Lebanon and Syria on Friday committed to turning a new page on ties as Damascus's foreign minister visited Beirut, with Lebanon seeking information on political assassinations under the Assad dynasty.

The family of Bashar al-Assad, ousted in December, exercised control over Lebanese affairs for decades and was accused of assassinating numerous officials in Lebanon who expressed opposition to its rule.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Thousands of Palestinians began flocking towards north Gaza after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect on Friday, anxious to see what remained of their shattered homes and wary of further hardships that lay ahead.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million population has been displaced by the war, which erupted in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

Full of grief after two years of war but glad to be going home, thousands of displaced Palestinians set off across the Gaza Strip on Friday, as a truce between Israel and Hamas took hold.

Timidly at first, then in a huge column, thousands walked northwards in a line at least a kilometre long from the safer areas of central Gaza towards Gaza City, the scene of a gruelling Israeli offensive before Friday's ceasefire.

People chanted "God is great", cheering and whistling in their joy as they walked on a recently opened Mediterranean seafront road, AFP journalists saw.

By Alexander Cornwell and Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's government approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal early on Friday, setting the clock ticking on the first phase of an agreement that aims to end the two-year-old war.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. children's charity UNICEF called on Friday for all crossings for food aid into war-shattered Gaza to be opened, saying deaths among children could rise given their immune systems have been badly compromised.

"The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before," said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.

Israel declared a ceasefire in Gaza and began to pull back its forces on Friday, as tens of thousands of exhausted Palestinians made their way back to their devastated homes.

After two years of brutal war, the families of Israel's remaining hostages in the territory were also hoping the truce -- pushed by US President Donald Trump -- would endure.

Trump himself expressed confidence that the ceasefire would "hold", telling reporters that Israel and Hamas were "all tired of the fighting".

(Reuters) -Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights in her country and her struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

Following are some facts about the democracy campaigner:

UPPER-CLASS BACKGROUND

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India will reopen its embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul that was shut four years ago, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday, a significant move that expands the diplomatic links of the country governed by the Taliban.

India had closed its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban seized power following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces in 2021, but opened a small mission a year later to facilitate trade, medical support, and humanitarian aid.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that Germany would provide 29 million euros ($34 million) in immediate humanitarian aid for Gaza, following Israel's ratification of a ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"We are providing 29 million euros for humanitarian aid. Together with Egypt, we will invite to a reconstruction conference for Gaza," Merz said on X, adding Germany would assume responsibility in the peace process proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

($1 = 0.8645 euros)

ROME (Reuters) -Israel is blocking 250 tons of aid for Gaza, including food, medical supplies and educational material, because of disagreements over its content, an Italian charity involved in last month's international flotilla said on Thursday.

Italy's Music for Peace NGO said it collected large quantities of aid as part of a mobilisation in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was seeking to breach Israel's naval blockade on the Palestinian enclave.