Israel returns more bodies of Palestinians as US downplays threat to Gaza ceasefire
Summary
Israel has returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says, as part of an exchange agreed in the ceasefire deal
Hamas earlier returned the remains of two Israelis - the deal says Israel will return 15 Palestinian bodies for every Israeli body
So far, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages but only nine of the 28 dead hostages - the group says it needs specialist equipment to find the others
The delay has raised fears the ceasefire could collapse, but senior US advisers downplay the threat, saying Hamas intends to "honour" the deal
Meanwhile, Israel says "preparations are ongoing" for opening the Rafah crossing for people in Gaza, but aid will only enter through other checkpoints
Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza to report freely
Focus is on clearing roads and hospitals, UN development programme says
A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) delegation is visiting Gaza to assess the destruction and and plan its reconstruction.
Jaco Cilliers, special representative for UNDP Palestine, tells Reuters there are a "number of priorities that need to come first" before reconstruction can start.
He says there is "a lot of rubble and debris that need to be removed first", bringing with it multiple challenges, "including unexploded ordnances that first have to be cleared".
Russia bombards Ukraine’s gas sites as Zelenskyy flies to US for Trump meeting
Strikes cause outages in eight regions before Washington talks to discuss US providing Kyiv with cruise missiles
Thu 16 Oct 2025 16.02 BST
A massive Russian drone and missile attack has hit gas facilities in eastern Ukraine as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, flew to Washington for a meeting with Donald Trump to discuss the US providing Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, as well as glide bombs early on Thursday, sparking outages in eight regions in another large-scale bombardment targeting Ukraine’s energy network.
France condemns Iran over 'arbitrary' jail terms for two detained nationals
France condemned Iran on Thursday for handing lengthy prison sentences to two French nationals, calling the espionage charges "unfounded" and their detention "arbitrary". Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, held since 2022, were reportedly sentenced this week to between 10 and 20 years in prison. Paris demanded their immediate release.
France condemned on Thursday the lengthy prison sentences given to two of its citizens for espionage, saying the charges were unfounded and the punishment arbitrary.
Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been detained since 2022, among dozens of foreign and dual nationals held by Iran in recent years, often on spy-related charges.
Analysis: Why Pakistan and the Taliban won’t find it easy to patch up
Despite the challenges to peace, both know they will hurt from continued hostilities – and need a path to peace.
The recent downward spiral in Afghanistan-Pakistan relations would have been hard to imagine when Pakistani military and civilian leaders welcomed the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in August 2021.
A Taliban government, Islamabad believed, would be friendly to Pakistan and would become a bulwark against any security threats to the country. After all, Pakistan’s military and intelligence services had for more than two decades supported the Afghan Taliban movement.
Bessent says he told Kato that Japan should stop Russian energy imports
The United States expects Japan to stop importing Russian energy resources, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump steps up calls on Washington's allies to do more to erode the war chest Moscow is using to fund its invasion of Ukraine.
Bessent said he conveyed to Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato the Trump administration's hope that Japan, which still imports Russian liquefied natural gas, should no longer buy its fossil fuel exports.
Bessent's social media post following a meeting with Kato in Washington suggests that the issue could be on the agenda when Trump is expected to travel to Tokyo in late this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment