Israel awaited the return of the last hostage remains held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the military said on Thursday that those of a Thai national had been identified after they were handed over.Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, militants were due to return all 48 hostages they held captive, 20 of whom were still alive.All but the remains of Israeli Ran Gvili have since been handed over, though Israel has accused the Palestinian militants of dragging their feet on returning bodies.Hamas has said the process of retrieving the remains has been slow because they have been buried under the vast piles of rubble left by two years of devastating war.Israel sent a delegation on Thursday to Cairo to discuss efforts for the return of the last hostage’s remains in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.- ‘Profound sadness’ -A few people milled around Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Thursday morning, which became the focal point for weekly rallies throughout the war demanding the return of all the Gaza captives.Posters bearing the faces of Gvili and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national whose remains were returned on Wednesday, were propped up alongside Israeli flags and yellow ribbons that have come to symbolise Israel’s hostage ordeal.”We feel joy in our hearts that one more hostage has returned, but at the same time profound sadness that one is still left,” Orly, a pharmacist from Tel Aviv, told AFP.Mirala Gal, a volunteer at the square, said “it’s our obligation to make sure that they’re all back home”.The Israeli army said the remains of Rinthalak had been identified after they were handed over by Hamas and their allies Islamic Jihad.He was killed on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, and his body taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said.Rinthalak was 43 years old at the time of his death and worked in agriculture. Israel officially confirmed his death in May 2024.- ‘Last to return’ -The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza, said the return of Rinthalak offered some long-awaited solace for his family.”Amid their grief and the knowledge that their hearts will never fully heal, Sudthisak’s return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years,” the group said in a statement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli government “shares in the deep sorrow of the Rinthalak family, the Thai people and all of fallen hostages’ families.”Foreign Minister Gideon Saar spoke to his Thai counterpart on Thursday, vowing on X that Israel would grant “assistance and benefits to his family”.The last hostage body held in Gaza is Ran Gvili, an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit who was 24 at the time of Hamas’s attack that triggered the war.He fell in battle on that day and his body was taken to Gaza.”The first to leave, the last to return… We won’t stop until you come back,” his mother, Talik Gvili, wrote on X, alongside a photo of her son.Militants took 251 people hostage during the October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,125 people, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.- Accusations of violations -The return of Rinthalak’s body happened while the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10, remained fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.Gaza’s civil defence agency — which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority — told AFP on Wednesday an Israeli strike in Al-Mawasi in the south of the Palestinian territory killed five people including two children.The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas militant in southern Gaza in response to a clash with Palestinian fighters in the area that wounded five soldiers.AFP footage showed dozens of distraught mourners in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Thursday gathering to bid farewell to the dead.Women sobbed over the white plastic bags containing the bodies of their loved ones.”They were sleeping civilians and children… Is this Israel’s goal? To kill Palestinians?” said Raafat Abu Hussein, who had lost relatives.”We hope the world will stand with us and end the bloodshed, so to begin the second phase of the agreement, followed by the third phase of reconstruction, so we can return to living as we did before.”The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says since the ceasefire came into effect, at least 366 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel’s military has reported three soldiers killed during the same period.

The Eurovision Song Contest — the world’s largest live music competition — faced the prospect of mass withdrawals, after organisers opted not to vote on Israel’s future participation, allowing it to take part in next year’s event.Widespread opposition to the war in Gaza had led to mounting calls for Israel to be excluded from the annual contest, and after suspicions about the manipulation of the voting system.But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said after a meeting in Geneva that there had been “clear support” among members for reforms implemented to “reinforce trust and protect neutrality”.”A large majority of members agreed that there was no need for a further vote on participation and that the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 should proceed as planned, with the additional safeguards in place,” a statement read.Yet moments after the EBU statement public broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands — who had all backed Israel’s exclusion — said their countries would not take part next year.”The situation in Gaza, despite the ceasefire and the approval of the peace process, and the use of the contest for political goals by Israel, makes it increasingly difficult to keep Eurovision a neutral cultural event,” said Alfonso Morales, the secretary general of Spain’s RTVE.Ireland’s RTE said its participation would be “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk”.AVROTROS in the Netherlands said a Dutch presence at next year’s event “cannot be reconciled with the public values that are fundamental to our organisation”.Iceland has previously threatened to withdraw, while others, including Belgium, Finland and Sweden, have also said they were considering a boycott over the situation in Gaza.- Voting scrutiny -Israel’s President Isaac Herzog welcomed the EBU decision and said his country “deserves to be represented on every stage around the world”.In the run-up to the meeting, held behind closed doors and under tight security in Geneva, EBU members appeared divided on the issue, with Israel winning support notably from Germany.While Eurovision is supposed to be above politics, Chancellor Friedrich Merz — a strong Israel supporter — suggested in October that he would back Germany’s withdrawal if Israel were excluded.Eurovision voting arrangements came under scrutiny after Israel’s Yuval Raphael — a survivor of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack — surged into second place after the public vote at the last edition this year.Similar concerns about voter manipulation were raised the previous year when Israel’s Eden Golan was catapulted into fifth place despite lacklustre scoring from national juries.Eurovision entries are scored first by professional juries, then the public by phone, text or online, which often radically alters the leader board.Countries cannot vote for their own entry, but AVROTROS accused Israel of “proven interference” at the last event this year by lobbying the public overseas to vote for it.- ‘Trust and transparency’ -The EBU had planned to convene member broadcasters in November for a vote on the issue. But a few days after the October 10 announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the EBU postponed a decision until its ordinary general assembly on December 4 and 5.Last month, in an apparent bid to avoid a contentious vote, the EBU announced that it had changed Eurovision voting rules to address members’ concerns and to strengthen “trust and transparency”.Austria’s public broadcaster ORF, next year’s Eurovision host, has expressed hope that a consensus can be reached so that it can host “as many participants as possible”.Israel would not have been the first country excluded from Eurovision.Russia was barred from taking part following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while Belarus was excluded a year earlier after the contested re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.burs-apo/phz

Negotiations on the next stage of the Gaza ceasefire continue without significant progress at a moment when the truce appears particularly fragile.The United States, alongside Qatar and Egypt, secured a truce in Gaza that came into effect on October 10 and has mostly halted two years of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.The United Nations has since endorsed President Donald Trump’s peace plan, yet there has been little progress over issues of reconstruction and post-war governance. AFP explains what could happen next:- What is the plan? -The ceasefire was the result of Trump’s pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.It remains fragile as both sides accuse each other almost daily of violations.Trump’s plan has various stages: a truce, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and setting up a new administration for Gaza, and then finally the reconstruction of the territory levelled by Israel’s retaliatory military campaign.The first phase included: – a withdrawal of Israeli forces on October 10 to a line that still gave them military control of over half of Gaza.- the release of all hostages, living or dead, held by Hamas or its allies.- an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.Though all living hostages were released on October 13, one hostage body is still in Gaza.For now, the Israeli government demands that the last hostage’s remains are returned before any talks begin on the second phase via mediating countries: United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.Egypt will also host a conference on Gaza’s reconstruction that will focus on the territory’s humanitarian needs but no date has yet been set.A lack of progress is not surprising. Experts point out the previous truce collapsed in March before the second phase had even begun.- Why is there little progress? -The process seems to be stuck mainly due to the Trump plan’s grey areas.”Israel doesn’t really seem to be putting any serious thought into what the post-war phase is supposed to look like,” said Michael Milshtein, a researcher at Tel Aviv University.The UN Security Council resolution, which endorsed the Trump plan in November, authorises the formation of a “Board of Peace”, a transitional governing body for Gaza — which Trump would theoretically chair.It also authorises the creation of an international stabilisation force to help secure border areas and demilitarise Gaza — but there is no deadline.Questions over how the plan would work in practice have generated debate in Israel and among the Palestinians.Israel wants Hamas to disarm and the group says it is not opposed to handing over part of its arsenal, but only as part of a Palestinian political process.Some ministers in Netanyahu’s government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — reject the Trump plan.But Milshtein cautioned against taking “all those dramatic outbursts from government ministers too seriously.”- What are the political implications? -Trump is in the driver’s seat.”Israel has lost room to manoeuvre, has lost leverage,” Milshtein said, noting how different the situation is now compared to two months earlier when Netanyahu still made “maximalist” demands.”If Trump decides Turkey is a good partner for the international force, then that’s what’s going to happen,” Milshtein said.Meanwhile, Palestinian movements continue to work under Egypt’s auspices to establish a “technocratic, apolitical committee of competent Palestinians” from Gaza, tasked with running Gaza’s civil service and administration.”The approved names meet Israel’s requirements: neither Hamas nor Fatah (the movement of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas),” said Palestinian politics expert Mkhaimar Abusada.”But at the end of the day, it’s not Israel who’s going to decide on every single thing here, they also have to deal with the Americans.”- What to expect? -Maintaining the truce is the priority at this stage.”We’re only talking about keeping a ceasefire alive here,” said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, noting that the overall process had not been completed since some issues still needed to be resolved.But the Trump administration’s determination “may give grounds for a measure of optimism”, Hiltermann added.Numerous visits by US officials to Netanyahu in the past two months show there is fierce pressure on Israel to enforce the ceasefire, Abusada said.”The situation remains very murky, partly because Hamas itself is not straightforward about what it wants,” Abusada added.