city.
Fears have mounted for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians in the city in western Darfur, trapped in an 18-month siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting a brutal war with Sudan's army for more than two years.
