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Hamas said Monday it would hand over the remains of a deceased hostage, the 16th since a ceasefire began, shortly after families of missing Israelis called for a suspension of the Gaza truce until all captives’ bodies are returned.A joint team of Red Cross, Egyptian rescue services and a Hamas member was searching for the remains of hostages demanded by Israel, an Israeli government official said.”The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will transfer the body of one of the Israeli captives, recovered today in the Gaza Strip, at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) Gaza time,” the armed wing of Hamas said on its Telegram channel.Hamas has so far returned the remains of 15 of the 28 deceased hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10.It has also freed all 20 surviving hostages as part of the truce deal.An Israeli group campaigning for the return of all hostages has urged the Israeli government to suspend the truce unless Hamas releases all remaining bodies.”Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.”The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel,” the association said.- Search for bodies -During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage, most had been released, rescued or recovered before this month’s ceasefire.The attack itself resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza killed at least 68,527 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Hamas says it is committed to the ceasefire and insists it is trying to return all the remaining bodies — 11 Israelis and two workers from Thailand and Tanzania — but that the search has been hampered by the destruction wrought on Gaza during the war.In a statement to media on Saturday, lead Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said: “There are challenges in locating the bodies of Israeli captives because the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza. “Moreover, some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them.”In the past two days, Egypt has sent recovery crews and heavy earth-moving equipment into Gaza, with Israeli approval, to help with the recovery operation.Israeli spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said a team of Red Cross staff, Egyptian rescuers and a Hamas member were searching for bodies and had been allowed to cross the so-called Yellow Line into the area of Gaza controlled by Israeli forces.”The Red Cross, the Egyptian technical team, and a Hamas person have been permitted to enter beyond the Yellow Line position in Gaza under close (Israeli army) supervision to identify the location of our hostages,” Bedrosian told journalists.A Red Cross spokesperson also confirmed it was part of the search team.- Opposition to Turkey -No firm timescale has been put on the next stages of the Gaza truce plan, but US President Donald Trump’s administration is working to set up an international security force with troops from Arab and Muslim nations to police the truce.Israel has voiced strong opposition to Turkey’s participation in the proposed security force.At a news conference in Budapest, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “led a hostile approach against Israel, that included not only hostile statements, but also diplomatic and economic measures against Israel”. “So it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter the Gaza Strip, and we will not agree to that, and we said it to our American friends,” he added.The US military has also set up a coordination centre in southern Israel to monitor the ceasefire and to coordinate aid and reconstruction, but aid agencies are pushing for greater access for humanitarian convoys inside Gaza.Israel has withdrawn its forces from Gaza’s main cities, but still controls around half of the territory from positions on the Yellow Line, and has resisted calls to allow aid through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Defence Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said Israel has lifted the state of emergency for areas near the border with Gaza for the first time since the October 2023 attack.

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti’s son urged US President Donald Trump to “seize the opportunity” created by the Gaza truce to secure his father’s release and revive the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.Sometimes dubbed the “Mandela of Palestine” by his supporters, Marwan Barghouti, 66, was one of the leaders of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, and is often cited as a possible successor to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. In June 2004, an Israeli court sentenced him to five life sentences after finding him guilty of involvement in four anti-Israeli attacks that killed five people.But the heavy sentences have not diminished his popularity among Palestinians.”He’s capable and has the track record to unify the Palestinian people,” Arab Barghouti told AFP in an interview on Sunday in English in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.”Someone like him represents a great opportunity for the international community to prove that they are serious about supporting the two-state solution.”Arab Barghouti’s comments come after several countries — including France, Britain and Canada — formally recognised a Palestinian state last month.He is the second member of the family to appeal to the US president to secure his father’s release. Earlier this month, Marwan Barghouti’s wife Fadwa also urged Trump to intervene.Trump said in an interview with US magazine Time on October 15 that he would be “making a decision” on the matter, without specifying a timeline.- ‘Pressure’ -“I really hope he can do that, pressure the Israelis into releasing my father, because he is a partner for peace,” Arab Barghouti said, adding that his family “really welcome” Trump’s comment.Though the two have not been allowed to speak in three years, Arab Barghouti said his father represents Palestinian unity and the best chance for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.A longtime member of Abbas’ Fatah party, Marwan Barghouti has consistently been re-elected to the party’s central committee, including twice while in jail.With his likeness painted on many walls in the occupied West Bank and, until recently, in Gaza, Marwan Barghouti is considered one of the few figures who could be accepted as a leader by all Palestinian political factions, including Hamas. The Islamist movement, which violently pushed Fatah out of the Gaza Strip after winning the elections there in 2006, has nevertheless repeatedly called for Marwan Barghouti’s release, including during ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.According to a poll conducted last May by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), an independent institute in Ramallah, Marwan Barghouti would win if new Palestinian presidential elections were held, twenty years after Abbas came to power.Marwan Barghouti continues to carry out his political responsibilities through his lawyer, whom he has seen five or six times over the past two years, which he has largely spent in solitary confinement, Arab Barghouti said.- ‘Life mission’ -“We have corruption issues that we need to address as Palestinians, and we need to be brave enough to look in the mirror and to take responsibility for our mistakes,” Arab Barghouti said, speaking to AFP at a campaign office and calling for his father’s release.But with the war in Gaza ending, Western countries including the US “need to seize the opportunity of having a Palestinian leader who is well-respected and trusted and has the same vision that they have”.Israel has so far refused to release Marwan Barghouti including in any prisoner exchanges carried out since the Gaza war broke out after Hamas’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.”The last few weeks have been very tough on us as a family because it’s been a roller coaster” of emotions, Arab Barghouti said.He added that released prisoners reported his father had been beaten during a prison transfer in September, sustaining severe injuries.”Four of his ribs got broken, he got severe injuries in his head, and he lost consciousness,” said Arab Barghouti.In a video he shared on social media in August, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was seen threatening a physically weak Marwan Barghouti in jail.Asked whether his father might want to rest should he be released, Arab Barghouti said he did not foresee that happening.”Knowing my father, I know that he will be playing an active role in stopping the suffering, the rebuilding of Gaza, helping the Palestinian people overall, because that’s been his life mission,” he said.

Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Sudan’s stricken city of El-Fasher, with fears growing for their safety, the United Nations and local groups said on Monday, after paramilitary forces claimed control of the army’s last stronghold in the western Darfur region. Since May 2024, El-Fasher has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting a brutal war with Sudan’s army for over two years.Footage shared by pro-democracy activists on Monday purportedly showed dozens of people lying dead on the ground alongside burned-out vehicles.AFP was unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut off by a media blackout.The syndicate expressed “deep concern for the safety of journalists” in El-Fasher, adding that independent reporter Muammar Ibrahim has been detained by RSF forces since Sunday.The RSF said on Sunday they had seized control of the city, but the army and its allies did not respond to requests for comment.If confirmed, the city’s capture would mark a significant turning point in Sudan’s war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023. It would give the RSF control over all five state capitals in Darfur, consolidating its parallel administration in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.Such a shift could potentially partition Sudan, with the army holding the north, east and centre, and the RSF dominating Darfur and parts of the south.”This represents a terrible escalation in the conflict,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in answer to an AFP question on Monday, adding that “the level of suffering that we are witnessing in Sudan is unbearable”.Around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped in El-Fasher without aid, where many have resorted to eating animal fodder.Despite RSF assurances of civilian protection, the local resistance committee accused the paramilitaries of committing atrocities, saying that since Sunday, innocent civilians had suffered “the worst forms of violence and ethnic cleansing.”A video circulated by the RSF appeared to show fighters detaining dozens of men in civilian clothing accusing them of supporting the army and the Joint Forces.- Hundreds flee -Fighting, pro-democracy activists said on Sunday night, continued “in the vicinity of El-Fasher airport and several areas west of the city,” with a “complete absence of air support”, citing failures by the army and its allies to protect residents. The army-aligned governor of Darfur called on Monday for the protection of civilians in El-Fasher and demanded “an independent investigation into the violations and massacres carried out by the militia away from public view.”The UN last month voiced alarm over potential massacres targeting non-Arab communities in El-Fasher, similar to those reported after the RSF captured the nearby Zamzam camp in April.The United Nations’s migration agency said 2,500 to 3,000 people fled El-Fasher on Sunday, seeking safety within the city or westward to Tawila and Mellit towns.Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, appeared publicly on Sunday night but only for a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in Port Sudan. The army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council said they discussed the “siege imposed by the terrorist Rapid Support militia on El-Fasher.”Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), called for safe passage for civilians trapped in the fighting. Access to the city remains severely restricted due to ongoing combat.- ‘External interference’ -Since August, the RSF have intensified artillery and drone attacks on El-Fasher, gradually eroding the army’s last defensive positions.Despite repeated international appeals for a ceasefire, with both the RSF and the army accused of committing atrocities, neither side has shown willingness to compromise.Representatives from the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates met in Washington on Friday to plot a path towards “peace and stability in Sudan” and a transition to civilian rule, according to a statement by US senior advisor for Africa Massad Boulos.But the meeting appeared not to yield any tangible progress.”It is clear that… it is not only a Sudanese problem, with the army and Rapid Support Forces fighting each other,” Guterres said.”We have more and more an external interference that undermines the possibility to a ceasefire and to a political solution.”The United Arab Emirates has long been accused of supplying advanced weaponry and drones to the RSF — allegations it denies. Egypt, which shares a border with Sudan, has been a key ally of the army.Now well into its third year, the war has spiralled into what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The army-aligned governor of Sudan’s Darfur region called for the protection of civilians in the stricken city of El-Fasher on Monday, after paramilitaries claimed to have seized it following a brutal 18-month siege.Pro-democracy activists reported fighting “in the vicinity of El-Fasher airport and several areas west of the city”. The group, known as a local resistance committee, said in a statement there was a “complete absence of air support” to protect residents.The Rapid Support Forces said on Sunday they had captured the city, the last state capital in the vast Darfur region yet to fall to the paramilitaries.Communications remain cut across the city, including satellite networks, leaving El-Fasher in a “media blackout”, according to the Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate.The United Nations’s migration agency said 2,500 to 3,000 people fled El-Fasher on Sunday, seeking safety within the city or westward to Tawila and Mellit towns.Darfur governor Minni Minnawi, who is allied with the Sudanese army, on Monday called for the “protection of civilians” and “an independent investigation into the violations and massacres carried out by the militia away from public view”, referring to the RSF.Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, appeared publicly on Sunday night but only for a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in Port Sudan. The army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council said they discussed the “siege imposed by the terrorist Rapid Support militia on El-Fasher.” Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), called for safe passage for civilians trapped in the fighting. Access to the city remains severely restricted due to ongoing combat.- Atrocities -Despite RSF assurances of civilian protection, the local resistance committee accused the group of committing atrocities, saying that since Sunday, innocent civilians had suffered “the worst forms of violence and ethnic cleansing.”The journalists’ syndicate expressed “deep concern for the safety of journalists” in El-Fasher, saying that independent reporter Muammar Ibrahim has been held by RSF forces since Sunday.A video circulated by the RSF appeared to show fighters detaining dozens of men in civilian clothing accusing them of supporting the army and the Joint Forces.The Joint Forces is an alliance of armed groups which has fought alongside the military since late 2023, when RSF fighters massacred between 10,000 and 15,000 members of the non-Arab Masalit community in the capital of West Darfur, El-Geneina. Since August, the RSF has intensified artillery and drone attacks on El-Fasher, gradually eroding the army’s last defensive positions.If confirmed, the city’s capture would mark a significant turning point in Sudan’s two-year war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people. It would give the RSF control over all five state capitals in Darfur, consolidating its parallel administration in Nyala, and potentially partitioning Sudan, with the army holding the north, east, and centre, and the RSF dominating Darfur and parts of the south.Around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain in El-Fasher without aid. Four UN agencies said that thousands of malnourished children are at “imminent risk of death” amid the collapse of health services, while killings, sexual violence and forced recruitment continue.Famine was declared earlier this year in several displacement camps around the city, with the UN warning it could spread to El-Fasher where residents have resorted to eating animal fodder. The UN has also warned of potential massacres targeting non-Arab communities, echoing atrocities after the RSF captured Zamzam camp in April.Elsewhere, fighting also intensified in North Kordofan’s Bara city, in central Sudan, which the RSF regained from the army on Saturday. The Emergency Lawyers, a war-monitoring group, accused the RSF of a “horrific massacre” following the army’s withdrawal, reporting mass executions that killed hundreds, primarily young residents, alongside arrests, looting and destruction of property amid a total communications blackout.Now well into its third year, the war has spiralled into what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. Despite international calls for a ceasefire, both sides remain unwilling to negotiate.