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The UN Security Council on Monday voted to adopt a US-drafted resolution endorsing President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza and authorising an international stabilisation force for the Palestinian enclave. Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas agreed last month to the first phase of Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza - a ceasefire in their two-year war and a hostage-release deal - but the UN resolution is seen as vital to legitimising a transitional governance body and reassuring countries that are considering sending troops to Gaza.The text of the resolution says member states can take part in the Trump-chaired Board of Peace envisioned as a transitional authority that would oversee reconstruction and economic recovery of Gaza. It also authorises the international stabilization force, which would ensure a process of demilitarising Gaza, including by decommissioning weapons and destroying military infrastructure. Hamas, in a statement, reiterated that it will not disarm and argued that its fight against Israel is legitimate resistance, potentially pitting the group against the international force authorised by the resolution."The resolution imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject," Hamas said in its statement, issued after the adoption of the resolution. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said the resolution, which includes Trump's 20-point plan as an annex, "charts a possible pathway for Palestinian self-determination ... where rockets will give way to olive branches and there is a chance to agree on a political horizon." Russia, which holds a veto on the Security Council, earlier signaled potential opposition to the resolution but abstained from the vote, allowing the resolution to pass.The UN ambassadors of Russia and China, which also abstained, complained that the resolution does not give the UN a clear role in the future of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement welcoming the resolution, and said it is ready to take part in its implementation.Trump celebrated the vote as "a moment of true Historic proportion" in a social media post. "The members of the Board, and many more exciting announcements, will be made in the coming weeks," Trump wrote. The resolution has proven controversial in Israel because it references a future possibility of statehood for the Palestinians. The resolution's text says that "conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood" once the Palestinian Authority has carried out a reform programme and Gaza's redevelopment has advanced.

Ceasefire allows Palestinians to return home, but violence persistsHamas and Israel exchange hostages and bodiesIsraeli fire killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, north of the southern city of Rafah, which remains under Israeli control, according to local health authorities, further testing the fragile US-backed ceasefire.In a statement issued earlier on Monday, the Israeli military said forces identified "terrorists" who crossed the yellow line, which marks areas the army still occupies. It said they were advancing towards troops in southern Gaza, posing an immediate threat, before it struck them.Medics said one of those killed was a woman. The identities of the two others weren't immediately clear. The incident follows days of Israeli strikes on the enclave, provoking mutual accusations between Hamas and Israel over violations of the tenuous ceasefire that halted two years of war.Residents said Israeli forces continued to demolish houses in the eastern areas of Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City, where forces continue to operate.The ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10, has calmed most fighting, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza. Israel has withdrawn troops from positions in cities, and more aid has been allowed to enter.Hamas turned over all 20 living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees held by Israel. Hamas has also agreed to turn over the bodies of hostages, a process which is still incomplete and which it says is difficult, while Israel accuses Hamas of stalling.But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 239 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops.Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has targeted scores of fighters.Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday it received 45 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel whose bodies were in Israeli custody. Monday's handover raised the number of Palestinian bodies Israel has returned to Gaza to 270.Hamas has so far returned 20 of the 28 bodies of hostages that had been buried in Gaza.

The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Friday, killing three people, Palestinian health authorities said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement.Residents reported Israeli shelling and gunfire in northern Gaza on Friday, as Israel continued to bombard areas of the enclave despite saying that it remains committed to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.The Israeli military did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.Another Palestinian died of wounds sustained from previous Israeli shelling, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.The US-brokered ceasefire, which left thorny issues like the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip unresolved, has been tested by periodic outbreaks of violence since it came into place three weeks ago.Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people.Gaza's health ministry said the Red Cross had delivered to it 30 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel during the war, a day after Hamas handed over two bodies of hostages.Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released all living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel agreed to pull back its troops, halt its offensive and increase aid.Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in exchange for 360 Palestinian fighters killed in the war. After Thursday's release, it had handed over 17 bodies, while 225 Palestinian bodies have so far been returned to Gaza.Hamas has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies of all the remaining hostages.Israel has accused Hamas of violating the truce by stalling in the handover.

Foreign ministers of some Muslim countries will meet in Istanbul on Monday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and next steps there, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday, voicing concern over whether the ceasefire will continue.Speaking at a press conference in Ankara, Fidan said the gathering would include foreign ministers of countries represented at a meeting with US President Donald Trump in New York in September.That meeting, to discuss the situation in Gaza, was attended by Turkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia."The topics being discussed currently are how to proceed to the second stage, the stability force," Fidan said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted last week at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip as part of a mission to monitor a US-backed ceasefire with Hamas.

The Gaza ceasefire violations are very disappointing and frustrating, HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York Wednesday."We were trying to contain it and we mobilised right away after this and in full coordination with the US. We have seen that the US also is committed to the deal."We have been very clear with Hamas and Hamas's response was also very clear to us that they are willing to give up their governance. The open question from their perspective is that this is an obligation on all the factions not on Hamas only."HE Sheikh Mohammed said he expected the ceasefire to hold in Gaza despite a "violation" as Israel carried out strikes in response to Palestinian fire."Fortunately I think the main parties -- both of them -- are acknowledging that the ceasefire should hold and they should stick to the agreement".Gaza's civil defense agency said the Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people, including at least 35 children.HE the prime minister called the Israeli strike on Doha that killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security person not only "a shock but a game-changer for all the region.""I think that the attack itself has shown the US that there are all the red lines being crossed in the region," he said.(Al Jazeera)

Israel said it struck an arms dump in Gaza on Wednesday, hours after the deadliest night of bombing since the start of a US-brokered truce, warning it would continue to operate to take out perceived threats.The military announced it had carried out a precision strike on a site in the Beit Lahia area of northern Gaza where it said weapons were being stockpiled. Israeli troops, it said, would remain deployed in "accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat".Hamas-run Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP that one Palestinian was killed in the latest strike -- and that 104 -- including 46 children and 24 women -- had died in the previous night's bombardment.The Israeli military launched a wave of bombing after one of its soldiers was killed in Gaza on Tuesday. By mid-morning on Wednesday it said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire".Hamas said its fighters had "no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah" and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-backed ceasefire.Both US President Donald Trump and regional mediator Qatar said they expected the ceasefire to hold, but inside Gaza displaced families were losing hope."We had just started to breathe again, trying to rebuild our lives, when the bombardment came back," said 31-year-old Khadija al-Husni, a displaced mother living with her children under canvas at a school in Al-Shati refugee camp."It's a crime. Either there is a truce or a war -- it can't be both. The children couldn't sleep; they thought the war was over."United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the report of so many dead was appalling and urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp", echoing calls from Britain, Germany and the European Union for the parties to recommit to the ceasefire.In the central city of Deir el-Balah, in a tent near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, 40-year-old Jalal Abbas was close to despair and accused the Israelis of using false pretexts to resume their campaign."The problem is that Trump gives them cover to kill civilians because they mislead him with false information," he told AFP."We want an end to the war and the escalation. We're exhausted and on the verge of collapse."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday expressed "deep concern" after the deadliest night of bombing in Gaza since a US-brokered truce went into effect earlier this month.Gaza's civil defence agency said the strikes had killed more than 100 people, including at least 35 children, a toll confirmed by an AFP tally of medical sources at five hospitals in Gaza."We appeal to Israel to exercise military restraint in order to prevent further suffering," Wadephul said in a ministry statement released ahead of a planned trip to the region.Israel carried out strikes on dozens of Hamas targets overnight to Wednesday following the death of a soldier.After the strikes, the Israeli military said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire", though explosions could still be seen on an AFP live video feed of the Gaza skyline after the statement was issued.US President Donald Trump, who helped to broker the nearly three-week-old truce, had earlier said that nothing would be allowed to jeopardise it. But he also endorsed Israel's right to "hit back" if attacked.Wadephul also called on Hamas to "fulfil its part of the agreement... to lay down its arms and finally hand over all the remains of the deceased hostages."Following the agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, there is hope for lasting peace, which we must continue to work towards," he added.Wadephul will first visit Jordan before heading to Lebanon and Bahrain, according to his ministry."During my trip to the Middle East, I intend to discuss with our partners where and how Germany can specifically accompany and support the next steps," he said.

The United Nations on Wednesday called the deaths in Israel's new military strikes on Gaza "appalling", as it urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp".Israel said it had carried out strikes on dozens of Hamas targets following the death of a soldier, with the Gaza Strip experiencing its deadliest night of bombing since a US-brokered truce went into effect earlier in October.UN rights chief Volker Turk said the attacks had reportedly hit schools, homes and tents for internally displaced people within the Palestinian territory."Reports that over 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in a wave of Israeli airstrikes mainly on residential buildings, IDP tents and schools across the Gaza Strip, following the death of an Israeli soldier, are appalling," he said in a statement."The laws of war are very clear on the paramount importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure."Turk said Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, and would be accountable for any violations."It is distressing that these killings occurred just as the long-suffering population of Gaza started to feel there was hope that the unrelenting barrage of violence may be at an end," he said.Turk called for all parties in the conflict to act in good faith and implement the ceasefire, and urged other countries, particularly those with influence in the region, to do everything in their power to ensure compliance."The past two years have brought untold suffering and misery, and the near wholesale destruction of Gaza," he said."We must not allow this opportunity for peace and a path towards a more just and secure future to slip from our grasp."

Their faces contorted with pain, relatives mourned two children killed in overnight Israeli strikes on Gaza, leaning over small bodies on the pavement wrapped in sheets, one stained blood red.In the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinians combed through piles of broken cement in a house flattened by an air strike, trying to salvage what they could."We had dinner and sat down, and then it was as if Judgment Day had come. All these stones were on top of us," Muneer Mayman told AFP in the morning, pointing to a pile of cinder blocks and concrete under which he had been found."We lay there for more than two hours while they were removing the rubble from over us."Behind him, men and children were at work sifting through debris, hauling off belongings wrapped in blankets for lack of bags or wheelbarrows.In south Gaza's Khan Yunis, an elderly woman held her face between her hands as she sat by a few utensils relatives had salvaged from rubble, an AFP journalist saw.Nuseirat's Al-Awda hospital reported at least 31 people killed in the strikes that broke the relative peace brought by a ceasefire that began on October 10.Gaza's civil defence agency said that 101 people including 35 children were killed since the strikes began, a figure confirmed by an AFP tally of medical officials in five hospitals.Jalal Abbas, a 40-year-old displaced man living in a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah, told AFP he fears the war will return for good."The return of war is what we feared most. I expected the escalation and bombardment to resume because Israel always creates pretexts," he said."Every day they threaten to bring back the war, using the issue of the bodies as an excuse -- it's all lies," he added.Abbas was referring to Israel's declaration that Hamas broke the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire deal by not returning the bodies of deceased hostages quickly enough.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday the military had launched the strikes "in response to the attack on soldiers and the blatant violation of the agreement to return the abducted missing".At least one Israeli soldier was killed in clashes on Tuesday.In Khan Yunis, members of the civil defence, a rescue force acting under Hamas authority, had been searching by flashlight through the rubble through the night.Women wailed as the rescuers took away the bodies of deceased relatives on stretchers, before search and rescue teams moved on to the next site, a plot of land where two tents were struck.In north Gaza's Al-Shati camp too, bombardments tore through the night."We had just started to breathe again, trying to rebuild our lives, when the bombardment came back -- bringing war, explosions and death," Khadija al-Husni, 31, told AFP.Husni also lives in a tent, having been displaced at least once like nearly all Gazans after two years of war.She deplored the ambiguity of the current ceasefire, which has been sporadically broken by Israeli air strikes or fighting with Hamas since its beginning."Either there is a truce or a war -- it can't be both. The children couldn't sleep; they thought the war was over," Husni said."Are we condemned to live in endless suffering?"

Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza City Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the resistance group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory and ordered the military to carry out "powerful attacks".At least two people were killed and four wounded in a strike on a residential building in the city's Sabra neighbourhood, and an area close to Shifa hospital, the largest operational hospital in northern Gaza, was also hit, according to Gaza officials, witnesses and Hamas media.The strikes were the latest violence in a fragile three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Netanyahu's office saying he had ordered immediate attacks.The statement did not give a specific reason for the attacks but an Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave that is under Israeli control.The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war that has devastated the narrow coastal strip.Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations.Earlier yesterday, Israeli media reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.Hamas denied responsibility for an attack on Israeli forces in Rafah. The group also said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal in Gaza.Tuesday's strikes on Gaza City followed what Israel called a "targeted strike" on Saturday on a person in central Gaza.Netanyahu said earlier yesterday that Hamas had violated the ceasefire by turning over some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.Hamas said Netanyahu was looking for excuses to back away from Israel's obligations.Witnesses in Khan Younis said the Egyptian teams, working with armed Hamas fighters, were digging deep near the Hamad Housing City in the western side of Khan Younis, reaching tunnel shafts.Gaza health authorities say 68,000 people are confirmed killed in the Israeli strikes and thousands more are missing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip, after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.Minutes later, Hamas said it would delay handing over the remains of another hostage under the terms of the truce deal over what it called Israel's truce "violations"."Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip," a statement from the premier's office said, without elaborating.Hamas had earlier said it would hand over another hostage body, scheduled on Tuesday, amid mounting Israeli pressure after Hamas returned only the partial remains of a previously recovered captive."We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation's violations," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement, adding that any Israeli "escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies".Hamas handed over late on Monday what it said was the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10.But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu's office.In returning only the partial remains of an already returned captive, Netanyahu's office and a campaign group representing hostage families accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire.Netanyahu's office decried a "clear violation of the agreement" after identification procedures revealed the latest remains belonged "to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati, who had been returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago".Netanyahu's latest instructions came after he held security consultations earlier in the day.Israeli government spokeswoman, Shosh Bedrosian, later told journalists that "in terms of consequences for Hamas nothing is off the table right now, but all of this is in full coordination with the United States, with (US) President (Donald) Trump and his team."The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to take action.Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel's bombardment during the two-year conflict had left locations unrecognisable."The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located," he told AFP.Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.Hamas also accused Israel of ceasefire violations, with the territory's health ministry saying that at least 94 people had been killed in Israeli fire since the truce began.On the ground in Gaza, 60-year-old Abdul-Hayy al-Hajj Ahmed told AFP he was afraid the war would start again because of the mounting pressure on Hamas."Now they accuse Hamas of stalling, and that is a pretext for renewed escalation and war," he said."We want to rest. I believe the war will come back."Israel's far-right national security minister accused Hamas of stalling the release of the remaining bodies."It is time to break its legs once and for all," Itamar Ben Gvir wrote on X.

A convoy of Egyptian trucks and vehicles transporting heavy machinery entered Gaza overnight to help locate the remains of Israeli hostages in the territory, AFP footage showed.The vehicles were filmed in Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request on Sunday morning for confirmation that the vehicles had entered.But The Times of Israel had reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved the entry of the Egyptian team and several engineering vehicles to the Palestinian territory to locate the missing remains.On Saturday night, Egyptian state-linked Al-Qahera News channel reported that the team was on its way to Gaza.Two Egyptian military sources had also confirmed to AFP that the convoy was at the Kerem Shalom crossing Saturday night, awaiting authorisation to cross into the Palestinian territory.On October 17, a Turkish official had announced that a team of 81 rescuers sent by Ankara to locate the hostages' bodies in Gaza was waiting in Egypt to enter the strip.But the Turkish team never received approval from Israel, amid reports that Israel objected to any Turkish involvement in Gaza.Based on the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Hamas was due to return all 48 remaining hostages, alive and dead, who were still held in the territory, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel.But only 15 of the 28 dead hostages have been returned so far, with the remaining bodies buried under the rubble across the devastated territory and Hamas calling for tools and assistance to locate them.