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Gazans report explosions, gunfire, airstrikes and tank shellingRafah border crossing remains closed amid ongoing ceasefire violationsDispute over return of hostages' bodies continues between Israel and HamasThe Israeli military said it launched air strikes and artillery fire at targets in southern Gaza on Sunday, dimming hopes that a US-mediated ceasefire would lead to lasting peace.Israel's attacks on Sunday were the most serious test of an already fragile ceasefire, which took effect on October 11.Hamas' armed wing said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement in all of Gaza, adding that it was unaware of clashes in Rafah and that it has not been in contact with groups there since March."We affirm our full commitment to implementing all agreements, foremost among them the ceasefire across all areas of the Gaza Strip," the Al-Qassam Brigades said. Palestinian witnesses on Sunday separately told Reuters of explosions and gunfire in Rafah, tank fire in the southern town of Abassan near Khan Younis, an airstrike in the central town of Zawayda and explosions in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, which killed at least five people, according to medics at Al-Aqsa Hospital.Witnesses in Khan Younis heard a wave of airstrikes launched into Rafah early on Sunday afternoon.Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli attacks had killed at least eight people in the last 24 hours. An Israeli military official said earlier on Sunday that Hamas had carried out multiple attacks against Israeli forces inside Gaza, including a rocket-propelled grenade attack and a sniper attack against Israeli soldiers.Defense Minister Israel Katz said the "yellow line" to where Israeli forces had pulled back under the ceasefire agreement would be physically marked and that any violation of the ceasefire or attempt to cross the line would be met with fire.Senior Hamas official Izzat Al Risheq said on Sunday that the group remained committed to the ceasefire, which he accused Israel of repeatedly violating.The government media office in Gaza said on Saturday that Israel had committed 47 violations after the ceasefire deal, leaving 38 dead and 143 wounded."These violations have ranged from direct shooting at civilians, to deliberate shelling and targeting operations, as well as the arrest of several civilians," the media office statement said.The Israeli government and Hamas have been accusing each other of violations of the ceasefire for days, with Israel saying the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice.Rafah has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.The crossing has in previous ceasefires functioned as a key conduit for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a dispute over the return of the bodies of deceased hostages. Israel demanded that Hamas fulfill its obligations in turning over the remaining bodies of all 28 hostages. Hamas has returned all 20 live hostages and 12 of the deceased and has said it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining hostages. The group said the process needs effort and special equipment to recover corpses buried under rubble. Formidable obstacles to Trump's plan to end the war still remain. Key questions of Hamas disarming, the future governance of Gaza, the make-up of an international "stabilization force", and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to be resolved.The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Renewed fighting in Gaza and concerns over the ceasefire pushed key Tel Aviv share indices down nearly 2% on Sunday.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed nine members of a single Palestinian family when they shelled a bus on Friday, after the military confirmed it had targeted a vehicle that crossed the so-called "yellow line"."Our teams recovered the bodies of nine martyrs, including four children and two women, after Israeli occupation forces directly targeted the vehicle they were travelling in within the Zeitun neighbourhood," said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency operating under Hamas authority, in a statement to AFP Saturday.Bassal said Israeli forces had fired "two tank shells at the vehicle". He noted that the bodies of two children remained missing, as their "remains were scattered due to the intensity of the bombardment".He added that the victims were members of the Shabaan family and were killed while "trying to check on their home" in the Zeitun neighbourhood.The ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas is now in its second week, but several incidents have been reported since it began.Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza in search of their homes since the truce began, often struggling to find them amid the sweeping devastation left by more than two years of war.Reuters adds from Cairo: The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, adding its reopening will depend on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages.Hamas said later Saturday it will be handing over two more hostage bodies , meaning 12 out of 28 bodies will have been handed over to Israel under a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal agreed between Israel and Hamas last week.As part of the deal, Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages it had been holding for two years, in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners jailed in Israel.The resistance group has so far returned 10 of 28 bodies and says that locating some of the bodies amid the vast destruction in Gaza will take time.The deal requires Israel to return 360 bodies of Palestinians and so far it has handed over 15 bodies in return for each Israeli body it has received.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's chief negotiator on the Middle East, has said that he felt "betrayed" when Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas negotiators in Qatar last month. In a CBS interview alongside Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who worked with Witkoff on the brokering of a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the presidential envoy said he learned of the September 9 attack in Doha the morning after it happened. Qatar is a key US ally and acted as mediator in the push to end the Gaza war. "I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed," Witkoff told the CBS news programme "60 Minutes" in excerpts released Friday. The full interview is scheduled to air on Sunday. At the time, the strike halted the indirect negotiating process to end the fighting in the devastated Gaza Strip. "It had a metastasizing effect because the Qataris were critical to the negotiation, as were the Egyptians and the Turks," Witkoff said. "We had lost the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground, and it was very, very difficult to get to them." Trump wrote on social media at the time that the decision to conduct the Doha air raid came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel and Hamas ultimately accepted a 20-point peace plan presented by Trump that called for hostage and prisoner releases and a ceasefire after two years of deadly conflict. Under pressure from Trump during a White House visit this month, Netanyahu called Qatar's prime minister to apologise for the Doha strike.

Israeli occupation forces targeted a bus carrying 10 passengers in the Gaza Strip with artillery shells Friday, killing and wounding several people.The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip said that the Israeli occupation forces targeted a minibus carrying approximately 10 people east of Kuwait Roundabout on Salah al Din Street in the al Zaytoun area south of Gaza City, in a new violation of the ceasefire.The Civil Defense said that its crews were able to rescue an injured boy from the targeted site, while the fate of the remaining passengers remains unknown due to the dangerous conditions on the ground in the targeted area and the difficulty of accessing it due to the ongoing shelling.The crews added that they are coordinating with relevant international bodies to secure access to the bombing site and retrieve the victims and wounded.It's worth noting that a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, reached in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, went into effect last Friday.The ceasefire agreement was ratified by the Israeli government, and Israel began withdrawing its forces from populated areas in the Gaza Strip.The agreement also included the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza, and the implementation of the prisoner exchange clause as part of the first phase of US President Donald Trump's initiative to end the war.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that it had received reports that 17 children were killed in an attack on a center for displaced persons in Al Fasher, North Darfur, western Sudan. UNICEF said in a statement that the attack occurred at a facility housing families displaced by the ongoing conflict in the region. "This devastating attack on children and families who were already displaced and seeking safety is an outrage," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Killing and injuring children are grave violations of their rights, and attacks on civilians in places meant to offer safety and refuge are unconscionable." Al Fasher has been under siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than 500 days, with severe restrictions on movement, access to food, water, and medical care, UNICEF reported. Civilians, including large numbers of children, have faced repeated shelling and deteriorating living conditions. Several areas in North Darfur have been experiencing famine for months, and the food security and child nutrition situation in the state has reached catastrophic levels. Families are surviving on minimal rations, and severe acute malnutrition among children is rising sharply. The organization said that health facilities are reporting an increase in preventable child deaths linked to hunger and disease. UNICEF reiterated its call for an immediate cessation of hostilities across Sudan, including in Al Fasher, the lifting of the siege, respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, the provision of safe passage for civilians, including children and families fleeing violence, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to affected populations, and the holding accountable those responsible for attacks on civilians, including children.

An Israeli drone dropped an explosive device near a position belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern Lebanese town of Kfarkela, wounding one peacekeeper. In a statement issued on Sunday, UNIFIL said the attack, which occurred late Saturday, involved the dropping of an explosive device near peacekeepers — the second such incident this month targeting UN personnel with ordnance launched by the Israeli army. UNIFIL added that its peacekeepers had earlier observed two drones flying over the area shortly before the explosion took place. The attack represents a serious breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and shows a troubling disregard for the safety of UN personnel performing their mandated duties. UNIFIL renewed its call on Israel to cease all attacks on or near peacekeepers who are working to sustain the stability commitments endorsed by both Israel and Lebanon.

An AFP photographer was injured in an attack by Israeli settlers on Friday while covering the olive harvest in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank."In my 30-year career, this is the first time I have faced violence of this kind," said Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a Palestinian photographer based in the city of Nablus."If I hadn't managed to escape, they would have killed me," he added.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements there are expanding, and violence soaring.Ashtiyeh said he had been covering the olive harvest in the village of Beita, particularly looking at the work of Israeli and foreign peace activists who had come to support residents in the face of repeated settler attacks during the harvest season.Shortly after midday (0900 GMT), two groups of Israeli settlers armed with sticks and stones -- numbering around 70 people in total -- attacked the olive pickers and journalists at the scene.Hit by several stones in the back, arm and hand, Ashtiyeh was discharged from hospital in the afternoon and is suffering from bruising.His car, along with a handful of others parked at a safe distance from the field, was stoned and then set on fire by the assailants.Ashtiyeh said Israeli soldiers who were present before the attack did nothing to stop the attackers from advancing, but instead fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the olive pickers and activists to disperse them."We strongly condemn this outrageous attack which is another illustration of the increasingly dangerous working environment for our journalists in the West Bank," said Mehdi Lebouachera, AFP's Global Editor-In-Chief."We urge the Israeli military to not only ensure the protection of journalists going about their work but also to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," he added.Contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli military did not immediately respond.The Palestinian health ministry said settler attacks injured 36 people on Friday in Beita and other nearby villages, with most of them suffering minor or moderate injuries, with the exception of two who were wounded by gunfire.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa survived a gunfire attack targeting his motorcade as he was traveling in a convoy to Canar province, where he was scheduled to announce a series of infrastructure projects. The attack occurred after his convoy was confronted by hundreds of people protesting against rising fuel prices. Ecuador's Environment and Energy Minister Ines Manzano said that about 500 people suddenly appeared and began throwing stones at the president's motorcade, causing bullet holes in his vehicle, but Noboa was unharmed in the attack. The Minister added that five suspects have been arrested in connection with the assassination attempt. Authorities announced that the detainees will face charges of terrorism and attempted murder. Ecuador has been experiencing violent demonstrations for several days, protesting against the government's decision to raise diesel prices.

A lion kept at a private home in Thailand got loose and attacked a young boy, leaving him in hospital, the wildlife department said Sunday.The lion attacked the child, who was hospitalised with unspecified injuries, while he was walking on a public road Saturday night in western Kanchanaburi province, about a two-hour drive from the capital Bangkok, the department said in a statement.Local media said the boy was on his way home from playing with other children when the big cat pounced on him.Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, where the captive population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes.But experts have warned the trend endangers animals and humans, and likely fuels illicit trade domestically and abroad.The lion's owner, who the wildlife department identified only as Parinya, was charged with violating wildlife protection laws, and faces up to six months in prison and a 50,000 baht ($1,500) fine if convicted.The lion was seized by authorities, the department said, adding that a wildlife breeding centre had prepared a new home for it.Parinya told local TV he was "shocked" when he learned of the attack, saying the female lion got loose after it was removed from its cage while it was being renovated."I apologise for what happened, it was an accident," he said, adding that he will pay compensation and for the boy's medical treatment.In its statement, the wildlife department urged people who "keep wild animals to be aware of the potential dangers, as all animals have a ferocious instinct"."Any unforeseen incident that affects the life and property of others will be punished and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," it added.Since 2022, Thai law has required owners to register and microchip lions, and inform authorities before moving them, but there are few enclosure or welfare requirements.Last month, a zookeeper was mauled to death by several lions at a safari park on the outskirts of Bangkok, raising scrutiny of the facility, which offers lion- and tiger-feeding trips for about $40 per person.

Four members of the same family, including two children, were killed in a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Sumy Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian news agency (Ukrinform) reported Tuesday that the attack occurred overnight in the village of Chernechchyna, located in the town of Krasnopillia. Reports issued by both countries regarding the progress of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, which has been ongoing since Feb. 24, 2022, conflict with regard to field data.

Russian authorities announced that two people were injured in a Ukrainian missile attack on the city of Belgorod in western Russia. Belgorod Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said via Telegram that two civilians were injured in a missile attack on Belgorod.A man was hit by shrapnel in the stomach, and a woman is also believed to be injured. He warned of possible delays in missile and drone attack alerts.The attack caused a major disruption to electricity supplies, and efforts are underway to convert vital infrastructure to back up generation.Reports and information from both countries regarding field data conflict is impossible to verify from independent sources, given the ongoing war and fighting since February 2022.

Six people were injured in a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the Ukrainian news agency (Ukrainform) reported Sunday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the overnight attack left five people hospitalized, while one woman received treatment at the scene. More than three years since the war broke out, the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues with no signs of de-escalation.