ANKARA (Reuters) -A Turkish court is expected to announce a verdict on Friday that could lead to the removal of the main opposition party leader Ozgur Ozel, in a case seen as a test of the country's shaky balance between democracy and autocracy.

If the court annuls the outcome of proceedings in a 2023 annual congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP), that would mean the ouster of Ozel, 51, its combative leader.

By Jaidaa Taha and Tamar Beeri

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel released almost 2,000 Palestinians from its custody this month in exchange for 20 Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza.

They include 250 prisoners, some members of Palestinian militant groups, who were either convicted or charged with carrying out, taking part in, or planning deadly attacks. Hamas said 154 of the 250 convicted prisoners were deported to Egypt.

After 14 years of destruction, Syria must be swiftly rebuilt to bring stability to the country and the wider region, a top UN official in the war-ravaged nation told AFP.

Reconstruction is one of the most significant challenges facing Syria's new Islamist authorities after the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.

"The international community should definitely rush into rebuilding Syria," Rawhi Afaghani, the UN Development Programme's deputy representative in Syria, told AFP this week during a visit to Geneva.

By Steven Scheer and Pesha Magid

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump is considering whether to urge Israel to release popular Palestinian political figure Marwan Barghouti, jailed for more than 20 years and repeatedly denied his freedom by Israel.

"I am literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called," Trump told Time in an interview published on Thursday. "That was the question. That was my question of the day. So I'll be making a decision."

By Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is considering aproposal for humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza that would replace the controversial U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to a copy of the plan seen by Reuters.

It is one of several concepts being explored, said a U.S. official and a humanitarian official familiar with the plan, as Washington seeks to facilitate increased deliveries of assistance to the Palestinian enclave after two years of war.

The United Nations' expert on Palestinian rights on Thursday denounced the US sanctions brought against her for criticising Washington's policy on the Gaza war as "mafia-style techniques" to "dirty" her reputation.

In an interview with AFP, Francesca Albanese said she would present her latest report to the UN from South Africa as sanctions from Washington prevented her from travelling to New York.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would never bow to pressure from the United States or any other country, and cautioned that the response to any strikes deep into Russia would be very serious and overwhelming.

U.S. sanctions are an "unfriendly" act and "will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being," Putin said. Russia's energy sector feels confident, he said.

Fewer than a hundred aid trucks operated by the UN and its partners have entered Gaza each day since a ceasefire earlier this month, a fraction of the total 600 trucks a day promised under the plan brokered by US President Donald Trump, data analysed by AFP shows.

Israel has authorised an average of 1,011 tonnes of aid -- or 94 trucks -- to enter Gaza each day between October 10, when the ceasefire took effect, and October 21, according to preliminary data from the United Nations.

A fragile ceasefire has brought respite to Gazans exhausted by two years of fighting, but even without the daily bombing they are struggling to live amid the catastrophic destruction wrought by the war.

The reconstruction task ahead is enormous, given that vast swathes of the Palestinian territory were flattened during Israel's military campaign and most of the population were displaced at least once.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Clearing the surface of Gaza of unexploded ordnance will likely take between 20 to 30 years, according to an official with aid group Humanity & Inclusion, describing the enclave as a "horrific, unmapped minefield".

More than 53 people have been killed and hundreds injured by lethal remnants from the two-year Israel-Hamas war, according to a U.N.-led database, which is thought by aid groups to be a huge underestimate.