Israel received a body that Hamas said was one of the last two deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israel said it would allow Gaza's gateway to Egypt to open once all hostages were returned.
The body of Israeli police officer Ran Gvili, the last of the living and deceased hostages to be returned, is still in Gaza.
Rinthalak's body was transferred from Gaza by the Red Cross, and was handed over to the Israeli military to be sent for forensic identification, a statement from the prime minister's office said.
The handover of the last hostages' bodies in Gaza would complete a key condition of the initial part of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the two-year Gaza war, which also provides for the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to open in both directions.
COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees humanitarian matters, said the Rafah crossing would be opened in the coming days to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt.
The decision to open the crossing for those seeking to leave Gaza was made in "full coordination" with those that have mediated between Israel and Hamas during the war, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.
COGAT said it would be opened under the supervision of a European Union mission - a similar mechanism to that employed during a previous Gaza ceasefire agreed in January 2025.
Before the war, the Rafah crossing was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world and was a key entry point for aid into the territory. It has been mostly closed throughout the conflict.
Violence has tailed off since the 10 October ceasefire but Israel has continued to strike Gaza and conduct demolitions against what it says is Hamas infrastructure. Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violating the U.S.-backed agreement.
Medics at Khan Younis' Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said they recovered the bodies of five Palestinians, including two children, after an Israeli missile attack on Wednesday evening at an encampment in western Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said its strike in Khan Younis targeted a "Hamas terrorist", without providing further details. It said the attack came in response to an attack on its troops in Rafah earlier on Wednesday that wounded five soldiers.
Hamas said the Israeli attack was a "disregard to the ceasefire agreement," adding Israel had "full responsibility" for the consequences of the escalation.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (3 February) signed a spending deal into law that ends a partial U.S. government shutdown and gives lawmakers t...
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Tuesday (February 3) with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar one day after the U.S. and India...
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Tuesday as investors worried about AI creating more competition for software makers, keeping them on edge ahead of ...
Small Cirrus SR 20 crashed in Littleborough, Rochdale, after taking off from Birmingham Airport...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 3) said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in...
The U.S. military says an F-35 shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, in an incident reported by Reuters.
Israel reopened the Rafah crossing on Monday (2 February) to a trickle of Palestinians for the first time in months, a major step in a U.S.-backed plan to end the war, though strict Israeli security checks slowed the process.
Repeated violations of international law are casting doubts over the effectiveness of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, one political analyst told AnewZ.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip late Friday and into Saturday, according to Palestinian sources, as Israel and Hamas traded accusations over an alleged breach of the ceasefire.
Heavy snow continued to batter northern and western Japan on Saturday (31 January) leaving cities buried under record levels of snowfall and prompting warnings from authorities. Aomori city in northern Japan recorded 167 centimetres of snow by Friday - the highest January total since 1945.
The United States accused Cuba of interfering with the work of its top diplomat in Havana on Sunday (1 February) after small groups of Cubans jeered at him during meetings with residents and church representatives.
Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday (3 February).
Early voting for Thailand’s parliamentary elections began on Sunday (1 February), with more than two million eligible voters casting ballots nationwide ahead of the 8 February general election, as authorities acknowledged errors and irregularities at some polling stations.
At least 12 people were killed and seven wounded after a Russian drone struck a bus carrying miners in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, government officials said on Sunday (1 February).
The U.S. military says an F-35 shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, in an incident reported by Reuters.
Türkiye’s defence and aerospace exports surged by 44 percent year on year in January 2026, hitting a record monthly high of more than $555 million as overseas demand for Turkish-built military technology continued to grow, the Turkish Defence Industries Secretariat said on Monday (2 February).
Kazakhstan sharply increased oil shipments to Europe in January, exporting 310,000 tonnes to Germany and sending a further 106,000 tonnes via the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
Kazakhstan has approved plans for a second nuclear power plant in a significant scaling up of the country's nuclear ambitions. It comes a year after a referendum, which suggested more than 71 per cent support for the project, but which was also accompanied by allegations of irregularities.
Armed boats tried to intercept a vessel north of Oman on Tuesday in waters near the Strait of Hormuz, where heightened military activity and U.S.–Iran tensions are fuelling maritime security concerns.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment