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Live: Israel strikes 'multiple' Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley

Israel's military said Friday it struck "multiple" Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, two months into a fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese group. The strikes come a day after eight more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led mili

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Yesterday

Israel's ban on UN's Palestinian aid agency has come into effect

Israel on Thursday formally banned the main United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory despite heavy diplomatic backlash, a move that humanitarian officials warn could have a disastrous impact on aid delivery and j

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Israel's ban on UN's Palestinian aid agency has come into effect

Israel on Thursday formally banned the main United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory despite heavy diplomatic backlash, a move that humanitarian officials warn could have a disastrous impact on aid delivery and j

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Hamas confirms death of October 7 mastermind Mohammed Deif

Hamas has for the first time confirmed the death of the group's military chief Mohammed Deif, believed to be one of the key architects behind the October 7 attacks in southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

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Five Thai hostages released by Hamas

Five Thai farm labourers, held hostage for nearly 16 months in the Gaza Strip, were released by Hamas on Thursday during a truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. They were released along with three Israelis. On October 7, 2023, after th

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Israel-Hamas ceasefire: How to keep it on track?

Each time, there's suspense.Some stage-managing, some confusion but a third round of exchanges of Gaza hostages for Palestinian prisoners in the end keeping the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal on the rails. We’ll ask about the optics and about a long process

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Israel-Hamas ceasefire: 'It's time for this war to end, we have to stop doing this to each other'

Hamas-led militants freed eight hostages on Thursday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but the chaotic handover of some of the captives, who masked militants shuttled through a rowdy crowd of thousands, drew an angry protest from Israel. For in

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3 Israeli hostages released in exchange for 110 Palestinian prisoners

Hamas-led militants freed eight hostages, including three Israelis, on Thursday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israel later began releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners after the swap was delayed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who demand

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Israel-Hamas ceasefire: Next phase requires 'building trust and accepting war should come to an end'

Hamas-led militants freed eight hostages on Thursday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but the chaotic handover of some of the captives, who masked militants shuttled through a rowdy crowd of thousands, drew an angry protest from Israel. For in

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Hamas hands over Israeli soldier Agam Berger to Red Cross under Gaza ceasefire deal

FRANCE 24's Mark Owen reports from Tel Aviv on the release of Israeli soldier Agam Berger and the upcoming release of the remaining two Israelis held in Gaza as part of the third hostage-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire. Five Thai nationals are also

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Buses carrying 110 released Palestinian prisoners reach Ramallah

Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the third round of exchanges in the Gaza ceasefire deal, which is in its second week. Five Thai workers held captive in the enclave were also freed in a sep

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Syria's interim president vows to preserve 'civil peace' in first address

In his first address as Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the lightning removal of former dictator Bashar al-Assad, vowed to preserve "civil peace" and issue a "constitutional declaration", presenting core elements of his plan to rebuil

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Wednesday, january 29, 2025

HTS rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is named interim president of Syria

Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was declared Syria's head of state for a transitional phase and empowered to form a new legislative council, state media reported Wednesday. After an Islamist rebel alliance toppl

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Return to Damascus: How to build the new Syria?

For exiled Syrians, this is their Berlin Wall moment—the doors to a homeland they thought they'd never see again are suddenly swinging open. The heady days following December 8 and the fall of Assad's seemingly immovable regime have brought an unexpected

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Eleven Hamas hostages to be freed: 'We will only be sure of what happens when it happens'

Hamas will release three Israelis, including two women and an 80-year-old man, as well as five Thai nationals during the next hostage release slated for Thursday, officials from Israel and Hamas said as a tenuous ceasefire between the sides continues to

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Israel says 11 hostages held by Hamas set to be released this week

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Hamas had given it a list of three Israelis and five Thai nationals set to be released in the next hostage-prisoner exchange on Thursday. Another three hostages will be released on Sa

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Trump reiterates Gaza expulsion plan – and stokes security fears

US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Egypt and Jordan should absorb Palestinians from Gaza has gotten no takers in the Arab world, shocked US allies like France and Germany, and threatens to strengthen Hamas.

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Trump, Witkoff got Gaza ceasefire deal 'across the line', adviser to Qatari PM says

FRANCE 24 spoke to Majed al-Ansari, an adviser to Qatari Prime Minister Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry. He discussed the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on January 15. Qatar, along with Egyp

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Gaza ceasefire is 'beginning of difficult healing journey', mental health worker says

A mental health worker for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has spoken to FRANCE 24 about how the ceasefire has been a relief for the people of Gaza. Zahra Legris is now back in Dublin after spending two months in the south of Gaza working for the charity.

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Tuesday, january 28, 2025

France slams Trump's plan to forcibly displace Gazans to Jordan and Egypt

France has called a proposal by US President Donald Trump to forcibly move Gazan Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan “unacceptable”, adding it would be a serious breach of international law and could derail future efforts towards a two-state solution.

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Israel to cease all contact with UNRWA Palestinian aid agency

Israel will cease all contact with the UN's Palestinian relief agency and any other body acting on UNRWA's behalf, Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said on Tuesday. UNRWA estimates that it has provided 60 percent of the food aid reaching Gaza since the star

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Monday, january 27, 2025

'There are a number of hostages that have lost their lives'

"There are a number of hostages that have lost their lives", noted Mark Owen, FRANCE 24's correspondent in Jerusalem. Other hostages "are coming though alive and well", he added. The Israeli government revealed in a news conference various aspects of psy

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Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians return to devastated northern Gaza

Palestinians began returning to the northern Gaza Strip on Monday amid a fragile ceasefire in the 15-month war that has ravaged the enclave and displaced almost 2 million Gazans, some 650,000 of them from the north. Many have been displaced multiple time

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Roadblocks open in Gaza: both Israel and Hamas try to turn the story to their advantage

Masses of displaced Palestinians began streaming towards the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages. Details by FRANCE 24 journalist in Jerusalem, Mark Owen.

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Gaza residents stream home to the north after hostage breakthrough

Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed along the main roads leading north in Gaza after Hamas agreed to hand over three Israeli hostages later this week and Israeli forces began to withdraw from a main corridor across the enclave. Details by Palestin

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'We want to live in peace, Hamas doesn't: Peace will be elusive while Hamas controls, governs Gaza'

Amid the on-going campaign to bring all of the Israeli hostages home from Gaza, Israel-Canadian filmmaker Yoni Collins joins FRANCE 24's Mark Owen. All the while, four more young women held captive by Hamas have just returned. "We're so happy they're bac

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EU top diplomat expects deal 'today' on easing Syria sanctions after Assad's fall

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she expected the bloc to agree to begin easing sanctions on Syria after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December. Story by Delano D'Souza.

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Hamas and Israel reach deal to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza

An unending stream of people marched up the coast of Gaza, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and repurposed flour sacks through the central city of Nuseirat after Israel reopened access to the territory's north. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent

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Trump’s idea to send Gazans to Egypt and Jordan falls flat with Arab allies

President Donald Trump’s push to have Egypt and Jordan take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from besieged Gaza fell flat with those countries' governments. Analysis by Elizabeth Sheppard, senior lecturer specializing in American defense policy a

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Lebanon will respect February 18 deal extension with Israel

Lebanon said it would extend implementation of a ceasefire agreement with Israel until February 18, after Israel failed to meet the deadline for withdrawing troops from the country's south. Story by Charlotte Hughes.

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Tens of thousands return to devastated northern Gaza as Israel lifts its closure under truce

Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire. Stor

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Why did Lebanon extend the ceasefire despite Israel's failure to meet withdrawal deadline?

Lebanon said it would extend a ceasefire deal with Israel until mid-February, even though the Israeli military failed to meet a deadline to withdraw its troops and killed 22 people in the south of the country. More information with FRANCE 24 corresponden

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Thousands of displaced Gazans start returning home after hostage deal reached

Masses of displaced Palestinians began streaming towards the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages. Story by Charlotte Hughes.

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France says EU will lift some sanctions against Syria

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters on Monday that the European Union is lifting some sanctions against Syria, as top EU diplomats met in Brussels to discuss a coordinated approach to sanctions relief for the war-torn country. Barrot

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'We value life, every life: The people still alive must be brought back, reunited with loved ones'

As several more Israeli hostages return to their families, following 15 months of captivity, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen welcomes Anat Ron-Kendall from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Ms. Ron-Kendall lost her father on October 7th, when Hamas militants and their

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Israel says eight of 33 hostages due for release by Hamas are dead

Israel on Monday said that a Hamas list showed that at eight of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire are dead. Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists that Hamas said the other 25 are alive. Read our liveblog

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Sunday, january 26, 2025

Gaza: 'We have already documented multiple crimes against humanity,' says Human Rights Watch

Israel kept thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday as it accused Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. For more information, FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee interviewed

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Gaza: mediators seem to have reached an agreement regarding hostage A. Yahud's release

Israel kept thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza as it accused Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. Mediators seem to have reached an agreement regarding the Israeli

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Donald Trump tells journalists he wants to 'clean out' Gaza

President Donald Trump said he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip, moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create

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Israel kills 15 and injures 83 south Lebanese residents returning home

Israeli army fire killed 15 people in south Lebanon including a soldier, health officials said, as residents tried to return home on the day Israel was meant to withdraw under a truce deal. Story by Emily Boyle.

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Trump says Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza, Hamas rejects plan

U.S. President Donald Trump said Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, a suggestion rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs the enclave. Analysis by Philip Turle.

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Is the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah coming to an end?

Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders. Is the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah co

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Israel refuses to withdraw from south Lebanon despite deadline, four killed

Israel forces killed three Lebanese civilians and wounded 17 others who were trying to return to homes in south Lebanon where Israeli troops remained on the ground after a deadline for their withdrawal passed. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Beirut

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Are tensions in the Gaza ceasefire deal part of a normal process?

Hamas accused Israel of violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement by preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in the northern part of the territory. Analysis by Oliver McTernan, Forward Thinking.

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Israeli forces kill 3 people in south Lebanon as hundreds of residents try to return home

Israeli forces killed three people and wounded 31 others trying to return to homes in south Lebanon where Israeli troops remained on the ground after a deadline for their withdrawal passed on Sunday.

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Trump floats plan to 'clean out' Gaza and move Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan

US President Donald Trump floated a plan to "just clean out" Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace. Analysis by FRANCE 24 journalist in Jerusalem, Mark Owen.

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Palestinians in the West Bank welcome 200 prisoners freed by Israel as heroes

Thousands of Palestinians chanted praise of Hamas as they welcomed prisoners freed under a ceasefire deal between the militant group and Israel that saw four Israeli hostages also return home. Story by Florent Marchais.

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Hamas parades 'victory' in hostage deal with propaganda video condemned by IDF

Before the release of the four Israeli hostages, they were led onto a stage in Gaza City, surrounded by masked & uniformed Hamas fighters in what many say was a show of force. Nicholas Rushworth tells us more about the highly choreographed event.

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What will come next in the Gaza ceasefire deal?

A Palestinian man was killed and seven people were wounded by Israeli fire overnight, local health officials said Sunday, as crowds gathered in hopes of returning to the northern Gaza Strip under a fragile week-old ceasefire aimed at winding down the war

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Jordan and Egypt reject Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza

Jordan and Egypt on Sunday rejected a suggestion by US President Donald Trump to “just clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its Palestinian population to those two countries. Cairo said it was against any attempt of moving Palestinians out of their land “w

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Israeli troops kill several, wound dozens as hundreds of residents try to return to south Lebanon

At least 22 people were killed and dozens more were wounded on Sunday after Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on residents trying to return to their homes in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces remain on the ground despite the end of the 60-day withdraw

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'Sounds like ethnic cleansing to a lot of ears': Trump mulls plan to 'clean out' Gaza

FRANCE 24's Tel Aviv correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky weighs in on US President Donald Trump's statements Saturday that he was considering a plan to "clean out" Gaza by calling on Arab states to take an unspecified number of Palestinians living in the deva

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Trump floats plan to 'just clean out' Gaza and resettle Palestinians in Jordan and Egypt

US President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that he was considering a plan to "just clean out" Gaza by calling on Jordan and Egypt to take an unspecified number of people living in the devastated enclave. The mass displacement of Palestinians durin

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Israel blocks thousands of Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza over ceasefire dispute

Israel kept thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza Strip as it accused Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. Local health officials said Israeli forces fired on the cro

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How will Hezbollah respond to Israel's breach of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon?

Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday opened fire on protesters demanding their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 11 and injuring more than 80. How will Hezbollah repond? Jennie Shin asked John Lyndon, executive direc

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Saturday, january 25, 2025

'Bittersweet reaction' in Tel Aviv following release of hostages

In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, a big screen showed the faces of the four female soldiers released on Saturday. "There has been a bittersweet reaction here," said FRANCE 24 correspondent Mark Owen, live from the scene. The ceasefire deal between Hamas and

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Gazans unable to return home set for long wait to cross Israeli barrier

Displaced Palestinians heading back to the Gaza Strip's war-ravaged north found themselves blocked with their belongings at an Israeli-controlled patch of land where troops stood. Details by Shrouk Aila, journalist in Khan Younes.

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The 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza 'could have been saved' M. Barghouti tells FRANCE 24

Hamas militants handed over four captive female Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross in Gaza City on Saturday after parading them in front of a crowd. Israel followed with the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees as part of the fragile ceasefir

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Israel accuses Hamas of breaching terms of Gaza ceasefire deal

The first week of the latest ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group is complete. Hamas has begun to release hostages and Israel has freed nearly 300 Palestinian prisoners. But the deal has hit its first major complication. Israel on Saturd

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Both Israelis and Palestinians who were freed in the ceasefire deal have a long road ahead of them

Hamas freed four female Israeli soldiers in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners, the second swap under the Gaza truce, although Israel halted families from returning to bombed-out north Gaza over a delay in another hostage's release. Details by Dr Hea

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