Israel must allow the United Nations’ aid agency to deliver humanitarian aid in Gaza, the International Court of Justice said Wednesday, labeling the country as an occupying power.
The nonbinding opinion by the top U.N. court, requested by the U.N. General Assembly last year to clarify the protections member states must provide their staff, carries little practical weight. A bigger issue is the stability of the fragile cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect Oct. 10. It was tested earlier this week after the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes, saying Hamas militants had killed Israeli soldiers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Most Americans – including 80% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans – think the U.S. should recognize Palestinian statehood, a sign that President Donald Trump’s opposition to doing so is out of step with public opinion, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, found 59% of respondents backed U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state, while 33% were opposed and the rest were unsure or did not answer the question.
About half of Trump’s Republicans – 53% – opposed doing so, while 41% of Republicans said they would support the U.S. recognizing a Palestinian state.
A growing number of countries – including U.S. allies Britain, Canada, France and Australia – have formally recognized Palestinian statehood in recent weeks, drawing condemnation from Israel, whose founding in 1948 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and decades of conflict.
Israeli bombardments have leveled vast swaths of Palestinian neighborhoods in Gaza following an October 2023 surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israel.
Some 60% of poll respondents said Israel’s response in Gaza was excessive, compared to 32% who disagreed.
Trump, who returned to the White House in January, has largely backed Israel in the war and this month brokered a ceasefire, raising hopes that lasting peace could be in reach.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll gave signs the U.S. public was ready to give Trump credit should his plan work. Some 51% of poll respondents agreed with a statement that Trump “deserves significant credit” if peace efforts are successful, compared with 42% who disagreed.
While only one in 20 Democrats approve of Trump’s overall performance as president, one in four said he should get significant credit if the peace holds.
Success on that front appears far from certain. An explosion of violence over the weekend threatened to derail the week-old truce and U.S. diplomats stepped up pressure on Israel and Hamas to get Trump’s plan back on track.
Key questions of Hamas disarming, further Israeli troop pullbacks and future governance of the Palestinian enclave remain unresolved.
Trump’s approval rating on foreign policy appeared to be on a modest upswing, rising to 38% in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared to 33% in a poll conducted earlier this month just ahead of the ceasefire deal. The latest rating was Trump’s highest since July.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online and gathered responses from 4,385 people nationwide. It had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Scott Malone and Nia Williams)
ABU DHABI (Reuters) -Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday that maximalist views on the Palestinian issues are no longer valid, emphasizing the need for security for Israel alongside the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Gargash said that any annexation in the Palestinian territories would be considered a “red line”, adding that discussions are ongoing regarding sending personnel on the ground in Gaza.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Nayera Abdallah; Writing by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
ANKARA (Reuters) -Anxious to bolster its air power, Turkey has proposed to European partners and the U.S. ways it could swiftly obtain advanced fighter jets as it seeks to make up ground on regional rivals such as Israel, sources familiar with the talks say.
NATO-member Turkey, which has the alliance’s second-largest military, aims to leverage its best relations with the West in years to add to its ageing fleet 40 Eurofighter Typhoons, for which it inked a preliminary agreement in July, and later also U.S.-made F-35 jets, despite Washington sanctions that currently block any deal.
Strikes by Israel – the Middle East’s most advanced military with hundreds of U.S.-supplied F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighters – on Turkey’s neighbours Iran and Syria, as well as on Lebanon and Qatar, unnerved Ankara in the last year. They laid bare key vulnerabilities, prompting its push for rapid air power reinforcement to counter any potential threats and not be left exposed, officials say.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Israel’s attacks on Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East and once warm relations between the two countries have sunk to new lows. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Turkey’s bases, rebel allies and support for the army in Syria posed a threat to Israel.
Greece, a largely symbolic but sensitive threat for Turkey, is expected to receive a batch of advanced F-35s in the next three years. In years past, jets from the two NATO states engaged in scattered dogfights over the Aegean, and Greece has previously expressed concerns about Turkish military build-up.
TURKEY WOULD BUY SECOND-HAND PLANES TO GET THEM FAST
For the Typhoons, Turkey is nearing a deal with Britain and other European countries in which it would promptly receive 12 of them, albeit used, from previous buyers Qatar and Oman to meet its immediate needs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Eurofighter consortium members Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain would approve the second-hand sale proposal, in which they would provide Turkey with 28 new jets in coming years pending a final purchase agreement, the person said.
Erdogan is expected to discuss the proposal on visits to Qatar and Oman on Wednesday and Thursday, with jet numbers, pricing, and timelines the main issues.
Erdogan is then expected to host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later this month, when agreements could be sealed, sources say.
A UK government spokesperson told Reuters that a memorandum of understanding that Britain and Turkey signed in July paves the way “for a multibillion-pound order of up to 40 aircraft,” adding: “We look forward to agreeing the final contracting details soon.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who was in Ankara last week, said Berlin supported the jets purchase and later told broadcaster NTV that a deal could follow within the year.
Turkey’s defence ministry said no final agreement had been reached and that talks with Britain were moving in a positive direction, adding other consortium members backed the procurement. Qatar and Oman did not immediately comment.
TURKEY, US HAVE POLITICAL WILL TO RESOLVE ISSUES
Acquiring the advanced F-35s has proven trickier for Ankara, which has been barred from buying them since 2020 when Washington slapped it with CAATSA sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defences.
Erdogan failed to make headway on the issue at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump last month. But Turkey still aims to capitalise on the two leaders’ good personal ties, and Erdogan’s help convincing Palestinian militant group Hamas to sign Trump’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, to eventually reach a deal.
Separate sources have said that Ankara considered proposing a plan that could have included a U.S. presidential “waiver” to overcome the CAATSA sanctions and pave the way for an eventual resolution of the S-400 issue and F-35 purchase.
Turkey’s possession of the S-400s remains the main obstacle to purchasing F-35s, but Ankara and Washington have publicly stated a desire to overcome this, saying the allies have the political will to do so.
The potential temporary waiver, if given, could help Ankara increase defence cooperation with Washington and possibly build sympathy in a U.S. Congress that has been sceptical of Turkey in the past, the sources said.
“Both sides know that resolving CAATSA needs to be done. Whether it is a presidential waiver or a congressional decision, that is up to the United States,” Harun Armagan, vice chair of foreign affairs for Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, told Reuters.
“It looks awkward with all of the other diplomacy and cooperation happening at the same time.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions about floating a waiver to U.S. counterparts or discussions on resolving the S-400 issue. The White House did not immediately comment on whether Ankara raised a waiver option.
A State Department spokesperson said Trump recognizes Turkey’s strategic importance and that “his administration is seeking creative solutions to all of these pending issues,” but did not elaborate further.
Asked about Turkey’s separate agreement to buy 40 F-16s, an earlier generation fighter jet, a U.S. source said that talks have been dogged by Turkish concerns about the price and desire to buy the more advanced F-35s instead.
TURKEY HAS DEVELOPED ITS OWN STEALTH FIGHTER
Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own KAAN stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.
Jet upgrades are part of a broader effort to strengthen layered air defences that also includes Turkey’s domestic “Steel Dome” project and an expansion of long-range missile coverage.
Yanki Bagcioglu, an opposition CHP lawmaker and former Turkish Air Force brigadier general, said Turkey must accelerate plans for KAAN, Eurofighter and F-16 jets.
“At present, our air-defence system is not at the desired level,” he said, blaming “project-management failures.”
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Hamas released the bodies of two more Israeli hostages on Tuesday as the group and Israel came under increasing pressure from the U.S. to avoid escalation that could collapse
the cease-fire in Gaza, according to Israeli and Arab officials.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in law, Jared Kushner, delivered a strong message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting on Monday: Israel must avoid escalation by ensuring responses to any alleged cease-fire violations by Hamas are proportional.
The warnings come amid violent clashes between the two sides that have erupted in recent days. Israel struck dozens of Hamas targets on Sunday following what it said was a Hamas attack that left two soldiers dead. Hamas denied any involvement in the attack and said it was carried out by a rogue cell. Arab mediators have put significant pressure on Hamas’s leadership to ensure that violations of the agreement aren’t repeated.
The current period is crucial, as mediators work to preserve the fragile cease-fire and move deeper into talks that would permanently end the war.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader will visit Washington next month and meet President Trump in the Oval Office, people familiar with the matter said, capping a multiyear effort to restore his international standing with a trip that could lay the groundwork for an eventual deal to establish ties with Israel.
The trip by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who last visited the U.S. in early 2018, is scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19, one of the people said. It would come a month after Trump negotiated a cease-fire to end Israel’s two-year war with Hamas in Gaza.
Vice President JD Vance, as well as President Trump’s negotiating team — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff — were all in Israel on Tuesday, trying to shore up the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Before he left for Israel, Vance said bumps in the road to peace were expected.
“There are gonna be fits and starts,” Vance told reporters. “Hamas is gonna fire on Israel, Israel’s gonna have to respond, of course.”
Hamas has denied responsibility for an alleged RPG attack that killed two Israeli soldiers over the weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that it was a Hamas attack, and that the Israeli military responded to the alleged ceasefire violation by dropping almost 169 tons of bombs in Gaza.
“One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace,” Netanyahu told lawmakers on Monday. “You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before.”
The Israeli strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory.
President Trump warned Hamas on Monday against breaching the deal that took months to negotiate.
“They’re gonna behave, they’re gonna be nice,” he said. “And if they’re not, we’re gonna go and eradicate them if we have to.”
Kushner and Witkoff met Monday with Netanyahu, and the Israeli leader’s office said Vance would also meet him this week. The vice president and second lady Usha Vance were greeted upon their arrival Tuesday by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Israel’s Minister of Justice Yariv Levin.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at Ben Gurion airport, Oct. 21, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Nathan Howard/Pool/Getty
Vance was scheduled to have a working lunch with Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday before his meeting with Netanyahu.
The peace process has taken incremental steps forward despite the weekend violence, with Israel returning the remains of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Tuesday following the handover by Hamas on Monday evening of the body of another deceased hostage. As part of the peace deal, a total of 165 Palestinians’ bodies have now been returned to Gaza, many of them former detainees, while all 20 living Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas, along with the remains of 13 deceased captives.
But despite those steps, the long-term viability of Mr. Trump’s peace plan, which he’s said will end nearly eight decades of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, remains less certain.
Ex-Israeli official casts doubt on prospects for Trump’s peace plan
Some Israelis remain skeptical that the Israeli prime minister is genuinely interested in a lasting peace. Among them is fierce Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas, who served as an advisor to four Israeli foreign ministers.
He told CBS News that Netanyahu signed the peace deal brokered by Mr. Trump, but never really backed its core purpose, or Mr. Trump’s stated goal of securing an enduring peace in the heart of the Middle East.
“This was an agreement he was bullied into,” Pinkas said. “This is an agreement he signed under duress, and now he is developing a new scheme to manipulate Trump.”
Pinkas credited Mr. Trump for doing “something that his predecessors were disinclined or hesitant to do, and that is exert real pressure” on Israel’s leader.
“It worked, but it only worked for the first phase,” Pinkas said, referring to the living Israeli hostages being released and the ceasefire coming into effect.
He said after the weekend’s violence that the deal had been “ostensibly restored, but when Netanyahu says, ‘I’m restoring the ceasefire,’ it’s only because there’s a visit here of the vice president, JD Vance, and because the U.S. sent its envoy.”
Pinkas said he was certain Israeli forces would resume operations in Gaza within days, noting they remained deployed in about half of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli soldiers stand next to vehicles near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Oct. 19, 2025.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
“The hostages are no longer in danger because they were freed, and Hamas was not decisively destroyed, as Mr. Netanyahu promised and boasted and bragged for two years, so I see a serious incentive for Mr. Netanyahu to resume” an offensive against Hamas, Pinkas told CBS News. “Maybe not on a huge scale, given the agreement, but I do see … a local skirmish that becomes a wider flare-up, that then deteriorates or escalates into a full Israeli military operation.”
Hamas’ top negotiator said Tuesday that the group remained committed to the ceasefire agreement. But President Trump’s peace plan calls for the demilitarization of Gaza, and many analysts, including Pinkas, have doubts that Hamas will willingly hand over all its weapons.
“That’s probably the biggest flaw in the agreement,” said Pinkas. “The agreement in and of itself is a good agreement, but in order for an agreement like that to work, it requires good faith, good will, and trust. None of these ingredients exist. In fact, both sides have a vested interest in not progressing beyond the ceasefire.”
“Hamas wants to lure Israel inside [Gaza] into a de-facto occupation, and mount an insurgency and show to the Palestinians that they are the real resistance. And Netanyahu wants to go in because he knows that if everything stops now and there is progress into the next phases, that almost inevitably means that he will be deemed as the guy who failed to defeat Hamas.”
Pinkas said that while the past two years of war have left Hamas defeated militarily and degraded, “Hamas is not done. Hamas are there, and you see those pictures every day. You show them on CBS — Hamas gangs walking around in battle fatigues, armed. That’s not going to cut it politically for Mr. Netanyahu.”
An armed Hamas militant stands guard as a Red Cross vehicle arrives to receive the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, in Gaza City, Oct. 14, 2025.
Dawoud Abu Alkas/REUTERS
Speaking in a recent interview with CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil, Netanyahu said his government had agreed “to give peace a chance,” but he noted that the conditions of Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan “are very clear — it’s not only that we get the hostages out without getting our military out, but that we would subsequently have both demilitarization and disarmament. They’re not the same thing. First Hamas has to give up its arms. And second, you want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There’s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza.”
“We also agreed: Okay, let’s get the first part done. Now let’s give a chance to do the second part peacefully, which is my hope,” the Israeli leader told CBS News.
CAIRO (Reuters) -Gaza mediators — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — stepped up their efforts this week to stabilise the early stages of the truce between Israel and Hamas and to push forward U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan.
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF TALKS?
A Hamas delegation led by the group’s exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, has been in Cairo for talks with Egypt since Saturday.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is in Israel on Tuesday after envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. Egyptian officials have also met Netanyahu.
The first phase of the ceasefire involved stopping fighting, returning hostages, increasing aid flows and a partial pull-back of Israeli forces to a “yellow line”.
WHAT HAS EACH SIDE DONE UNDER THE TRUCE?
Israel’s forces have pulled back from some parts of Gaza, but around half of the strip remains under Israeli control. On Monday, the military said it began marking the withdrawal line, warning Hamas and residents to stay away.
Hamas has released all 20 living hostages it was holding and 13 bodies, leaving 15 deceased hostages still in Gaza. Hamas says rubble and other factors may complicate the retrieval of a number of bodies. Israel believes Hamas can quickly return around five more bodies and is stalling. An international task force is meant to locate the rest.
Israel has released around 2,000 Palestinians, including 250 long-serving inmates, but vetoed the release of some prominent militant leaders. It has returned 165 bodies of Palestinians to Gaza.
Israel has also facilitated the entry of more aid trucks through two crossings into Gaza, but UN and Palestinian officials said it remains far from sufficient.
WHAT PROBLEMS HAVE HIT THE TRUCE ALREADY?
There have been continued flashes of violence, particularly around the “yellow line” demarcating Israel’s partial pullback inside Gaza.
Israel began marking out the line on Monday with yellow concrete blocks after repeated incidents of shootings. Israel says it has fired at suspected militants crossing the line. Gaza residents say it has not been clear where the line runs.
On Sunday, Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers in Rafah. Israel responded with airstrikes that Gaza health authorities said killed 28 people. Hamas and Israel later recommitted to the truce.
Inside Gaza, Hamas has reimposed control, killing members of rival groups and those it accuses of collaborating with Israel. Trump signalled his endorsement of that but the U.S. military has said it must stop.
Hamas has said aid is flowing in too slowly. Israel says it is sticking to agreements.
The Rafah border crossing from Egypt to Gaza is also meant to reopen but has not yet done so.
WHAT’S BEING DISCUSSED FOR THE COMING PHASES?
A U.S.-backed stabilisation force is meant to ensure security in Gaza. Its composition, role, chain of command, legal status and other issues are yet to be agreed.
The United States has agreed to provide up to 200 troops to support the force without being deployed in Gaza itself. U.S. officials have said they are also speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Azerbaijan to contribute.
Trump wants Hamas and other factions to disarm and Gaza to be demilitarised. The group has never accepted this and says mediators have not yet officially started discussing the issue with it.
Gaza is to be governed by a transitional committee of apolitical Palestinian technocrats. The composition of this body has not been agreed. Hamas has accepted the formation of this body, but says it would have a role in approving it.
The panel would be supervised by a new international transitional body called the “Board of Peace” headed by Trump. Its formation, and the possible inclusion of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is still to be agreed.
Hamas wants employees of the existing Gaza government it has run since 2007 to stay in their jobs. Israel says Hamas can have no role.
The phasing of further Israeli pull-backs is yet to be agreed, and will depend partly on Israel’s own assessment of how much of a threat Hamas still poses. Hamas says the war will only end when Israel has fully withdrawn.
The Trump plan calls for the Palestinian Authority to be reformed. It is not clear what this would involve or what role it would take in future.
The plan says the truce could ultimately create the conditions for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination. Netanyahu has so far refused to accept the possibility of a Palestinian state.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
ANKARA/DUBAI (Reuters) -Turkey’s ties to Hamas, once a liability in Washington, have turned into a geopolitical asset. By persuading Hamas to accept Donald Trump’s Gaza deal, Ankara has reasserted itself on the Middle East chessboard, to the dismay of Israel and Arab rivals.
Initially resistant to the U.S. president’s ultimatum — free the Israeli hostages or face continued devastation — Hamas leaders relented only when Turkey, a country they view as a political patron, urged them to agree to the American plan.
Two regional sources and two Hamas officials told Reuters that Ankara’s message was unequivocal: The time had come to accept.
“This gentleman from a place called Turkey is one of the most powerful in the world,” Trump said last week, referring to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, after the Palestinian militant group agreed to a ceasefire and hostage-release plan.
“He’s a reliable ally. He’s always there when I need him.”
Erdogan’s signature on the Gaza document supercharged Turkey’s push for a central role in the Middle East, a status Erdogan has increasingly sought to reclaim, often invoking Ottoman-era ties and leadership.
Now, after the deal, Turkey is seeking to reap dividends, including in bilateral issues with the U.S., the sources said.
Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based think tank EDAM and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, said Ankara’s success in delivering Hamas’s acceptance of Trump’s Gaza deal has given it new diplomatic leverage at home and abroad.
Turkey, he said, is likely to use its renewed goodwill in Washington to push for progress on stalled F-35 fighter jet sales, an easing of U.S. sanctions and U.S. help in advancing Turkey’s security goals in neighbouring Syria.
“If those laudatory statements from Trump translate into lasting goodwill, Ankara could use that momentum to resolve some of the long-standing disagreements,” Ulgen told Reuters.
AT TRUMP-ERDOGAN MEETING, A REVAMP OF TIES BEGAN
The diplomatic recalibration between Ankara and Washington, officials said, began during Erdogan’s September visit to the White House, his first in six years.
The meeting addressed unresolved flashpoints, including Turkey’s push to lift U.S. sanctions imposed in 2020 over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems, a move that angered Washington and also led to its removal from the F-35 program.
Syria was another key topic. Turkey wants to pressure the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to merge into the Syrian army. Ankara views the SDF as a threat due to its ties to the PKK, which Turkey designates a terrorist group.
That push appears to be gaining ground. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi confirmed a mechanism to merge with the Syrian army, an outcome Turkey sees as a strategic win.
The Gaza deal follows other boosts to Turkish prestige. Trump praised Erdogan for hosting Russia-Ukraine talks earlier this year, and Ankara’s influence grew after Bashar al-Assad’s fall in Syria in 2024, where Turkey backed opposition forces.
Turkey’s ambition to reclaim a dominant Middle East role recalls for some sceptics the legacy of the Ottoman empire, which once ruled much of the region. Its collapse a century ago left modern Turkey inward-looking as it built a secular republic and somewhat sidelined from regional diplomacy.
For years, Ankara was not part of high-level efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, a core source of regional instability. Turkey’s support for Islamist movements — including political and diplomatic backing for Hamas, whose leaders it has hosted — strained ties with Israel and several Arab states, and its perceived drift under Erdogan from NATO norms further distanced it from peacemaking.
But to break the deadlock in Gaza ceasefire talks, Trump turned to Erdogan, betting on the Turkish leader’s sway over Hamas. Turkish officials, led by spy chief Ibrahim Kalin, assured Hamas the ceasefire had regional and U.S. backing, including Trump’s personal guarantee.
By enlisting Erdogan, Trump handed Ankara the role it craved as a dominant regional Sunni power. The move unsettled Israel and rival Arab states, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, long wary of Erdogan’s Islamist ambitions, two diplomats said.
“Erdogan is a master in expanding his influence, seizing opportunities, taking advantage of events, turning them to his own interest and taking credit for them,” said Arab political commentator Ayman Abdel Nour. “Obviously the Gulf countries were not happy about Turkey taking a leading role on Gaza but at the same time they wanted this conflict to end, to see an agreement and to see Hamas sidelined.”
While Arab states shared an interest with Turkey in ending the war, said Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum, the larger role given to Ankara was worrisome for them, recalling the history of Ottoman imperial rule over many countries in the region.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry and MIT intelligence agency did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
For Hamas, the main concern was that Israel might renege on the deal and resume military operations. Deep distrust nearly derailed the process, regional sources said.
“The only real guarantee,” a senior Hamas official told Reuters, “came from four parties: Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and the Americans. Trump personally gave his word. The U.S. message was: ‘release the hostages, hand over the bodies, and I guarantee there will be no return to war.’”
CRUSHING PRESSURE ON HAMAS
Turkey’s entry into the talks was initially vetoed by Israel, but Trump intervened, pressuring Tel Aviv to allow Ankara’s involvement, two diplomats said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s foreign ministry.
A senior Hamas official said Gaza’s military leaders accepted the truce not as surrender, but under the crushing pressure of relentless mediation, a collapsing humanitarian situation, and a war-weary public.
The deal won the release of Israeli hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which killed 1,200 people, and triggered an Israeli offensive that has since left over 67,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza health authorities.
Whether the Gaza deal will eventually open a way toward a Palestinian state remains unclear. Turkey and Arab states including Qatar and Egypt say the plan lacks a roadmap toward a two-state solution, a historic Palestinian demand.
Asked about a potential Turkish troop deployment to Gaza in a post-war scenario and ways to ensure the enclave’s security, Erdogan said on October 8 the ceasefire talks were critical for discussing the issue in detail, but the priority was achieving a full ceasefire, aid deliveries and rebuilding Gaza.
(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Writing by Samia Nakhoul, Editing by William Maclean)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has scrapped a cooperation deal that it signed with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA in September, its Supreme National Security Council Secretary said on Monday, according to state media.
The statement came around three weeks after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said Tehran would scrap the agreement, which let the IAEA resume inspections of its nuclear sites, if Western powers reinstated U.N. sanctions.
Those were reinstated last month.
The confirmation will be a setback for the International Atomic Energy Agency which has been trying to rebuild cooperation with Tehran since Israel and the United States bombed the nuclear sites in June.
“The agreement has been cancelled,” Larijani said while meeting with his Iraqi counterpart in Tehran, according to state media.
“Of course, if the agency has a proposal, we will review it in the secretariat,” he added.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
The fragile peace deal President Trump spearheaded between Israel and Hamas in Gaza appeared on Monday to have survived serious threats over the weekend. The top U.S. officials who helped negotiate the ceasefire and hostage release agreement — senior envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — were back in Israel on Monday to help ensure it does not unravel.
Israel struck multiple targets inside Gaza after a deadly attack on Israeli soldiers. Hamas has rejected Israel’s claim that it was involved in that attack.
On Monday, the skies over Gaza were quiet again in the wake of the gravest threat since the ceasefire there came into effect on Oct. 10. Hamas and Israel accused each other of violating the terms of Mr. Trump’s peace plan over the weekend, but both sides recommitted to the process on Monday.
For a couple tense days, however, war was back in Gaza. Local health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said 45 people were killed in Israeli strikes. The Israel Defense Forces said, meanwhile, that two soldiers were killed when Hamas operatives opened fire with an RPG.
Israeli soldiers stand next to vehicles near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Oct. 19, 2025.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
As mediators raced to get the peace process back on track, President Trump said the situation would be “handled toughly, but properly,” and added that in his view, the ceasefire remained in effect.
Over the weekend, Palestinian families had come out to enjoy a quiet moment at a seaside café in Gaza, when cameras captured the moment that an Israeli strike shattered the peace.
Many feared the blood-soaked scenes left in the wake of the explosions were a sign that two years of relentless violence had resumed after just a week.
“We were drinking tea,” said Salih Salman, “when suddenly people were bombed.”
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike that targeted a building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip, Oct. 19, 2025.
EYAD BABA/AFP/Getty
Once again Gaza’s crippled hospitals filled up with dozens of injured in the wake of 1multiple Israeli strikes.
The IDF said it was targeting Hamas forces responsible for ceasefire violations, and it provided video purportedly showing armed Hamas fighters moving toward Israeli troops.
A media center in central Gaza was among the locations bombed, with the strike killing a cameraman and an engineer, and wounding three other people.
“We are all journalists here,” protested Ajeb Mohamed at the scene. “No-one else can even enter here.”
More than 220 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war started, according to the international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
Amid the renewed fighting and accusations over the weekend, an Israeli official said all humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza would be suspended. On Monday, however, COGAT, the Israeli government agency that handles affairs in the Palestinian territories, told CBS News that the Kerem Shalom border crossing was open for aid to transit.
The United Nations and a number of humanitarian aid agencies have called repeatedly since the ceasefire came into effect for Israel to open all of the border crossings into Gaza to allow far more food, water, medicine, building materials and other essential items in.
The ingress of aid — which under the U.S. peace plan should be maximized under the ceasefire — is likely to be among the key issues as Witkoff and Kushner meet with Israeli officials this week to ensure the process stays on track. Vice President JD Vance is also due in Israel this week, and set to meet with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu met Monday with Witkoff and Kushner to discuss “developments and updates in the region,” Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office said Monday.
She added that Vance and his wife were also expected in the country “for a few days and will be meeting with the prime minister,” but neither she nor the White House have confirmed the Vances’ arrival date.
Witkoff and Kushner were entrusted by Mr. Trump to broker the peace deal, and in an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, they said an apology phone call from Netanyahu to Qatar’s leader, about unprecedented airstrikes on the U.S. ally’s capital, Doha, and a moment of personal connection between Witkoff and Hamas’ top negotiator marked two key turning points that led to the ceasefire.
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected on Monday an assertion by U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States has destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“The U.S. president proudly says they bombed and destroyed Iran’s nuclear industry. Very well, keep dreaming!” Khamenei said on X.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that it was “not nice” that Russian President Vladimir Putin might travel to EU member Hungary for talks on Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would soon meet Putin in Budapest.
Kallas told reporters ahead of a gathering of European foreign ministers in Luxembourg that Trump’s efforts to bring peace are welcome but that it is also important for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet with the Russian leader.
“America has a lot of strength to pressure Russia to come to the negotiation table, if they use that then, of course, this is good if Russia stops this war,” Kallas said.
Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which Hungary is in the process of leaving.
“Regarding Budapest, no, it’s not nice … to see that really a person put to the arrest warrant by the ICC is coming to a European country,” Kallas said, adding that the “question is whether there is any outcome”.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that there was no place for Putin in any European capital.
“The only place for Putin in Europe (is) in The Hague, in front of the tribunal, not in any of our capitals,” he said ahead of the ministers’ meeting.
The EU’s Kallas also told reporters she expected that the 19th package of sanctions against Russia would be adopted this week, but said that approval would not come on Monday.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer, writing by Inti Landauro; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Israel is accusing Hamas of violating their ceasefire agreement and attacking Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, prompting the IDF to carry out strikes in retaliation. Debora Patta is in East Jerusalem with the latest.
Is Britain safe for Jews? On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, the country’s second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. What an alarming message from police, and it comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.
The match, scheduled for Nov. 6, is part of a larger tournament and will pit Birmingham’s Aston Villa team against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Safety Advisory Group, an arm of the city government, last week barred Tel Aviv fans from attending, ruling that the event is “high risk.” West Midlands Police, which advises the committee, said the decision “is based on current intelligence and previous incidents.”
TEL AVIV—Israel conducted dozens of airstrikes across Gaza on Sunday and halted humanitarian aid into the enclave after it accused Hamas of killing troops inside Israeli-controlled areas in what is shaping up to be the biggest test yet of
the fragile cease-fire.
The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in southern Gaza, where militants targeted troops inside Israeli-controlled areas with an antitank missile and gunfire. Another soldier was severely injured, the military said.
Hamas made two other attempts to attack Israeli soldiers on Sunday, the military said.
Israel decided to halt humanitarian aid, which Israeli officials confirmed, following calls from Israeli politicians across the political spectrum for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respond forcefully to the attack against troops.
CAIRO (Reuters) -Hamas’ armed wing said on Sunday that it has located the body of a hostage, which it said will be delivered to Israel on Sunday if field conditions were appropriate.
The group said any Israeli “escalation” would hinder search operations, shortly after Israel said it launched airstrikes and artillery fire at targets in southern Gaza amid disputes over ceasefire violations.
(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran executed on Saturday an individual accused of spying for Israel, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported on Sunday citing an Iranian prosecutor.
The individual had links to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and had leaked classified information, Mizan cited the judiciary official as saying.
Entangled in a decades-long shadow war with Israel, Iran has executed many people it accused of having links with Israel’s intelligence service and facilitating its operations in the country.
(Reporting by Elwely ElwellyEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
