Russian missile attack forces Ukraine to shut down power grid
Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Wednesday, forcing the country to introduce preventive power cuts, the Ukrainian energy minister said. “The enemy continues to terrorize Ukrainians,” Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook, urging residents to stay in shelters during the air raid alerts and follow official updates.
Israel and Hamas reach deal on Gaza ceasefire and hostage release
The Biden administration called for a final push before the president leaves office, with many seeing the Trump inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
Hopes grow for Gaza ceasefire as official says Hamas and Israel are on the verge of agreement
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Hamas had not yet responded to the draft agreement, after reports of a breakthrough in Israeli media.
After months of agony and rage, hostage families hold out hope despite 'roller coaster' negotiations
As negotiators neared a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday, the families of hostages held for 15 agonizing months in the Gaza Strip said that they “remain hopeful” that their loved ones will be released. Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing political backlash Tuesday even before a potential truce with Hamas had been inked.
Gazans anxiously await ceasefire news — but with their home in ruins, few know what's next
After more than 15 months of war that has left Gaza in ruins, killed tens of thousands of people and made most of the enclave's population homeless, Palestinians were this week craving an end to fighting. But many had no idea what the future holds. Like many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Muad Zakariy al-Kahlout was anxiously awaiting news of whether a ceasefire deal that would bring an end to more than a year of deadly fighting in the enclave would be confirmed.
Ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas 'on the brink of coming to fruition,' Biden says
A ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas is “on the brink of coming to fruition,” President Joe Biden said Monday. In his final foreign policy address before he leaves office next week, Biden said his administration was “working urgently” to close the agreement.
Ukraine captured two injured North Korean soldiers, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine has captured two injured North Korean soldiers from the battlefield in Russia’s Kursk region and transferred them to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday. “Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, alongside a series of photos of the prisoners.
Trump says Putin meeting being set up to end 'bloody mess' of Ukraine war
President-elect Donald Trump said late Thursday that a meeting is being arranged with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a summit that would be eyed anxiously by Ukraine and its other Western allies. “President Putin wants to meet” and “we are setting it up,” Trump told a news briefing at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. “We have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
Gaza death toll may be 41% higher than official figures, study finds
The number of people killed in Gaza during Israel's deadly offensive in the Palestinian enclave is significantly higher than the figures reported by local health authorities, researchers at a leading health university in Britain have found. In a peer-reviewed study published Thursday in The Lancet journal, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said they estimated that as many as 64,260 people were killed in "traumatic injury deaths" in Gaza between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Israeli military confirms identity of hostage killed in Gaza
Israel confirmed that a hostage found killed in Gaza was Hamza Ziyadne, the son of another hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, found dead alongside him in an underground tunnel near the southern city of Rafah. The family of Hamza, an Israeli Bedouin taken hostage by Hamas-led fighters alongside his father, had been notified of his death following the conclusion of forensic tests, the Israeli military said on Friday.