Sumud Flotilla activists land in Istanbul
Fifteen Turkish activists, who were unlawfully detained by Israel aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla, arrived at Istanbul Ai...
The Qassam Brigades announced that the remains of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi, and Shlomo Mantzur were handed over.
An Israeli security official has confirmed that Hamas has transferred four bodies to the Red Cross.
Israel is now expected to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the coming hours as part of the final phase of hostage and prisoner exchanges under the first stage of the ceasefire deal agreed upon last month.
The official truce is set to end on Saturday, but it remains unclear if discussions to extend the ceasefire have begun.
The identities of the bodies handed over by Hamas early Thursday local time have not yet been confirmed. Israel has announced that a team of forensic experts from the National Center for Forensic Medicine will be dispatched to the Kerem Shalom border crossing to assist with identification.
An Israeli official previously said that no Palestinian prisoners would be released until the hostages’ bodies were positively identified. This follows a previous incident in which Hamas mistakenly handed over the body of an unidentified Gazan woman instead of hostage Shiri Bibas. Hamas later acknowledged the error and returned Bibas' body.
If confirmed to be the bodies belonging to hostages, the latest release would mean that Hamas and its allies are now holding 59 captives, according to Israeli figures. The Israeli government believes more than half of those remaining are deceased. One of the hostages, Hadar Goldin, has been held dead since before October 7, 2023.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, announced that the remains of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi, and Shlomo Mantzur would be handed over.
The Israeli military previously stated that Shlomo Mantzur, who at 85 was the oldest hostage taken on October 7, 2023, was killed during the Hamas-led attack, and his body had been held in Gaza. However, the military had not confirmed the deaths of the other three hostages.
The latest transfer took place privately after the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced that an agreement had been reached for the four bodies to be returned “through an agreed-upon procedure and without Hamas ceremonies.”
Doubts over the handover emerged on Saturday when Israel refused to release 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, citing what it described as “humiliating ceremonies” conducted by Hamas during previous releases.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas had released six Israeli hostages from Gaza in two public ceremonies and one private transfer. This marked the final return of living hostages under the first phase of the ceasefire deal that began last month.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
Fifteen Turkish activists, who were unlawfully detained by Israel aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud humanitarian aid flotilla, arrived at Istanbul Airport on Tuesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met on Monday with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said via the country’s social media platform NSosyal.
Iran says one million undocumented Afghan refugees have returned to their country majority of them voluntarily in the last six and half months criticising the international donors for their less-than-savoury contribution to the refugee programmes.
Leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) signed the Gabala Declaration at the 12th Summit of the Council of Heads of State, outlining new priorities for political, economic, and cultural cooperation across the Turkic world.
President Ilham Aliyev welcomed the heads of state and government participating in the 12th Summit of the Council of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States, held in Gabala on October 7.
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